Gold Lipstick: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Gold lipstick is a specialty makeup choice that has remained popular for some years, although one definitely needs to know what they're doing and how to work it with the the rest of your look, or you make be seen as a little ridiculous, as we'll see below.

What I found interesting, is it appears to, when done correctly, look best on opposite skin tones; with women of color and women with blond hair looking the best.

For some reason, of those who had brown hair using gold lipstick, it really didn't seem to work too well, as gold just doesn't seem to fit, no matter what shade of gold is used.

That's not to say it can't work, just that I couldn't find any images where it flowed with the overall makeup look.

It seems, no matter who it is, gold is outstanding as a lipstick choice in some cases, and in other cases, if it doesn't flow, it's best to just leave it alone. There doesn't appear to be any middle ground with this color.

Let's see what you think when you examine how the women wearing gold lipstick look below.

I thought we'd look first at this model who had her entire skin tone adapted to go with her gold lipstick. The lighting of course also helps make it look very appealing.

Since most women don't have this available to them, I did want to show it can look good when everything is put in its perfect place. It's not reproducible for most, but it does reveal it can be compelling with some work.

Here is one of the brown-haired women mentioned that just can't seem to find the right gold color to work with her natural complexion and hair.

It's not horrible, but it does clash, and there is almost a green hue to the lipstick - although it's obviously gold, which somehow doesn't blend with the slight gold tint around the eyes. This is one that should have probably been left alone and started over with, as it's simply not going to work for her.

I tried extremely hard to try to like this particular look, but I wasn't able to stretch that far and still be honest with myself. Maybe it's the weird eyebrows that couldn't be overcome, but I think it was more than that.

Again, we have a little of a color clash that disallows for an even flow. That's what I'm looking for; something that blends and flows in way that doesn't appear to be disrupted. It could be the use of the extra blue around the eyes that interrupts so much. I think it's that more than the odd eyebrows that makes it not work for me.

Also a probable factor is the inability to get a shade that really complements the brown hair. It's close, but not quite there in my opinion.

Sometimes it's hard to comment on makeup like this because it's done professionally and with a purpose; usually to make a fashion statement or to shock, and isn't necessarily meant to inspire something in the real world.

I think that's the case with the edible lipstick with the crackled look below. The strange, unkempt, flaky look would almost certainly only be worn in a fashion show, although there are some exceptions.

For me, I don't see this working in any circumstance I would find myself in. What about you?

This is one of the best results of a woman using gold lipstick that I was able to find. It's absolutely gorgeous on her, and flows unhindered, enhancing her natural beauty. You get no sense of interruptions or clashing, including around her eyes, which complements the lipstick.

In this music video of Rihanna, we get another look at gold lipstick that works well. It's understandable that making that judgement could be considered suspect because of her overall look for the video, referring to the black around her eyes, but minus that, and mentally removing it from the picture, this would look good for her with or without it, taking into account the lighting used helps a lot.

Talk about an epic fail with this attempt to get by with gold lipstick by Sharon Stone. I don't get this because Stone has the complexion and attributes which should have resulted in her looking nice with gold. But the shade is so off from the rest of her makeup and look that it actually looks gross to me.

In this last photo we see how it should be done for a blond-haired woman with a light complexion choosing to go with gold lipstick.

Everything is brought together nicely to create a look that blends together very nicely, even with those somewhat eccentric gold eyelashes.The choice of top, hair color, and pin all go towards making this a great result for her.

As mentioned above, and as you can see after looking through this photo gallery, everything has to be done right when using gold lipstick if you want to not only enhance your look, but use it to create a gorgeous and compelling one.

Everything from your complexion, hair color, clothing choice and shade of gold lipstick used go towards determining whether you look outstanding, or would have been better off staying home. When done correctly, you own the room, and you will have no fear of being upstaged, as not too many ladies can pull this off.

For those that can, the rewards are awesome, and concerns over looking like someone else will be completed allayed.