How many times have you wanted to wear a certain lip color, but changed your mind at the last minute because you couldn’t think of an outfit to match, or you didn’t know how to do your makeup to go with it? It happens to me all the time. I go to Sephora, buy a cute lip color, and then it just sits in my lipstick bag. (Yes, I have a special makeup bag dedicated to lipstick.)

I love lipstick and I want to inspire myself to wear mine more. So to help myself and you, I’ve created this guide. Here’s what to wear with bold lip colors:

Table of Contents

Red

Products: Gray Sweater, Black Bag, Black Jeans, Booties, Watch, Scarf, White Tee, Black Necklace, Adidas, Leather Jacket, Blue Jeans, Chambray Shirt, Black Clutch, Leather Skirt, Pearls, Black Heels 

Red lips are classic, sexy, timeless, and also a bit intimidating for some!

I have many shades of red lipstick — I am so in love! When I put it on I feel like I can conquer the world. (See our post on the power of red lipstick for more on this!) Plus, wearing red lipstick makes your teeth look whiter and who doesn’t love that?

Follow some of these basic red lipstick tips and go conquer the day:

• Stick with a light to medium eye look. In general, don’t go too dark or heavy with the eye makeup or else there will be too much going on.
• Your outfit doesn’t have to be all neutral, but don’t add too much color either. If you want to have some other red in the outfit, then make it a shade lighter or darker than your lips to avoid looking overly matchy.
• Blue is a great color to wear with red lipstick because the shades are complimentary.
• Add a little something extra with bold brows.
• Here’s a guide from The Every Girl on how to match your skin tone and red lipstick (because red lipstick comes in many different bases). Or you can just go to Sephora and they can color IQ you! Also, we wrote a red lipstick guide on this very subject a while back.

Here are my go-to shades of red lipsticks: NARS Annabella, Stila Beso, and Rimmel London Play with Fire. See also: Our fave red lipsticks of all time.