We Didn't Realise Dark Lipstick Could Be So Low Maintenance

Dark lipstick has gotten something of a bad rap over the years. Yes, we'd all like to unleash our inner film noir actress or try a makeup look a little more vampy than usual every now and then, but so many lipstick formulas seem to lack the oomph to make any of that possible. Pigments you thought would be as rich as the colours on your HD TV look more like a wishy-washy watercolour painting IRL. And even if you find a bullet that delivers on pigment, you've then got the rest of the day—plus the multiple flat whites, bowls of pasta and general lip smacking that it brings with it—to contend with. And nobody wants to sit through an afternoon of meetings with the whole office staring at those cracked, blurred and smudged lips.

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So yes, dark lipstick: We'd like to wear you. But it's going to take finding the most long-lasting, hard-wearing and highly-pigmented formulas to make it worth it. And that's what we've done. We've filtered through the Byrdie beauty cupboard (we were so rigorous that you would have thought we were panning for gold) to find the best dark lipsticks going. From rich berry tones to dark brooding violets, keep scrolling to discover the nine dark lipsticks that won't let you down.