3 Makeup Artist-Approved Lipsticks for Dark Skin Tones

 

With so many lipstick hues to choose from this holiday season, finding one that flatters dark skin doesn't have to be hard. Makeup mastermind Nick Barose knows a thing or two about lipsticks for deeper skin tones — after all, he’s responsible for prettifying beauties like Lupita Nyong’o, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Uzo Aduba for the red carpet. Here, he shares three guaranteed-to-complement lipsticks for dark skin tones just in time for holiday parties. 

 

For the screening of her latest flick, Beyond the Lights, Barose painted Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s lips with a sheer magenta lipstick, Tom Ford’s Lip Color Matte in Plum Lush. “Bold shades in a sheer texture are a perfect balance between loud and sophisticated,” he says.” 

 

 

There’s rarely a makeup look that Lupita Nyong’o can’t pull off, even a bronze metallic eye with a lip color in a similar finish. "Lipstick with golden shimmer adds pure luxury to the lips,” says Barose. “The shimmer in it reflects light and make lips look fuller, but more polished than gloss, which would be too shiny and too casual for holiday parties.” 

 

 

If there was ever a time to buy the perfect red lipstick, it’s during the holidays. Most reds look especially sexy on dark skin, but Barose recommends finding a lip liner that will keep your look polished. “On dark skin, you want the color to be more intensified, so apply a few coats of Gucci Lipstick in Iconic Red and use lip liner that flatters your complexion to polish up the edges of the lipstick. I used VotreVu Drawmatic Lip Pencil in Ripe ($21), a deep brown shade, on Uzo.”