How to achieve the perfect nude lipstick look

A variety of shades, from chestnut to peachy, can work as nudes. Here's how to pick the tones that work with your complexion, plus practical tips to help you blend and define

Finding the right shade of nude lipstick can be tricky, especially if you have a deeper complexion. It might be a case of ignoring the pinks in favour of the browns. So spend a little bit of time understanding the different tones and how they work with your complexion and you should soon be able to master the nude lips look.

Here are a few different nudes that I find work well for my skin tone (colours shown in the order they are listed below):

E.l.f. Cosmetics Blushing Brown (via Superdrug, £4.50) – a warm brown tone with a satin finish, perfect for a really natural look.

Kat Von D Lolita ll (via Debenhams, £17) – a deeper, warm-toned pink with a super matte finish.

Huda Beauty Trendsetter (via Selfridges, £18) – a peachy tone with a matte finish that works amazingly with a deep brown lip liner.

Buxom Cosmetics Instigator (via Debenhams, £15) – mauve tone liquid lipstick with a creamy matte finish.

Nip+Fab Marshmallow (via Superdrug, £7.95) – a pure liquid lipstick with a pale pink tone, great for an ombré look when mixed with a brown lip liner.

MAC Cosmetics Chestnut lip liner (via MAC Cosmetics) – pure brown lip liner with a cool tone that is perfect as a match for every nude lipstick.

Once you find out which tones work for you, play about with the products and experiment to see how you can get the most out of each colour. Here is how I do it:

Step one
Priming your lips before applying anything else is essential if you want a longer-lasting colour. My favourite is Inglot Cosmetics lip primer (via Inglot, £9), as it moisturises my lips so they still feel soft and creamy even with a matte lipstick.

Step two
A step often skipped is applying lip liner. However, a deep-brown lip liner works wonders when paired with any nude shade of lipstick for deeper skin tones, as it creates natural shadows that allow the lip colour to blend into your skin without any harsh differences. Even for fair or light complexions, a lip liner that is a shade darker will allow the lip colour to blend more effortlessly. I love the MAC cosmetics lip liner in the Chestnut shade (via Mac Cosmetics, £13), as it is a cool-toned deep brown, giving perfect definition.

Step three
Complete your look by applying your favourite shade of nude lipstick in the centre of your lips and blending it out into your lip liner. This will give the illusion of a natural shadow and highlight on your lips that blends to your skin complexion a lot better. My favourite shade of nude for everyday is the Buxom Cosmetics wildly whipped liquid lipstick in the colour Instigator (via Debenhams, £15). This is a mauve-toned pink that looks near-nude on deeper skin complexions while also adding a subtle hint of colour.

It's always good to try different colours and don't feel as if you should stick to one shade; everyone will have various shades – from chestnut to peachy – that can work as nudes. Just explore and see which tones suit your complexion best.

The best summery nails

For someone whose nails are almost never unpainted, I'm decidedly unadventurous. With the best of intentions, I'll lustily examine all the beautiful, bright, multi-finish colours on the manicurist's sample fob, or in my bedroom drawer, and invariably plump for some variation on red.

But summer is a time to take stock and embrace lightness and, being ever suggestible and fearful of missing out, I've been seduced by the multichrome nail polishes (that shift between shades under light) on Pinterest. Opaque multichromes are fiddly and heavy-looking, but the sheerer versions suit my current mood down to the ground, since they're the closest I can comfortably get to following the new no-polish craze extolled by the fashion crowd. (It's about showing how healthy one's nails and cuticles are, without the suspicious camouflage, apparently. The wellness bores can prise the lacquer bottle from my cold, dead, imperfect hands.)

With a sheer multichrome, you get a peep of what lies naturally beneath without sacrificing all colour and prettiness – and unlike traditional pastels (which I avoid at all costs), they don't look at all bridal. Zoya's Monet (£9.95) is an almost clear, cruelty-free polish with mirrored pink and blue particles that remain largely invisible until they catch the light, when nails become a clear lilac. I love it alone, but the glitter is sparse, so you may prefer it as a topcoat, or worn over gel polish such as CND Shellac to relieve boredom and conceal wear and tear between monthly changeovers (always ensure you use non-acetone remover, so gels beneath stay intact).

