Honest takes from a makeup artist who built her own brand.
Let me say the thing no one selling lipstick wants to say: there is no such thing as a universal nude.
I've been a makeup artist since 2008, and in all those years sitting across from real faces, I've watched the same scene play out again and again. Someone buys the nude lipstick — the one every influencer is wearing, the one the box calls "your-lips-but-better" — swipes it on, and… deflates. It's grey. Or it's chalky. Or it ages them ten years. Or it just looks like they forgot to finish getting ready.
The lipstick wasn't bad. It just wasn't theirs.
Why "nude" so often goes wrong on Indian skin
Here's the uncomfortable truth: a huge number of "nude" shades were formulated against fair, cool-toned, Western skin as the default. They lean beige, pinky, or muted brown — colours that quietly cancel out the warmth and depth in most Indian skin. So instead of "your lips but better", you get your lips but grey. Ashy. A little unwell.
The fix isn't a better influencer. It's understanding two things about your face: your undertone and your depth.
Step 1: Find your undertone (it takes 30 seconds)
Your undertone is the quiet colour underneath your skin. Three camps:
- Warm — golden, peachy, olive warmth. Gold jewellery tends to flatter you more than silver.
- Cool — pink, red, or bluish undertones. Silver usually wins.
- Neutral — a bit of both, and honestly the lucky in-between.
Quick test: look at the inside of your wrist in natural light. Greenish veins lean warm; bluish/purple lean cool; can't decide means neutral. Most of us with Indian skin sit neutral-to-warm — but here's the nuance most guides get wrong: the problem usually isn't "cool" itself. It's a nude that's too pale, too pinky-pastel, or has no depth to anchor it. Get those right and even a muted, cool-leaning medium mauve can be gorgeous on neutral-to-warm skin. Which brings us to the real secret.
Step 2: Match the depth, not the model
This is the step everyone skips. A nude should sit one or two shades deeper than your natural lip colour — not lighter. The "concealer lips" trend (a nude so pale it erases your mouth) is precisely how you end up looking washed out. If a nude is making you disappear, it's too light, full stop. Go warmer and a touch deeper, and watch your whole face switch back on.
Step 3: Swatch on your lips — in daylight
Never judge a nude on the back of your hand. Your hand is not your face, and your face is not your lips. Swatch it where it's actually going to live, step near a window, and give it a second. Daylight tells the truth; shop lighting flatters everything.
The shortcut: a nude that bends to you
After years of watching people fight with their nudes, this is the whole reason we made Wink Wink the way we did. Here's the honest version: we didn't make a nude for everyone — we made one for us. It's a muted, cool to neutral mauvish nude — soft, sophisticated, versatile, full coverage — and here's the part that surprises people: a mauve this balanced still flatters neutral-to-warm Indian skin, because the muting and the medium depth do the heavy lifting (instead of a pale, pinky pastel that erases you). We tested it on 50+ real people across skin tones before it earned a name — so it behaves like a nude made for an Indian mirror, not against it. It won't be everyone's nude. But it might just be yours.
Two makeup-artist tricks to make any nude work harder:
- Layer a tinted lip oil over a nude lipstick. It softens a too-flat nude, adds dimension, and keeps lips comfortable. Our Skinny Dip peptide lip oils were made for exactly this kind of effortless, lived-in finish.
- Line first, lightly. A whisper of liner in your own lip tone (not darker) stops a nude from looking flat and helps it last.
The real takeaway
Stop chasing the nude everyone else is wearing. The "universal nude" was never universal — it was just well-marketed. Find your undertone, respect your depth, swatch in daylight, and choose a shade that enhances what's already there instead of erasing it.
Because the best nude isn't the one that hides you. It's the one that finally looks like you — just a little more awake.
— Pooja, Founder, La Nin
