I recently had to mourn the deaths of my two favorite lipsticks -- Smashbox's Chestnut and Chanel's Taffetas Rose. I had panicked when they were discontinued in stores, and scoured eBay for every last tube, *despite* the fact that I had once written an article about counterfeit and unsafe makeup products on resale sites.
But my hoard has run out, and eBay searches come up empty. And so, despite the fact that I had looming deadlines and recently got reprimanded for a "misleading" headline (quite unfairly, imho), I went to Sephora to rack my brains for a solution.
Color match is that solution.
Color match seeks to be a data base of lip shades to help those looking for dupes of expensive lip shades or replacements for discontinued makeup. It works by taking a color swatch on a white index card, scanning the result, and then finding the exact color through Photoshop.
I've included two different types of color names: the Pantone color and the 6-digit hexagonal number.
It's not a perfect science, but I hope that it comes close enough to ease the pain of losing one's makeup holy grail.
If I update it slowly, it is purely because I do feel the disapproving looks of store employees as I smear samples onto paper. However, it will be updated, especially if it finds an audience who find it useful.
The page can be found here, and underneath the "beauty" category for future reference.