Jenna Lyons might be a fashion icon, but her latest makeup look is going on my mood board immediately. On March 3, the Real Housewives of New York City star was spotted outside the Today Show, wearing her signature corporate-chic, menswear-inspired uniform: a button-up shirt and tie under a sweater vest, all of which were tucked into white jeans, and finished off with an oversized blazer and a puffer coat. The masterclass in layering aside, Lyon’s simple but striking makeup look proves a timely hypothesis, aptly known as the red lipstick theory.
“If you are wearing nothing on your face but a red lipstick, your skin will look more even,” content creator Alexis Androulakis, said in her now viral video on the theory. In a chic street style moment, Lyons paired a warm-toned version of the shade with oversized sunglasses, and her lightly-curled hair bounced in the wind as she walked.
While the theory is somewhat universal (everyone can rock a red), not all red lipstick is created equally. Lyons found her signature shade to be a yellow-toned hue that almost looks orange, but if you have a similar skin tone to mine (think NC47 in MAC), then you likely will find that a shade like that washes you out. That being said, there are numerous red lipsticks with varying undertones.
If you have darker skin, you may need an extra step before fully committing to this confidence-boosting hack. “A lot of us have a little bit of hyperpigmentation around the mouth,” says makeup artist and content creator Ehlie Luna on her Instagram account. “As soon as you put on red lipstick, it makes it jump out.” The solve? Color corrector. “You want to color correct around the mouth and maybe put a tinted moisturizer on top or all over the face,” Luna says. “If the tinted moisturizer isn’t enough, take a skin-tone concealer and lightly go over the area.”
I consider myself a lipstick connoisseur, and red is one of my favorite shades to play with, so if you want to channel Jenna Lyons’s latest look, you’re in luck. I’ve curated an elite list of red lipsticks to suit all skin tones and one of my favorite color correctors to consider if you have a deeper skin tone. Keep reading to shop my favorites.
For roughly three years now, Violette FR's Petal Bouche liquid lipstick has held the number one spot in my red lipstick collection. It's the perfect blue-based red that looks good on everyone and it has a soft-matte finish that is meant to feel like a rose petal (can report that it does). Once it dries, there's little to no transfer which is the best part of it all.
If you prefer to take your beauty cues from celebrities, allow me to introduce you to one of Taylor Swift's favorite red lipsticks: Par McGrath Liquilust in Elson 4. Another blue-based red, it looks good on virtually every skin tone but there is some very slight transfer. A good hack to make the lipstick transfer-proof is setting it lightly with transluscent powder.
The pigment of this Lip Bar formula is par none. It glides onto my mouth completely streak-free and dries to a matte finish that doesn't budge.
Unfortunately, I do have that ring of discoloration around my mouth that makes it look like I have a mustache no matter how much I wax, pluck, and tweeze, so my favorite color corrector has been this one from Huda Beauty. Like their concealers, it somehow manages to be full coverage and is extremely pigmented, so I actually recommend going one shade lighter than you think you may need so that the formula simultaneously brightens the areas you need to correct.
