Allow me to be the first and possibly last person to tell you that mauve is fashionable.
Yes, the purply-pink hue of a 1990s mother-of-the-groom’s duster coat is now the height of chic on cheeks, lips and even eyes. It’s just euphemistically called “cool toned”, which in practice translates as traditional nude makeup tones such as dark brown, caramel, taupe, pink and beige, customised with a mild mauvey tinge to reduce their respective temperatures.
The sudden wide availability of mauve blushers, lipsticks and eyeshadows is a godsend to those with an olive undertone (whose skin, whether pale, medium or deep will send any warm-toned makeup Trumpian orange). It’s also good news for those of us who aspire to that sort of brisk, windswept British aesthetic over, say, the bronze California beach babe.
You can probably tell that I’m very much aboard the mauve train – I’ve been testing every iteration I can get my hands on.
My favourite for sheer ease and laziness is Lisa Eldridge’s Liquid Silk Eyeshadow (£26) in ione, an everywoman mauvey beige. When I say a mittened toddler could make this work, I mean it. Just swipe the applicator over lids, stopping just after the crease, and blot with your ring finger or a small fluffy brush to soften the impact. Just this and a black mascara is plenty to look polished and cool, but sits equally well as a base for more colours should you want to get a palette out (Ilia’s The Necessary Eyeshadow Palette, £40, for instance).
Ione’s blusher equivalent is MAC’s Glow Play Cushiony Blush (£28) in Blush, Please. This is a very flattering and truly foolproof mauve-beige that needs neither brush nor mirror to apply, and gives a breezy, cold-day flush to the cheeks.
NYX makes brilliant lipliners at a terrific price. Its mauve Slim Lip Liner (£4) is really more of a medium, cool-toned brown that goes with any lipstick devoid of yellow and orange, or it can be used alone and smudged all over with your little finger and some clear lip balm for subtlety.
For something bolder on pale to medium skin, one could fill in with Jones Road The Classic Lip in mauve (£30), a satiny, ultra comfy lipstick in a sophisticated cool, nude pink.
On deeper tones, Merit’s new Lightweight Lip Blush (£25), in Archival baby mauve, is beautiful – a deep but vibrant mauve with a hazy, blurry finish.
