How to choose your lipstick?

If several years ago there were few shades and textures of lipstick, today cosmetics brands are doubling their inventiveness by offering rich and varied collections each season. Matte or satin texture, sugar-coated pink or fuchsia, burgundy or orange red, depending on our complexion or our hair color, it is not always easy to know which suits us best. Under the sharp advice of Olivier Echaudemaison, Creative Director at Guerlain, passionate about lipsticks and femininity, we take stock of the few rules to follow to find the perfect model.

Matte or glossy?

Satin or matte? This is an existential question at the origin of long hours of hesitation in front of the make-up department (we've all been there). In fact, whether you choose one or the other, you are not committing any real lack of taste, unless you do not take two essential parameters into account. At first, it is not recommended to choose a matte texture if you have small fine lines. Secondly, comes the “morphological” factor, the shape of your mouth. “Women who have thin lips must imperatively ban lipsticks with a matte texture. Without reflections, these textures harden the features and dull the face. It's not graceful. You have to opt for shiny, satiny lipsticks, which will bring relief” explains Olivier Echaudemaison before adding “Only fleshy and rounded mouths can afford to wear matte.” Valuable revelations that should shorten your thinking the next time you find yourself in the middle of hesitation.

With my hair, I do what I want?

Are there lipstick colors that go better on blondes and others on brunettes as the legend has it? To this question, our specialist provides an unexpected answer: “To tell the truth, today there is no longer really blond and brown. Women are daring to go fake blond, have highlights, change color regularly, which falsifies the notion of “real” hair color. As a result, the choice of lipstick shade is quite free. In the case where we are faced with a real blonde, the skin is often pale and a little pink, we then prefer apricot, peach and cherry shades for the evening. Dark skin can afford more eccentricity in terms of colors, so we dare plum, raspberry and dark reds. “Today lipstick should be seen as an accessory that you match with your clothes more than with your hair. If we wear brown we will avoid plum for example, and with a beautiful black dress we do not hesitate to bring out a pretty red or a fuchsia pink,” adds the great make-up artist.

When the mouth ages...

"We don't have the same mouth at 20 as at 60." asserts Olivier Echaudemaison with aplomb. So far nothing very surprising, except that we tend to forget that we must also take this parameter into account when choosing our lipstick. A first important rule to respect: we do not wear nude after 50/60 years. In any case, this is what the creative director of Guerlain advises us, specifying “when you age, the complexion becomes duller, it loses its radiance and the mouth is less colored. When one is young, the lips are naturally rosy. So, putting on a nude lipstick when you're over fifty is, in my opinion, a big mistake. On the other hand, with regard to bright colors and contrary to what one might think (if one is a little reactive), there is no age limit. Yes, vermilion red, raspberry pink or pop orange, at 20 or 60 years old and if it's well dosed, you can dare absolutely anything. Finally, in order to avoid as much as possible that the fine lines that appear on the lips with age are not visible, we prefer lipsticks with a creamy texture rather than a matte one. An effective way to avoid the (very) ugly earthy and "cracked" effect offered by certain models with a shine-free finish.

The day and the night

You will say that this rule is obsolete, it is not quite the case. It is indeed appropriate to mark a difference between the lipstick that we wear during the day and that which we wear in the evening (and even at night if you are in good shape…). If today it is no longer really a question of color and the brightest shades are very well tolerated in the middle of the day, we still have to be more generous with the intensity. Indeed, unless it's summer, the places you go to in the evening are lit with artificial light and, as is the case for photo shoots, the mouth is erased and the color fades. So don't be afraid to layer up your favorite lipstick when you're about to go on a night out.

What lipstick when you have black or mixed skin?

No to no lipstick

“A woman who doesn't dare to wear lipstick is missing something,” is what the passionate Olivier Echaudemaison bluntly asserts. “Lipstick gives radiance to the face, shine to the eyes, it redraws an ideal mouth and it is the only make-up tool, with varnish, which allows you to really have fun, to play as when you were a little girl. It's crazy to think that you can have a bright pink, orange or even ruby ​​red mouth,” he adds. And for those who don't want to put color on their lips at all? In this case, the creative director of the Guerlain house advises to choose a very discreet lipstick in beige or pink tones in order to create a little relief and shine. In short, if you have decided not to put anything on your mouth when you get up, run quickly to put on a little touch of pastel pink or sugared almond.

> Find our selection of the 30 prettiest lipsticks of the season

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