The 9 Best Lipsticks, According to Mindy Kaling

last updated 11 December 2019

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In my opinion, Mindy Kaling is one of the best celebrities to follow on Instagram. Not only does she show off her signature sense of humor, but she consistently posts outfit photos complete with all the brands tagged—now that's serviceable content. As I dedicated a whole story to earlier this year, Kaling has amazing taste, so when she recently did a super-informative IGTV video on her favorite lipsticks for dark-skinned women, I simply had to watch the whole thing.

"One of the things about having dark skin is that it's really hard to find really pretty lip colors that flatter your skin," Kaling says in her Instagram video. "Either they're too chalky or too light. Sometimes the models they use are too light-skinned, so you can't really gauge. So what I thought I'd do is show you all of my favorite lip colors for all of us dark-skinned girls out there. … I think [they] will also look good on you if you have light-colored skin." In the video, Kaling wears her nine favorite lipsticks, so you can see how they all look compared to one another. She also explains exactly why each one of them is a winner. Scroll down to watch her video and shop every single lipstick Kaling mentions.

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Nyx

Soft Matte Lip Cream in Monte Carlo

"You don't have to break the bank to have awesome red lips," Kaling says on her IGTV. "What's great about this is whenever I've worn this, it lasts for hours and hours and doesn't leave a ring around the outside when the inside is naked after eating. I love this stuff, and it's really cheap."

mindy-kaling-favorite-lipsticks-284057-1576028575652-image — Kosas in Darkroom

Kosas

Lipstick in Darkroom

"Kosas is an awesome, relatively new line," she says in the video. "I love this because it's red, but you can wear it to a meeting without looking too vampy like you want to date the person you're meeting with."

Kat Von D

Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Lolita

"My lips, like a lot of dark-skinned women's lips, have like six different colors in it," Kaling says in the video. "It starts very pink in the inside and gets darker as it goes to the outer edge of my lip. When I want to not look that makeup-y, I'll use this Kat Von D Lolita lipstick. It's good for that no-makeup look when you just want your lips to be all one color."

MAC Cosmetics

Matte Lipstick in Ruby Woo

"If you want a classic '90s matte fuck-me red lipstick, you must own Ruby Woo," Kaling says on IGTV. "This one I've had for so long. This is when I want to look like Cindy Crawford is one of those music videos from the '90s. This is a must-have."

Giorgio Armani

Lip Maestro in 502

"This is a real statement lip," Kaling says. "This is like, I'm a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race. I want to make a statement."

Bite Beauty

Amuse Bouche Liquified Lipstick in Supreme

"Hey, I'm Barbie," Kaling says. "Look at how cute and pink this lipstick is. This is incredibly moisturizing. It's Supreme color from Bite Lip Lab. It has the word 'lab' in it—it's basically medicine."

Nars

Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella

"When you are going on a date and you want to project 'I like you, I'd like to kiss you,' the classic red for dark-skinned girls is Cruella [by Nars]. It's very red, it's very out-there, so for me, I feel a little vulnerable wearing it. But for a photo shoot or something, I really like it."

YSL Beauty

Zoe Kravitz Rouge Pur Couture Lipstick in 126

"I was so excited about this YSL lipstick in this glittery packaging," Kaling told her Instagram followers. "This is actually Zoë Kravtiz's collaboration. This color is 126. What's cool about it is that it's more of an orange-red. I usually like blue-reds because my skin tone is yellow-brown. But this is an orange-red I really like. It's very moist. Everything is so matte now, but I kind of like that this one is a little shinier."

Pat McGrath Labs

MatteTrance Lipstick in Flesh 3 Brown Rose

"Pat McGrath is an amazing makeup artist who also happens to have dark skin. She makes this insanely good line of lip colors. This one is called Flesh 3. It's kind of a terracotta color."

Next, 11 universally flattering lipsticks to try this winter.

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Erin got her start as a Who What Wear intern in 2011—back when the site only published a single story per day. (We have since increased that number twentyfold.) She graduated magna cum laude from USC and lives in Los Angeles. In college, she also interned at Refinery29, where she was promoted to editorial assistant and then assistant editor. After nearly three years at R29, she came back to WWW in 2015, where she is now the Associate Director of Fashion News. From the Oscars to the Met Gala, she leads the site's entire red carpet coverage strategy. She specializes in celebrity and fashion news but also enjoys writing travel features and runway reports. She frequently contributes to WWW's social accounts and has a sizable following on her personal TikTok.