Makeup glossary

This glossary defines 34 terms used across the shade encyclopedia: colour measurements, undertones, colour families, finishes, lip products and application techniques.

How the measured values on shade pages are calculated, including lightness, chroma, hue angle and ΔE, is set out on the methodology page.

B

Berry: Berry is a lipstick colour family of deep, saturated shades between red and purple, like the colour of raspberries, blackberries or cranberries.
Blotting: Blotting is pressing a tissue gently between the lips after applying lipstick to lift excess product and oil.
Blue-based red: Blue-based red is a red lipstick whose hue leans slightly toward blue, which makes it a cool-toned red.
Bullet lipstick: Bullet lipstick is lipstick sold as a solid, rounded or angled stick that twists up from a tube and is applied directly to the lips.

C

Chroma: Chroma is how colourful a colour is, measured as its distance from a grey of the same lightness.
Contrast: Contrast is the visible difference in lightness or colour between a lipstick and the skin around the lips.
Cool undertone: Cool undertone is a pink, red or bluish cast in skin, or a lean toward blue in a lipstick shade such as a blue-based red or a berry.

D

Delta E: Delta E (ΔE) is a number that measures how different two colours look, where 0 means identical and a larger number means a bigger visible difference.
Depth: Depth is how light or dark a colour is, grouped into bands from very light to deep.
Dupe: Dupe, short for duplicate, is a shade from another brand whose colour closely matches a given shade.

F

Feathering: Feathering is when lipstick spreads from the edge of the lips into the fine lines around the mouth, blurring the lip line.

G

Gloss: Gloss is a lipstick finish that is shiny and wet-looking; colour payoff ranges from sheer to intense depending on the formula.

H

Hue angle: Hue angle is the position of a colour on the colour wheel, given in degrees from 0 to 360 in the CIE LCh colour space.

L

Lightness: Lightness is how light or dark a colour appears, measured in this encyclopedia as L* on the CIELAB scale from 0 for black to 100 for white.
Lip liner: Lip liner is a pencil used to outline the lips, define their shape and help lipstick stay within the lip line.
Lip stain: Lip stain is a lip product that leaves a thin, long-lasting tint of colour on the lips instead of a coating that sits on top.
Lip tint: Lip tint is a sheer, lightweight lip product that adds a wash of colour while letting the natural lip colour show through.
Liquid lipstick: Liquid lipstick is a lip colour sold as a fluid in a tube with a wand applicator, usually drying down to a matte or satin finish.
Long-wear: Long-wear describes lip formulas designed to keep their colour for many hours with little or no reapplication.

M

Matte: Matte is a lipstick finish that gives full, flat colour with no shine.
Mauve: Mauve is a muted, dusty pink-purple lipstick colour that sits between pink, plum and nude.

N

Neutral undertone: Neutral undertone is a balance of cool and warm tones in skin, or a lipstick hue that leans neither toward blue nor toward orange, such as a true red.
Nude: Nude is a lipstick colour family of muted, low-chroma shades close to the natural colour of lips or skin, from pale beige and pink to caramel and rose.

O

Olive skin: Olive skin is a skin tone with a green, grey or muted golden cast that does not fit neatly into the usual cool or warm categories.
Ombré lips: Ombré lips is a lip look in which colour fades gradually from one shade to another across the lips, from the edges to the centre or the reverse.
Overlining: Overlining is drawing lip liner slightly outside the natural lip line to make the lips look fuller.

P

Plum: Plum is a lipstick colour family of deep purple and purple-red shades, named after the skin of the ripe fruit.

S

Satin: Satin is a lipstick finish that gives full colour with a soft sheen, between matte and gloss.
Shimmer: Shimmer is a lipstick finish with light-reflecting particles over the colour, which catch the light and sparkle as the lips move.
Swatch: Swatch is a sample of a makeup colour, either applied to skin or paper or shown as a flat patch of colour on a screen.

T

Transfer-proof: Transfer-proof describes a lip formula that, once set, leaves little or no colour on cups, glasses, skin or clothing.

U

Undertone: Undertone is the subtle colour cast beneath the surface of skin, or the lean of a lipstick shade toward blue or toward orange and yellow.

W

Warm red: Warm red is a red lipstick whose hue leans toward orange or yellow, such as tomato, brick or orange-red.
Warm undertone: Warm undertone is a golden, peach or yellow cast in skin, or a lean toward orange in a lipstick shade such as a warm red or a coral.

Last verified 24 October 2026. How we measure.