The Untold Story of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s Cranberry Lip Combo

“Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy was my red lipstick icon: She wore it nonchalantly with a bare face and scraped-back hair,” Annabel Jones famously wrote in The Telegraph of the timeless style muse. “But no matter how hard I tried to emulate her insouciance, on me red has always felt too conspicuous, too sultry. I know I’m not alone—finding the right red is full of challenges.”

In a quest to find the “right shade,” a quick gander on Google shares that Bessette-Kennedy’s enduring beauty inspiration—currently on many mood boards with the release of FX’s Love Story—reportedly rotated between MAC and Bobbi Brown options. Now, Swedish-based FACE Stockholm can confirm exactly what nail-and-lip combo Bessette-Kennedy regularly bought at its New York brick-and-mortar store.

“We were so honored and are still extremely proud to have had Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy as a frequent customer at our SoHo store in the ’90s,” the brand exclusively told us. “Her favorites were Nail Polish #13, a sheer opal/iridescent shade, and of course, Cranberry Veil Lipstick.”

While the mother-daughter brand sadly no longer carries nail polish, its Cranberry Veil is still its best-seller in the lipstick category, and often number one across all categories. The sheer wash of buildable cream color has been described as “universal” and like “cranberry sauce out of the can.”

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“The color formula has remained unchanged since it launched in 1990,” FACE Stockholm shares. “It is still the same warm-berry shade that she wore so gracefully and made quite iconic. We still get many, many inquiries about Mrs. Kennedy and Cranberry Veil. It made such a strong impression on women—particularly here in New York. And, as time goes by the interest doesn’t waver. We are still greatly impacted by her small, seemingly simple choice of our lipstick shade. A butterfly flapping its wings indeed.”