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If you've ever wanted to try popular 90s lipstick colors, these 4 iconic shades from Revlon will take you back!
You guys already know that I'm more than happy to test out any throwback trend, including these iconic 90s Revlon lipsticks! A lot of 90s beauty trends were very vampy and grunge-inspired, so it's no wonder that all the most popular lipstick shades were brown/mauve/violet shades. Whenever the 90s are depicted in present day, usually the dark lip is included. So I ran to my local drug store and stocked up on the top 4 most popular 90s shades. Did I have to buy every single one? No, but I just had to test them all out for you guys, I couldn't resist. Plus, I'm a 90s baby so you already know that I had to have them all!
Of course there were many makeup brands with memorable shades from the 90s, but Revlon just seemed to be everywhere. I mean, Kim Kardashian even posted that one of her most used lip shades of the 90s was Revlon (and it's included in today's list). From Kate Moss to Cindy Crawford to Tyra Banks, all of the hottest supermodels were rocking these shades. I tried them all on myself and was super surprised with the results!
(A special thanks to @victorialyn on TikTok for inspiring this post! She made me want to try these shades for myself!)
The story goes that I ran to Ulta to find all 4 of these Revlon lipsticks with the hopes that I could test them out. I was unsuccessful there (I don't think at my particular location that they have the full Revlon display) so I continued to my local drug store (does anyone else have a strange obsession with going to drug stores? They remind me of being a kid and they always play throwback music...) and voila! They had the most gloriously large Revlon display with every shade of lipstick. As I looked for each one, they only had 1 left of 2 of the shades and plenty of the other 2! Score! I've also linked them all on Amazon for you guys. It looks like the price kind of fluctuates depending on how much they have left in stock but every lipstick is cheaper on Amazon than I paid at the drug store. Not sure how that is, but they were $9.99 each when I bought them. Kind of on the pricier side for drug store but much cheaper than high end lipsticks. Plus, I don't know about you guys but lipsticks last me so long! Here are the 4 shades:
Rum Raisin is sort of like a peachy-brown. It has a reddish/orange undertone and on the skin it is very close to a "your-lips-but-better" type of shade. This lipstick is definitely very classic Cindy Crawford and I can see this working perfectly as an everyday shade. If you want something 90's but not totally out there, I think Rum Raisin is the way to go.
Toast of New York is the lipstick that Kim Kardashian has mentioned on her Instagram as being one of her most worn shades of the 90s. This color is similar to Rum Raisin in that it is a more neutral color and can definitely be worn day to day. They look very similar in the tube, but if you look at the swatches I have included below, you can see that Rum Raisin is more of an auburn-like color (warm-toned) whereas Toast of New York is more mauve-y (cool-toned). I would say that Toast of New York is a little lighter, with a little more purple/pink. You can definitely see that Kim was inspired by this lipstick when it comes to her beauty line and her own everyday lip shades.
This color is definitely uniquely 90s. This is the only shade in this collection that has a slight pearlescent finish. The shimmery lip finish was totally a huge 90s trend and continued into the early 00s. I actually have a feeling that pearl lipsticks will be coming back in style soon because I have been seeing a lot of MUAs doing shimmery lips recently! Coffee Bean is definitely a pearlescent light brown/mauve color. This shade is the most brown out of all 4 colors and probably the most 90s looking. If you are looking to try something a little out of your comfort zone, try Coffee Bean. It's definitely a really pretty brown neutral shade.
Black Cherry is one of my favorite shades in this collection! Online and on paper, the swatch tends to look very purple. On the skin, however, the shade looks more like a deep wine/berry color. Black Cherry is super vampy and sexy. Definitely a night-time glam necessity in the 90s. If you like deeper lipstick shades, or typically opt for a classic red lip, try Black Cherry next time. It's definitely gorgeous!
For more context on the swatches, I have a medium/neutral skin tone. I am kind of in the middle of the spectrum in that I get much lighter in the winter than in the summer. Right now, I'm at a medium spot where I'm not very tan nor very pale. I also noticed that the look of the lipstick depends on how pigmented your lips are. Mine are more pigmented to the point where Rum Raisin looks like a deeper shade of my natural lips. I just think all of this is helpful to know because I always think that lipsticks are going to look a certain way on me when I see them on people with different skin tones than me and I'm always trying to guess which shade would be best for me to buy!
These swatches definitely look interesting on white paper. I cannot believe how different Black Cherry looks on paper versus my skin! It definitely helps to see the slight differences in tones between the shades. As you can see, Toast of New York is a little bit lighter in color than Rum Raisin and even Coffee Bean. Rum Raisin is a good mauvey-pink-brown-nude and Coffee Bean definitely looks brown here. Toast of New York is a good mix between the two.
In conclusion, I think that all of these lipsticks are worth buying, depending on what shades you typically wear in your everyday life. Since they're Revlon, they're affordable so you might as well be like me and order them all! I think my personal favorites were Rum Raisin and Black Cherry, but keep in mind I wear less brown shades in my everyday life. I'm hoping to incorporate all of these more into my daily makeup routine because if 90s supermodels wore them, I wanna wear them too!
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