When glitter feels too childlike and unsophisticated, I opt for OPI's Significant Other (£7.95), which gives a smooth, shimmery, silver-lavender finish that's like catnip for beauty fans – I receive compliments at every wearing (which, with hands like mine, is remarkable). As a bonus, the semi-transparency of iridescent polish makes the inevitable chips harder for the naked eye to spot, so you can more safely use cheap lacquer.

My best buy, however, are Primark's Prism Holographic Nail Polishes, which, despite their name, are not holographic, but multichrome, though at £1.50 a bottle (in store only), I shouldn't nitpick. One, 2 Cute For You (beautiful polish, nauseating name), is a pearly-white with a surprisingly skin-flattering purple reflection that looks fabulous alone for a subtle, summery gleam.

For healthy and beautiful nails, get rid of these 6 bad nail habits right now!

Perhaps, you have been determined to peeling off your nail polish or stop biting your nails. However, in-spite of tall that determination, you invariable end up doing it. Apart from nail biting and peeling off polish, there are several other bad things you maybe doing to your nails unintentionally. If your aim is to have healthy and beautiful nails, yo must immediately put a stop to these 5 bad habits.  Once you stop these, your nail will always and forever be in a good, healthy shape. So here is what you need to stop right now!

1. You should never cut your cuticles

Even if you there is a small piece of hang nail on the side, you should never cut it off. Stead you could use a cuticle remover. Apply the remover and just press it back to the skin. You should push the cuticle with a cuticle pusher. After this you can slowly remove the hang nail.

2. Never peel of nail polish with your fingers

This is possible one of the worst things you could do to your nails. Never peel off your nail polish with your fingers, however tempted you are. Always use a nail polish remover. Take a small portion of remover on a cotton and press the cotton on your nails for few seconds before you wipe it off.

3.  Never forget to apply the base coat first

If you want to have a smooth and long lasting nail polish, always apply the base coat. This will help your nail polish to stay longer and also it prevents your nail from staining that some nail polish give.

4. File your nails in one direction

Filing your nails back and forth is what most people do. However, what you do not know is that it will ruin your nails and will lead to breakage.

5. And never bite your nails

This is one addictive habit that most people find difficulty in getting rid of. However, you should stop doing this.  It will weaken your nails, give infections causes all the bacteria to go into your mouth and several more. If you have grown nails, just cu tit with a nail cutter.

6. Avoid going off to sleep after putting nail polish

Even if your nail polish seems semi dry, you should never go off to sleep after applying nail polish. Because after you wake up, chances are you will find the prints of your bed sheet and your nails will look horrible.

Three women making their mark on the beauty market

Marcia Kilgore: 'Instead of luxury labels, what people want to portray is their own brand'

Marcia Kilgore was watching telly when she had the idea. "I thought, what about Netflix but for beauty – so everyone could get a bigger piece of the beauty pie?" The woman behind Bliss Spas, FitFlops and Soap & Glory, Kilgore has long been renowned for "disrupting" the industry, but this project threatened to go even further, toppling it on its side, skidding into a hedge.

I'd heard a rumour that Kilgore's new venture was such a threat to established beauty brands that she'd received death threats. She chuckles. "There's room for us and for them. After all, Netflix exists, but people still go to the cinema, right?"

This is how Beauty Pie works: you pay £10 a month for membership, and then you can purchase its carefully curated collection of make-up and skincare at factory prices. So, that's £20 lipsticks for £2.24, excellent foundation (in Armani-esque bottles) for £4.75, and the new "Super-Eye Energy Peptide Infusion Cream" for £5.65. The pricing is totally transparent, and the products are comparable to those in the fanciest beauty halls.

As Beauty Pie nears its first anniversary, now with tens of thousands of members, Kilgore says the key to its success lies in the "personal brand". Rather than define themselves through designer labels, she says: "What people really want to portray is their own brand."

Only a fraction of the cost of a luxury product is the product itself. The rest is what Kilgore calls LMAO, or "Landfill Marketing and Overheads." Kilgore spends days at cosmetics factories: one will produce a perfect lipstick, at another she knows a product mixer who specialises in foundation. "You become quite elitist in terms of the quality. If something doesn't have good colour payoff or the pencil is a bit too dry, I reject them."

Of the luxury brands, she says, her voice dropping a little, 95% buy the same products she does, tweaking the colours slightly, whacking it in their own packaging and adding a few zeroes to the price – often 30 times the price it costs to make. "We had this skin brush from Korea, a rechargeable one in soft-touch rubber, for £18," Kilgore says. "In shops it would be more than £80. I've seen things like it in the airport for £300." Is there a company she finds particularly disingenuous? She puts her hand over the tape recorder and mouths the name of a brand whose moisturisers sell for £200, and whose formulations can be found for a 10th of that through Beauty Pie.

