I thought about my wedding lip color more than I’d like to admit. Over the years I’ve disliked the way a lot of pinks wear on me, even super popular colors that seem to look good on other blondes (e.g., NARS‘ “Turkish Delight”). Initially I thought I’d want a berry color after having worn NARS gloss in the color “Sixties Fan” for a number of years and liking how it looked on me in photographs (I first heard about this color via a video of Lo Bosworth’s makeup routine – random I know; otherwise I wouldn’t have picked it up as it looked quite dark in the tube). Anyway, NARS no longer makes that color, and I was struggling to find something similar – most berries I looked at seemed to run either too red or too plum. Finally, a late night scroll led me to the page of a wedding makeup artist named Abby Manuel and I loved the look she did on one of her blonde clients. She very kindly responded to my DM inquiry requesting the details: Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip Color in “Buff,” MAC Lip Pencil in “Whirl,” and Buxom Full-On Plumping Lip Polish in “Kristen.” This is exactly what I ordered and what I ended up wearing and I loved how it looked (and it wasn’t berry – but also not too pink or too nude – somewhere in the middle, I think).
Re: DMs – I also really liked Erin Foster’s wedding makeup so I reached out to the woman who did her makeup, Aliana Lopez. She told me that she used Victoria Beckham Lip Definer in “No. 01”, and she also recommended Charlotte Tilbury‘s K.I.S.S.I.N.G Lipstick in “Penelope Pink” for a similar option. These were a bit more nude/peachy than I was looking for, but seem like some other good options.
Speaking of blondes! This piece by Tressie McMillan Cottom in the New York Times is one of the most thought-provoking things I’ve read in some time, and will definitely make me, being quite balayage-d, think twice about describing myself as a “natural blonde” in the future.