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.
Swatching a lipstick usually means drawing a stripe of it on the inner arm or the back of the hand. An arm swatch shows the colour and finish more truly than packaging does, but it still differs from the result on the lips, which have their own colour and texture. A swatch on skin of a similar depth to your own is more useful than one on very different skin.
The swatches on this site are drawn from each shade’s hex value with the finish effect added: the plain colour for matte, a soft sheen for satin, a strong highlight for gloss and a fine sparkle for shimmer. Screens differ in brightness and colour, so a digital swatch is a guide. The measured values beside it, such as ΔE, stay the same on every screen.
When looking for a dupe, swatching the original and the match side by side on the same patch of skin is the most direct comparison.
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