Ozohu Adoh: 'The luxury market was not meeting the needs of women of colour'

This year Ozohu Adoh, a Nigerian-born ex-accountant, launched Epara, the first luxury beauty brand specifically targeting women of colour. The line has already been bought by Harrods, which knows its audience: in 2015, says Adoh, every £1 in £3 spent in the store was by a Nigerian.

It began by accident. "I had excessive dry skin on my face. I tried all the luxury skincare brands and they just didn't work." She researched ingredients, making her own concoctions using mainly oils. "It took several iterations before I got something that worked," says Adoh. When her skin cleared up "friends started to ask me for this thing in a nondescript jar." That was three years ago. She has since developed a line including cleansers, a mask, serums and eye cream. Many of her ingredients, such as marula and moringa oils, and mango butter, are found on African soil. "I want to take them mainstream," she says.

Some have asked why women of colour need their own skincare line. "The market was not addressing our needs," says Adoh. "Due to higher levels of melanin, typical problems present differently in darker skin tones. Uneven skin tone caused by hormonal issues or acne scarring can take much longer to heal."

Tricia Cusden: 'Society hasn't yet come to terms with the fact that we're living longer'

"The beauty industry assumes we are all engaged in an anti-ageing battle," says an emphatic Tricia Cusden, the 70-year-old founder of mature make-up brand Look Fabulous Forever. "I am determined to change this."

Cusden, a former management consultant from south London, has a "pro-ageing" attitude to beauty. She launched Look Fabulous Forever in 2013, "after wasting £50 on products meant for skin a lot younger than mine" and becoming "increasingly exercised" by the "insulting" rhetoric around older women and their beauty routine. Cusden's mission was two-fold: create products and imagery that were "honest, featuring women over the age of 55"; and to use "positive language, to represent ageing as something to embrace, not to fight against"...

The battle to end the world's obsession with lighter skin

"It starts when children are young: the moment a child is born, relatives start comparing siblings' skin colour. It starts in your own family – but people don't want to talk about it openly."

Kavitha Emmanuel is the founder of Women of Worth, an Indian NGO that is standing up to bias toward lighter skin. The Dark Is Beautiful campaign, launched in 2009, is not "anti-white", she says, but about inclusivity – beauty beyond colour. It carries celebrity endorsement, most notably from the Bollywood actor Nandita Das, and provides a forum for people to share their personal stories of skin colour bias.

The campaign runs media literacy workshops and advocacy programmes in schools to counteract colour bias. Emmanuel says this even occurs in school textbooks, where a picture of a fair-skinned girl might be labelled "beautiful" and a darker one "ugly".

"Some children are really shocked that this affects them so intensely," Emmanuel says. "Some are in tears [during the workshops]."

A perfect life from perfect skin – but only for those of the right shade – is the message and mindset that's being passed down. This has spawned a multibillion-dollar industry in cosmetic creams and invasive procedures such as skin bleaching, chemical peels, laser treatments, steroid cocktails, "whitening" pills and intravenous injections – all with varying effectiveness and health risks. It's more than a bias, it's a dangerous cultural obsession.

Multinational cosmetics brands have found a lucrative market: global spending on skin lightening is projected to triple to $31.2bn (£24bn) by 2024, according to a report released in June 2017 by the research firm Global Industry Analysts. The driving force, it says, is "the still rampant darker skin stigma, and rigid cultural perception that correlates lighter skin tone with beauty and personal success".

"This is not bias. This is racism," says Sunil Bhatia, a professor of human development at Connecticut College. Bhatia recently wrote in US News & World Report about deep-rooted internalised racism and social hierarchies based on skin colour.

In India, these were codified in the caste system, the ancient Hindu classification in which birth determined occupation and social stratum. At the top, Brahmins were priests and intellectuals; at the bottom, outcastes were confined to the least-desired jobs such as latrine cleaners. Bhatia says caste may have been about more than just occupation: the darker you looked, the lower your place in the social hierarchy.

Fair skin bias was perpetuated and strongly reinforced by colonialism, not just in India but in dozens of countries ruled by a European power. It's the idea that the ruler is fair-skinned, says Emmanuel: "All around the world, it was a fact that the rich could stay indoors versus the poor who worked outside and were dark-skinned."

