The app that will help you find your perfect natural lip shade

Pantone Natural Lip Colour

Lipstick shopping just became a whole lot easier

Beauty Crew Beauty Writer / August 01 2017

It’s a makeup issue every woman can relate to: it doesn’t matter how many lip products you own, you are continually on the hunt for the next perfect red, nude, pink, matte, satin, etc. lipstick. And why not? With thousands of products on the market, there’s bound to be a new shade or finish that will elevate your makeup look to new heights.

And while the experience of swatching shade after shade on the back of your hand can be quite cathartic, the process of finding the perfect lip colour that looks like your natural lip tone only better just became a whole lot easier thanks to one Reddit user.

In a Reddit thread titled ‘found some potential nudes by using a colour picker on my lips! (Pantone Studio),’ user szktm explained that by using the Pantone Studio app (which recognises the variety of colours present in an image) she was able to find out which colours and shades are a perfect match to her natural lip colour.

Not sure what we mean? Check out how it worked for her below:

Szktm shared that the most interesting thing about this process was “that my lips are a lot more brown/red than I thought they were. I’ve been choosing nudes that are more mauve-y (as that’s what my lips look like when I look at them in the mirror), which explains why I end up looking a bit like a corpse.”

While this app doesn’t clue you in to the exact brand and shade of lipstick that will match your natural lip tone, it does provide you with an accurate starting point for the shades you should be looking out for.

For those wondering if the Pantone Studio app can also help you find the perfect shade of foundation or concealer – the jury is still out. As the app identifies the different tones in your skin (including any redness or pigmentation you may have), finding the perfect base shade using this technique may be a little difficult. However, we’ll happily be proven wrong! Try the app for yourself and let us know how you get on in the comments section below.

If that doesn’t work for you, this genius website will ensure you never choose the wrong foundation shade ever again.

What do you think of Reddit user szktm’s idea? Will you be trying out the app for yourself?

Image credit: @hungvanngo; Reddit

Kate started working for BEAUTYcrew in early 2016, first as a contributor, and was then named Beauty Writer in 2017. She loves picking the brains of the industry's top experts to get to the bottom of beauty's toughest questions. Bronze eyeshadow palettes are her weakness and she's forever on the hunt for the perfect nude nail polish to suit her fair skin. Her words can also be found in Men's Health magazine, and she now works in PR.