IT is often said that lips are the most attractive features of the face, next only to the eyes. In any encounter, they are the first to catch attention and only thereafter are other aspects of the body like hair, dress, jewellery and shoes noticed.

So whether you use lipstick or lip balm, lip ink or lip gloss, lip cream or lip pencil, you would be sending out signals about yourself that you may not be aware of. After all, it is the colour you use that speaks louder than words — even when your lips are sealed!

For example, if you turn out in soft shell pink that goes well with browns, blues and reds, you’d be the nice girl for every guy to take home to his mother. If you were in a neutral skin tone, beige or brown, he would take you to be a practical, professional sort. Show up in burgundy or maroon and you would be telling him that you were mature, reticent, even stylish — but a little old-fashioned perhaps.

Try red and you move into a different league. A fire-engine red slashed across a faintly quizzical smile and there’s a bad girl. And as every man knows, bad girls are so much more fun.

Is it therefore any wonder that hearts and roses and other things red are all ingrained into the collective male psyche as emblems of love and sex? Nobody needs to be reminded of Marilyn Monroe’s famous one liner: "Red is a woman, pink is a girl!"

So if you want to get into the good-girl territory, try pink. Think pink and you have the baby pink of infants and the shy half-smile of Lolita. Pink is perfect wife material — the stuff that trousseaus and bridal showers are made of. It is the colour untouched by cosmetic lips.

However, pink is not a colour that really suits Indian skin tones. European skins with pink undertones can carry off pink shades. Since most Indian complexions have yellow undertones, wearing pink on the face will only make the face look sallow.

"A woman with soft pink lipstick on tells me that she wants to be wooed with candlelight and roses, the old-fashioned way," a make-up artiste points out. "In contrast, a woman with dark red lipstick tells me that if I can’t give her what she wants, she goes gets someone else."

But then, every woman wants to be noticed in her entirety and not just for the screaming slash of colour on the face. Besides, there are aspects like good days and bad days, moods and motives. So here’s a ready reckoner on how to manipulate a situation with an appropriate lip colour:

Red: when you want to look sensual, aggressive and are anxious to be the centre of attraction.

Pink: if you need to appear romantic, sensitive and dependent.

Brown: lets out signals of a practical, efficient and reliable sort of person.

Orange: ideal for those who are whimsical, childish and a bit of a dreamer.

Purple: should you want to strike out as iconoclastic, rebellious and a bit of a tease.

Burgundy/maroons: when being stylish and mature matters.

Blues/greens: if you want to look trendy, youthful and open to experimentation.

Of these, the most tricky colour is brown. As anybody in the beauty business will tell you, its understated charm can be a total knockout. A woman who wears brown lipstick is very often sophisticated, well-read, travelled and someone who knows her mind. It’s a very alluring mix for any man to resist.

But too dark a brown would make you look a tobacco addict. And too light could look leucodermic. So the safest way out is applying a nude brown. But be sure to line your lips with a pencil, a couple of shades darker to give them a definition. Or else, the lips would blend with the skin and look funny.

Brown comes in many shades — coffee, mocha, cappuccino, expresso, coffee, bean, sandstone, dune, toast, cinnamon and caramel. But ultimately, it is the nude shade that may be regarded as the most trustworthy, loyal and friendly. There are no deception games here — what you see is what you get. (MF)