Now globalisation is spreading the bias. "There is an interesting whiteness travelling from the US to shopping malls in other countries, featuring white models," Bhatia says. "You can trace a line from colonialism, post-colonialism and globalisation."

Western beauty ideals, including fair skin, dominate worldwide. And with these ideals come products to service them. In Nigeria, 77% of the country's women use skin-lightening agents; in Togo, 59%. But the largest and fastest-growing markets are in the Asia-Pacific region. In India, a typical supermarket will have a wall of personal care products featuring "whitening" moisturiser or "lightening" body creams from wellknown brands.

How to do the perfect winged eyeliner

We all have good eyeliner days and bad eyeliner days; times where made-up eyes do not even look like friends, let alone sisters. But for me, it's worth experimenting to find a swoosh that suits your eye shape, – and one that you can replicate symmetrically – because there's nothing like winged liner to complete a look. Practice makes perfect. Here's how I do mine – using the best liner I've found, the Marc Jacobs Magic Marc'er liquid eyeliner pen in Blacquer. I find pen eyeliners a little easier to contol than brushes, so if you are new to winged eyeliner, this magic Marc'er might just become your new best friend.

Step 1

I begin with simple eyeshadow as a base to complement the eyeliner. I love improvising with makeup, so I often use a blusher palette as eyeshadow. Sleek Blush By 3 palette in Flame works wonders for this; it has just as much pigment as a standard eyeshadow palette. After that, I sketch out the liner by drawing a short line from the outer corner of the eye, as though following the curve of the lower lash line.

Step 2

Draw a line all the way across the upper eyelid, from the tear duct to the outer edge of the lower line. It helps if you pull the eye from the corner a little, to flatten the skin, so the liner goes on smoothly.

Step 3

Fill in the gaps between the outer point of the liner and the lash line, ensuring that you don't leave any empty spaces.

Step 4

Add the final finishing touches to your look. I love a good highlight on my tear duct and brow bone, so I've used the Sleek highlight palette in Cleopatra's Kiss. Feel free to customise your eyeliner any way you like; don't be afraid to take the line thicker, or to make it thinner, to suit your eye shape. I've finished the look with a pair of my current favourite lashes by Huda Beauty in the Noelle style ; I love their Samantha style, too, which gives a pretty, wispy effect.

How to make your skin glow

There are many sad things about coming back from holidays. For one, it's the beginning of the end for that glowy skin you only get after about a week away from your desk and in the fresh air. But with a little prep and a bit of shimmer, you can fake that dewy look all year. Here is how I do it.

Step one

Prepping your skin is the most essential part of this process. I use exfoliators and pore-cleansing masks as part of my regular routine, which helps other products sink into my skin easily. My favourite is NSPA's glow mud mask. I also use a combination smoothing lightweight emulsion moisturiser, which adds loads of dewiness but has a lightweight texture that feels comfortable on the skin.

Step two

Apply a liquid illuminator all over your face as a base. I like the Buxom Cosmetics liquid highlighter in Divine Goddess for a really subtle "wet skin" glow.

Step three

I use a Real Techniques sponge to blend my foundation properly without leaving too much excess on my face. My favourite for a natural dewy look is the Bare Minerals bare skin foundation in the colour Walnut.

Step four

I use concealer under my eyes, down my nose, and on the centre of my chin, which brightens the places the sunlight naturally hits my face. Decide where to put your concealer depending on your face shape. I use Too Faced born this way concealer in Medium tan, which stays dewy even when it has been set with powder. I use pressed transluscent powder, rather than loose, such as Inglot Cosmetics HD pressed powder in shade 404.

Step five

For extra glow I add a light contour to my cheeks using the Buxom Cosmetics hot escapes bronzer in the shade Maldives. To bring back warmth to my skin, I add a touch of blusher, then complete by dusting a shimmery golden highlight on the highest point of my cheekbone, and the tip of my nose. Focus this shimmery highlight on the areas you want to enhance and bring forward. I love to use the Nip+Fab travel palette in Medium/Dark 2 which has the contour, blush and highlight in one.

Step six

Finally, add a little bit of a shimmery lip gloss to compliment your dewy skin. I am using the Buxom cosmetics lip polish in Sugar on top of my Nip+Fab lip liner in Espresso.