Permanent Makeup for Lips

Choosing The Best Lip Colour

The colours that flatter you rely heavily on your own skin tone and complexion, so it’s important to understand colour theory before making any decisions on your skin pigmentation shade.

As a general rule, your skin tone is fairly easy to define and will help you pick your lip pigment with ease:

Identify your undertone: Look at the veins on your wrist. If they are blue, you have cooler- pink undertones, if they are green; you have warmer- yellow undertones. If they are both blue and green, you’re a lucky neutral who can get away with pretty much anything.

Understand which shades go with which tone: Yellow undertones work well with warm colours, and pink undertones look great with blue or purple hues.

Trial and error:  Have a play with some of the lipsticks in your collection, and start thinking about which ones are more flattering on your skin. Think about the hues that are present in that lipstick; is it cooler blues, or warmer oranges or yellows?

This basic test is a great place to start narrowing down your options for lip pigmentation colours, but of course your personal preference comes into play too. If you love a particular colour but it doesn’t ‘fit’ with your skin tone, it’s still your choice if you want to go for it or not.

Now you know whether you’re going for warm or cool, but with so many pigments to choose from, what else should you take into account to help you choose the ideal tone? Thinking about your skin colouring can help a lot too, and whether you’re naturally perfectly pale or richly tanned, you can find a great colour for you.

Super pale skin

If you’re very pale, your best bet is to go for a nude toned colour. Think peachy shades that you can overlay with a nude gloss for a perfect daytime look. Avoid dark shades of brown or burgundy, as they’ll contrast too much with your pale skin.

Dark skin

Very dark complexions have a wide choice of lip colours, lucky you! Try out coral shades or pigments with an orange element for a fun pop of colour. Stay away from chalky colours or those with too much white in.

Olive skin

If you’ve got a lovely olive complexion, you’ll do well in warm, natural tones. Look for sunset reds, perky coral and warm amber too complement your skin. Avoid purple as it will bring out the yellow in your skin and make you look sallow. Brown will look too monochromatic.

Yellow undertones

If you’re not quite olive but not pale either, you’ll look great in blue based reds. Flesh tones and bronzes also work really well, but steer clear of purple if you don’t want to look too yellow.

Pink undertones

Again, if you’re between pale and olive but have pink undertones, stick to peach tones for a natural look. For a more eye popping combination, try brick red or orange based reds, but don’t go for blue based reds as they’ll clash horribly.

Light Asian skin

You’ll no doubt have lovely full lips and a natural coral undertone to your skin, so complement this with beautiful coral lips and plenty of highlighting lip gloss. You can get away with bold reds too, but don’t bother with the nudes as they’ll just make your skin look pasty.

Super Dark and South Asian Skin

For those with much darker or Southern Asian skin, choosing a lip colour can be a tough decision. You have natural blue sub-tones to your lips which could result in a colour not being quite the shade you had hoped for. To accommodate this, we usually apply a bright orange colour at the first appointment, which will bring a warmth and richness to your lip colour you’ll love. This base layer can help you achieve the colour you’re looking for at the second appointment, but it can be tricky to get an exact colour match for you. Tell our experienced practitioner what you’re hoping to achieve, and we’ll figure out how to make it work for you.

Remember, it’s a good idea to go a couple of shades away from your natural skin colour if you want something that’s going to last and will not fade out too quickly. Talk to us for more advice on picking your perfect lip pigmentation colours.