Shopping on the Internet has its advantages, but there are times when it can be tricky. You might yearn to have one trial, a single touch of the fabric, or just a fleeting first-hand glimpse of the product you are drooling over. Since this is not possible in the e-tailing market, before splurging your hard-earned money on buying your next set of lipsticks from the virtual world, read the five essential tips you can consider before buying any lipstick online.

Understand your skin tone
This is the first basic tip. Skin tones can either be warm, cool, or neutral. You can quite easily find which one yours is by checking the color of your veins. A blue vein means you have a cool skin tone, a green vein means you have a warm skin tone, and if your veins appear bluish-green, then you have a neutral skin tone. Once you understand your skin tone, it becomes easier to find out the right lip shade.

Choose the right shade of lipstick
The second tip is to choose the right shade of lipstick from nude, pink, coral, red, berry, purple, or the hundreds of other shades that are available online. Tints of pink, berry, mauve, or purple look best on cool skin tones. And quite logically, warm skin tones look appealing with peach, coral, orange, or brown shades of lipstick. People with neutral skin tones, on the other hand, are the luckier ones who can wear all of these shades of lipstick. (But here’s a secret: This is only a general guide, you can simply follow your heart and wear whatever shade of lipstick you feel like on any given day!)

Select a lipstick with a good finish
Amongst creme, glossy, matte, or metallic, select one of the finishes that appeal most to you. Depending on what time of the day or evening you will wear the lipstick you can decide which of these finishes you would need. You can opt for a matte lipstick and add a shiny gloss over it.

Pick a brand
The next tip for buying lipsticks is to choose the right brand. Make sure you check the ingredients and contents of the products before you choose to buy a lipstick. Here are examples of a few reliable brands of lipsticks for you to try. Maybelline, MAC Cosmetics, ColourPop, Too Faced Cosmetics, Clinique, and of course the many other brands you might find online in stores like Amazon or Nordstrom.

Obtain samples
Most online stores are happy to make a sale, and whether it is lipsticks or a laptop computer, it does not matter. So you could request a sample to try on first before deciding to buy the lipstick. A mini-trial stick, a close up image, anything that might encourage you to make up your mind about either buying or backing down on that shade of lipstick will help.

Use authentic cosmetic brands and apps
If obtaining samples or trying on swatches online is not exactly your cup of tea and is time-consuming, you can simply download apps like Makeup Plus, or Flawless on your smartphone and find the exact shade of lipstick you are looking for much faster. Another tip for buying lipstick is to ensure you use the right brand and app for your purchase.