The nude lipstick guide: warm, cool, and neutral undertones

Nude is not a colour. Nude is a description of relationship — a shade that reads as the natural extension of a particular face. The nude that melts into one person leaves another looking tired.

Warm nudes

Peach, caramel, terracotta-adjacent. These nudes have a golden or orange undertone and flatter warm skin tones and most olive complexions. On cool skin they can pull orangey and make the face read sallow.

Try: warm nude around #B17B6A or caramel around #A07460.

Cool nudes

Pink-based, sometimes mauve-leaning. Flatter cool skin tones and fair complexions. On deeper warm skin they can wash the mouth out entirely — the most common complaint about "concealer lip" trends is this mismatch.

Try: rose nude around #D27180 or blush around #E6B2B6.

Neutral nudes (the safer default)

Beige, true nude. The neither-warm-nor-cool middle. When in doubt about undertone, start here and shift warm or cool after seeing it on the face.

Try: beige nude around #AE8577 or bare nude around #C39088.

Deeper-skin nudes

For medium to deep skin tones, a "nude" that works is typically 2-3 steps darker than it looks in the tube. Browns with a rose or copper undertone tend to flatter more than anything explicitly called "nude" on the label.

Try: cocoa around #6B3C2C or mauve-brown around #8F5A5A.

Two tests that matter

1. The bathroom-mirror test. A nude should not make your mouth disappear. If you lose your lip line entirely, the shade is too close to your skin; tint it up with a liner or choose a slightly deeper version.
2. The “does it flatter your teeth?” test. A nude with too much yellow or orange can accent any yellow in teeth. A nude with a faint pink undertone quietly whitens.

The fastest way to find your nude is to try three or four on the same face in the same lighting. In Maisonlip, the Palette tab has a full nude row; swap between them in seconds and you will see the difference undertone makes more clearly than any swatch card.