By: Ayanda Dube

“Examine your skin in natural lighting to determine your complexion, look at the color of the veins on the inside of your wrist, notice how your skin reacts to the sun and try on gold and silver jewelery,” said Beauty Therapist, Pinky Mkhize.

You may have a bunch of lipsticks in your toiletry bag that you wear all the time and some that you never touch because you not sure.

It may happen that you saw a lipstick in a store or on a celebrity and liked it. The truth is that when it comes to a lip shade you can’t choose through liking.

According to most women, identifying the right lipstick colour for your skin tone usually seem to be a challenge.

Everyone has different skin tone, knowing your colour is really helpful when you’re trying to determine which lipsticks looks best on you.

Mkhize said that to test how close the shade is to your natural colour, apply the lipstick only to your lower lip and compare that shade to your upper lip. And if the shades are too different, then you should change it.

According to Beauty By Pommy, a Facebook page designed for women, colours that would look best to fair or light skinned is pinkish red or coral.For tan or medium skin colour, the suitable colours would be bright red cherry red, true red and the deep skinned should look for colours like blue-based red, metallic ruby red or deep wine.

“Red is a classic look that any woman can pull off, regardless of age, skin, hair, eye, or lip colour. Every woman should own it.Try the lipstick on before you buy it and if you don’t want to apply a tester lipstick on your mouth, you can simple test it on the pads of your fingertips. Your fingertips are closer to your lip colour than your wrist or the other side of your hand,” said Mkhize.

She added that one shouldn’t match a lip colour too closely with their clothing. For example, if you are wearing a red dress, don’t put red lipstick because your lips will look overwhelming.

Nonkululeko Sithole, a self-confessed lipstick freak, said that for her choosing the perfect lipstick colour is a challenge as she buys whatever lipstick that she likes. She said that she believes that lipstick colour doesn’t matter.

“I have a variety of lipsticks in my collection bag, I like to match them with my outfit each time. I buy them because I like them, whether it will suit me or not, I don’t care. I never choose according to what suits me but what I like,” said Sithole.

A student at ICESA College Khombisile Gwala, said that she doesn’t wear lipsticks rather prefers a natural look.

“I only wear a lip balm because of its neutral colour, I’m not into glamour’s looks. I like to keep it simple and natural. Lipsticks makes a person looks too fake and gives you a doll look. I wish other women would understand that and stop copying from celebrities,” said Gwala.