The Best Cult and Classic Lip Shades of All Time

By Kathleen Hou, The Cut
There are certain lipstick shades known by sight or name or number alone. 999. Schiap. 400. A very, very matte blue-based red that shows up out on the town more often than Hannah Bronfman. Although hundreds of lip shades cross our desk every day, when pressed for time, the Cut is often drawn towards the cult and classic. To compile this list, the Cut spoke to celebrity makeup artists like Beau Nelson and Lupita Nyong'o's makeup artist Nick Barose, reviewed MakeupAlley message boards to find the best-reviewed lip shades by consumers, and spoke to brand representatives to learn about their best sellers. Here are 20 of the Cut's list of the top 50 cult lip shades of all time, including colors like the first red ever worn at a Christian Dior fashion show. And if you have a Kanye-at-the-MTV-Awards-like suggestion for a shade we left off the list, leave it in the comments below. See all 50 lipstick shades here.


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