50 Shades of Lipstick (As Demonstrated on Me) Part 1: The Nudes

nude lipstick on dark skin danielle gray the style and beauty doctor

So back in like June I had this idea of gathering up all my lipsticks and taking a pic of me wearing each one. That was until I realized just how many lipsticks I own. From what I’ve bought over the years, what’s been sent here for the blog, and what I have in my makeup artist kit, I have waaaaaaaay too many to do that. So then I settled on 50 and even trying to decide which colors got to make that list was a lot of work, too…lol.

When I finally narrowed things down and found the time, I enlisted the professional services of my girl Nas of Nasilele Photography (she does AMAZING head shots, weddings, family portraits, kids photography, and if you’re like me and want to catch all your flyness on photo, she’s great for just because shoots, too) and decided to call it 50 Shades of Lipstick but what I really should subtitle it is 50 Hours of Torture…lol. This was one helluva process! From picking out the lipsticks that I would use, to writing them all down in a notebook to keep track, to putting FIFTY SHADES OF LIPSTICK ON MY LIPS BACK TO BACK for over a few hours with my lips burning and screaming for help and being stained a melange of the 50 shades for like a day after the shoot—and let’s not even count the time it took for me to pick out which shots I wanted to include as my best shots nor how long it must have taken Nas to go through them and edit them. YIKES! And then came the part of me having to label the files and make sure I didn’t get any shades confused. *PHEW*

But I did it because I know it would help a lot of you deciding on lipstick shades to see it on. I do tons of lipstick reviews and don’t often show the colors on my face because well, trying on lipsticks back to back HURTS…lol. Shoot, even the swatches on my arms can hurt if I get a series of shades in and need to wipe off the previous set of colors. This blogging stuff isn’t as easy and glamorous as it might look, ya know…lol. But that’s where my love of all things beauty and fashion and of course socializing and helping others comes in because I’d do it again—after I get a plastic surgeon to help me put my lips back on after I’m done…lol.

I tried to stay within a few family colors such as nude, pinks, reds, plums, and wines so that even if a particular brand’s shade wasn’t used, at least you’ll have an idea of what a certain shade would look like. I really hope you guys find this helpful and that if you enjoy this post you’ll share the link on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and such but please tag me and link the blog ;)

I’m releasing these in sets of 10 so stay tuned for parts 2-5 :)

P.S. The makeup (done by my fab MUA friend Mila Thomas is all the same in the pics aside from the lip color of course, so if you want to see what she used, check out this post)

bobbi-brown-creamy-matte-lip-color-in-latte-on-dark-skin-Recovered

Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color in Latte, an opaque mauvey pink

lancome-rouge-in-love-287-on-dark-skin-Recovered

Lancome Rouge in Love #287, a cross between a sheer lipstick and an opaque finish pinky brown

make-up-for-ever-rouge-artist-28-on-dark-skin

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense in #28, an opaque pinky mauve

mac-riri-hearts-mac-nude-on-dark-skin

RiRi Hearts MAC Nude, a matte greyish pink beige

mac-touch-lipstick-on-dark-skin-copy

MAC Touch, a satin pinky brown

milani-teddy-bare-lipstick-on-dark-skin

Milani Teddy Bare, a satin pinky brown that looks identical to MAC Touch

nyx-jumbo-lip-pencil-in-iced-coffee-on-dark-skin

NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil in Iced Coffee, a creamy soft pink with neutral undertones

nyx-soft-matte-lip-cream-in-abu-dhabi-on-dark-skin

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Abu Dhabi, a matte soft pink with neutral undertones

revlon-lipstick-hazelnut-50-on-dark-skin

Revlon Lipstick in Hazelnut #50, a satin pinky brown

tom-ford-lipstick-in-deep-mink-on-dark-skin

Tom Ford Deep Mink, a very creamy mid-brown with a touch of pink

Shop the shades in the widget below:

See any faves? New colors to try? Tell me in the comments!

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26 Comments

  1. November 20, 2013 / 9:43 am

    Great photos!! Seriously who looks so good in all that shade of nude lip pies lol love that Lancome Rouge, will have to check it out.

    • Danielle
      Author
      November 20, 2013 / 12:24 pm

      Thanks, Nesh!!! :)

  2. November 20, 2013 / 10:36 am

    LOVE this! You look gorge! All the nudes look good on you! I need to grab a few of them.

