If you want to look the healthiest and most radiant, then you should chose a color that flatters your skin tone - so you need to know your skin tone.

Skin tones come in two basic hues: warm or cool. Neutral colors look good on both warm and cool skin tones. Many cosmetic companies now tell you if the makeup is warm, cool, or neutral.

The two basic hues can be broken down into four sub-hues, which are commonly known as "Seasons". People with warm skin tones are either Autumns or Springs. People with cool skin tones are either Winters or Summers.

Winters and Autumns have the most intense, vibrant skin tones (think classic red and hot pink for Winters or intense orange for Autumns). Springs and Summers are softer, more delicate (think pale pinks and dusty roses for Summers, soft peaches for Springs).

Warm skin tones look good in: gold jewelry and colors such as oranges, greens, and browns.

Cool skin tones look best in: silver jewelry and colors such as pinks, blues, and grays.

If you have cool skin tone, look for lipsticks in shades of mauve, rose, true red, or pink. They will have names like Cherries Jubilee, Pink Lemonade, Wild Rose, or Magic Mauve.

If you have warm skin tone, look for lipsticks in shades of coral, peach, brown, orange, and warm red. They will have names like Mango Sunshine, Peach Parfait, Coral Sun, and Bronze Baby.

Look - what you put on your lips ends up in your stomach. There is a statistic floating around out there that I'm sure varies from woman to woman but it says that we eat something like four pounds of lipstick in our lifetime!

I ONLY buy lipsticks and chapsticks with all natural food type ingredients from plants, insects, and minerals - no chemicals, no petroleum-based ingredients. Look for beeswax or a plant wax like carnauba or candellila; shea butter, vitamin E (a natural preservative), vegetable oils like jojoba or sunflower, and natural colors from herbs and minerals.

You may even want to try making your own lipstick or pot of gloss. When I was a teenager, I used to get beet juice from the garden and stain my lips with it and then put colorless lip balm over the top. It works good if you have COOL skin tones.

Quite often, the lipstick you think you want does not have a tester but you buy it anyway. You are taking a chance if you buy it at a store that does not have a good refund policy. Make certain you understand the refund policy on cosmetics before you purchase a lipstick without trying on the tester first and wearing it around for a while.