Nude

A nude is personal: a shade that matches one person’s lips can look pale on another. The useful question is how close the shade sits to the wearer’s own depth. A nude much lighter than the skin can read like concealer, while one slightly deeper than the lips gives quiet definition.

In this encyclopedia, a shade is classed as nude when its chroma is low, its hue sits in the pink-to-orange range and its lightness is medium or lighter. Deeper muted shades on the warm side are classed as brown, and muted shades on the cool, purple side are mauve. A nude can be cool-toned (rosy or pink-beige), neutral, or warm-toned (peach, caramel or golden beige), depending on where its hue sits.

The nude lists for each skin depth include only shades whose lightness falls within a set range of that depth, so each list keeps the contrast with that skin low. A lip liner in a similar shade is often worn with nudes so that the lip line stays defined.