  3. November 20, 2013 / 11:34 am

    Love this!!!!!!!!!! You look amazing

    • Danielle
      Author
      November 20, 2013 / 12:23 pm

      thanks, Sabrina!!

  4. November 20, 2013 / 11:39 am

    Wow Danielle this is amazing! Such great photos. I appreciate all the effort you put into creating this series of post. I can’t wait to see the next one!

    • Danielle
      Author
      November 20, 2013 / 12:23 pm

      Thank you!!!!

  5. November 20, 2013 / 1:02 pm

    what a great idea! you look great in all the pics!

  6. Bukky
    November 20, 2013 / 5:05 pm

    Thanks for this Danielle! This will be an awesomely helpful guide, can’t wait for the rest.

  7. November 20, 2013 / 9:25 pm

    I love when you swatch a good lippie because we are about the same complexion, and I know if it looks good on you, it’ll likely look good on me! Lol…Thanks for all the swatches!!! I’ll def be trying some of these colors!

  8. Grace
    November 20, 2013 / 11:59 pm

    I never ever post, I just faithfully stalk your blog ;-) but I gotta say, I’m REALLY excited about this series especially since I have Milani’s Teddy bare. I can’t wait for the next one. p:s you look gorgeous in all of them

    • Danielle
      Author
      November 21, 2013 / 12:40 pm

      Hey Grace!

      Thanks for that comment and for the faithful stalking—so happy to hear you’re excited about this!!! Hope you enjoy the rest :)

  9. meka
    November 21, 2013 / 12:05 am

    I recently started wearing a nude lip. Now I’m mad that I didn’t buy Milani teddy bare when it was on clearance at target for $2.54. Maybe that Lancôme lipstick will do the trick! Thanks for this!

  10. Claudette Morgan Gray
    November 21, 2013 / 11:23 am

    You look maaarvelous!

  11. Joanna
    November 21, 2013 / 12:14 pm

    The MAC Touch and Milani Teddy Bare sure looks quite similar but the Tom Ford Deep Mink has captivated me. Lovely nudes!

  12. Vita
    December 4, 2013 / 10:04 pm

    Danielle- beautiful as always! Did you use any lip liner at all? I usually have to have it if I want any opacity or definition for my lip line!

    Lancome Rouge and Revlon Hazelnut, here I come :-)

    • Danielle
      Author
      December 5, 2013 / 1:13 am

      Hi Vita!

      Thanks! No liner at all in any of these pics—I didn’t want it to alter how the lip color looks straight out of the tube :)

      But for nudes in particular, many do find they need a lip liner or to blot the lips with concealer because of the natural hue of their lips.

  13. December 7, 2013 / 12:47 pm

    Love this series and girl, all these nude shades look good on you! I see a few I’m going to have to try!

  14. Marg
    October 28, 2014 / 6:24 pm

    Lovely lipstick looks, they are all flattering on you. Do you think the Tom Ford lipstick in deep mink is really worth splurging? Perhaps I can find a dupe, I heard Revlon Mink lipstick is similar .

    • Danielle
      Author
      October 28, 2014 / 6:52 pm

      Hey Marg!

      Thank you ;)

      I really like TF lipsticks, but yes if you can find a dupe, you don’t need it. If you’re a big makeup fanatic and fawn over things like packaging and formulas, then get it…lol.

  15. Hope
    November 3, 2014 / 1:26 pm

    Can you please do a 2014 nudes list specifically with more matte lipsticks? I loved this one but matte nudes are making a huge comeback so I want to get a few news ones for the end of the year going into 2015. Thanks.

    • Danielle
      Author
      November 3, 2014 / 10:10 pm

      Hey Hope!

      Great idea! These type of posts take a lot of time and prep for me to put together from researching the lipstick shades to getting them to having the pictures taken and to putting the actual post together not to mention what putting on shade after shade back to back does to my lips…lol. It’ll be quite some time before I do another one (especially since I have some other posts in my pipeline) but I’ll definitely keep nude mattes in mind :) Thanks for reading!

  16. amanda
    June 6, 2015 / 6:33 pm

    Finally something I can relate to! Beautiful

    • Danielle
      Author
      June 9, 2015 / 7:15 pm

      Awww yay!!! Glad I could help :)

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