We can attest that the cool-toned colour is appropriate for wearing on a typical Tuesday afternoon or Friday evening.
Bold makeup has a separate area for red carpet glamour. Celebrities frequently use the boldest lip colours, the most vivid highlighters, and the flashiest eye makeup. It’s also not unusual to witness the striking launch of a daring new style. Thanks to makeup artist Patrick Ta, Gigi Hadid recently walked the 2022 CFDA Awards red carpet while sporting grey lipstick (! ), making it appear wearable and trendy like it was the new neutral. I began to wonder: Is grey lipstick suitable for everyone.
Even just considering the cool-toned shade as a lip colour can be a little frightening. However, according to cosmetic artist Kelli Anne Sewell, grey lipstick works best for everyday wear when the rest of your makeup is kept to a minimum. She advises, “Let the grey lipstick be the centre of the face.” Balance it with dewy skin, a dramatic eyeliner, and blush. Sewell advises using a cool hue with blue undertones because anything too warm starts to appear mauve.
To test this hypothesis, I acquired the exact shade of grey Hadid wore on the red carpet, Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink Liquid Lipstick in the shade Huntress, as well as 60 Backstage from Sephora Collection’s #Lipstories Lipstick (which has a metallic finish) and Scandalous from NYX Lip Lingerie (a classic matte), and I also asked my fellow editors to swipe along. This was bound to be daring as our typical neutrals, pinks, and reds were on the opposite extreme of the colour spectrum.
Jennifer Hussein, a commerce writer for Allure, anticipated “hating it,” despite the fact that her everyday beauty routine tends toward the more frivolous. But after trying the Maybelline and Sephora lipsticks, she had a fresh perspective: According to Hussein, who matched both with a striking, color-blocked eye, “Sephora’s shimmering shade Backstage was sheer and not all that dramatic, and I loved that Maybelline’s liquid lipstick had an opaque finish.” She discovered that the Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink Liquid Lipstick has staying power, which is great for a pigmented product (smudges and feathering aren’t cute). “You can believe that it won’t ever move. It required two makeup wipes to remove and was on for eight hours through lunch “said Hussein.
Makeup expert Sara Talias suggests adjusting your whole colour scheme based on the grey lipstick tint. It’s better to keep the entire look monochrome, she advises, by combining a grey lip with a straightforward smokey eye. Sarah Hoffmann, a producer for the business world, accomplished this with the Maybelline Super Stay Matte Ink Lipstick. With her fair skin tone, Hoffman felt it to be intense, but the blush and contour added made it look elevated rather than costume-like: It’s a good hue to have on hand, particularly if you just finished seeing Wednesday on Netflix and are still listening to The Cramps.
I picked up NYX Lip Lingerie, which was just as intense as it appeared to be in the packaging. By adding clear gloss on top, I was able to lighten the tone, and I liked the vampy appearance. For my skin tone, I thought the Maybelline Super Stay Matte Ink Lipstick was too cool-toned. I’ve found that darker skin tones look best with a grey that leans more toward purple than blue.
Rachael Edwards, senior social media manager at Allure, initially believed that grey lipstick would make her lips appear ashy, but she later realised that it “wasn’t as scary as I imagined.” I used the Sephora lipstick in the colour “Metal” immediately on top after outlining my lips with MAC’s Chestnut lip pencil, according to Edwards. She needed three applications to achieve the appearance she wanted, but the metallic shade may be built up and layered for a more opaque finish. I’m not disappointed with the outcomes, she claims. “I’m reliving my emo-girl days; Rachael would be so proud,” said the speaker.
Our final conclusion? There is a place for the edgy shade in our beauty bags, even though grey lipstick is not a swipe-and-go look or as straightforward as a bright red lip colour that can stand out on its own. Gray lipstick can be worn, even on a typical Tuesday at the office, with the aid of a few auxiliary items (such as lip liner or a pink blush).
