Trend on Trial: '90s brown lips

Beauty


Trend on Trial: '90s brown lips

By Stylist Team

12 years ago

Picture Rachel from Friends: layered hair, matte skin, brown lipstick. Think Linda, Kate, Naomi and Christy in the ‘Supers’ era – yes, brown lipstick.

Now, picture any film or music heroine you adored in the Nineties – brown lipstick, right? It was the only shade to wear, nestled ambiguously somewhere in between masculine and feminine. What’s not to love? That’s how the make-up artists backstage at 3.1 Phillip Lim saw things as lips were smothered in a deep chocolate hue. But should the brown lip be left firmly in the decade from whence it came? Or revived, refreshed and rehashed again this season? There’s only one way to find out…

EVIE LEATHAM

Stylist

ANITA BHAGWANDAS

Stylist

SAMANTHA FLOWERS

Stylist’s beauty editor says: I scoffed when we decided to try this trend. I mean, I knew it wouldn’t suit me. Except… it did. And I liked it. I used a Lancôme shade with a subtle purple undertone and buffed the edges slightly with my finger to make it look more worn in. Much cooler and easier to wear than a statement making red.

VERDICT

Brown is a highly overlooked neutral and when you wear a deep shade – as we have here – it adds a real air of sophistication. Finding the right tone is crucial; if these dark shades don’t work for you, take the colour a little lighter to create more of a stain effect or add a slick of balm for a gloss finish – the Nineties aren’t going anywhere fast.

1. Autograph Colour Intense matte lipstick in Chocolate, £8.50, Marks & Spencer

2. Colour Crush Lipstick in 325 Darling Blush, £10, The Body Shop

3. Pure Color Longlasting lipstick in Beige, £20, Estee Lauder

4. Rouge In Love in Chez Prune, £21, Lancome

Thanks to boothnation.com

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