Blue lips are a sign that a) you’re about to die of hypothermia; b) you’re an awesomely ostentatious Visual Kei rock star. Most people limit their lip colors to healthy reds and pinks, but we Goths embrace a different kind of beauty. Smear on the black, blue, and porphyry!

Obviously, you won’t find these shades on the Bonnie Bell rack. Mana’s Elegant Gothic Lolita brand Moi-Même-Moitié offers one tube, but it’s a generic red that will set you back $34 on CDJapan. Surely we can do better than that.

First, where not to look: Halloween and novelty stores. You’ll find horror movie shades for under $5, but you might as well paint your lips with a Crayon.

Better to invest $10-20 into something that stays on after a heavy biting session. M.A.C., a makeup brand known for its rainbow palette, is the obvious first stop. I’m a fan of the dark purple Cyber ($14). Mana would go for Blast O’ Blue, which was part of the C-Shock collection. Just about the only place to find it is eBay.

For the lifestyle oriented, you can’t get more underground than Manic Panic. Sisters Tish and Snooky were NYC punk rockers who opened their East Village boutique in 1977. I’ve had great experiences with their lipsticks ($10); how can you go wrong with names like Raven, Vampire, and Kiss of Death? The metallic After Midnight Blue is your best bet for emulating Mana’s look. (If you want to replicate the look of this week’s featured Gothloli, try Manic Panic’s hair dyes. I’ve gone blue, red, purple…)

Whenever I visit the beauty store chain Sephora, I can’t stop myself from trying on a dozen Gothic colors. Tattoo artist and reality TV star Kat Von D recently designed four lipsticks for Sephora ($18 ). ‘Painted Love Lipstick takes Kat’s signature lip color, a sophisticated red, and expands it into a range of smoldering shades, from crimson to blood red. The cap is stenciled with silver roses on matte black—inspired by Kat’s favorite tattoo.’ One of the shades is named Lolita!

Urban Decay is another name you can find at Sephora or the beauty department of major department stores. The blackberry shade Apocalypse ($22) shoots out of a purple metal tube pierced with a mini gunmetal dagger. Make Up For Ever offers the three Gothic lipsticks ($18 ): black, pearly burgundy black, and pearly black blue. For a 2007 LA runway show, Imitation of Christ used Smashbox Cosmetic’s dark “Enchanting” lipstick ($22) for a “Goth princess ballerina look.”