Shade and Finish Names for Makeup Upload Teams

Your supplier sends a spreadsheet with 48 lipstick shades named things like "RG-01 Rose Gold Shm", "NG-03 Nude Glow Shr Mtlc", and "PKM-14 Pink Mauve Matt." Before a Shopify upload team can enter those values, someone has to answer a question that affects how your customers filter forever: is the finish a separate option, or is it part of the shade name?

Shade naming for makeup upload teams is more than a data-cleaning job. It involves a structural decision about how your store will handle finish types, and that decision needs to come from you, not the team.

Key takeaways

• Makeup shade names often combine three distinct data points in one string: a shade code, a color name, and a finish type. An upload team needs to know which part goes where.
• The most common finish terms are Matte, Satin, Shimmer, Metallic, Glitter, Dewy, Sheer, and Gloss. Suppliers often abbreviate or spell them differently across product lines.
• If finish is a separate Shopify option (for example, Option 1: Shade, Option 2: Finish), every shade must be available in every finish. If that is not the case, finish belongs inside the shade name.
• Inconsistencies in how a supplier writes finish terms create extra work for the upload team. Standardizing them in your brief saves back-and-forth.
• Shopify allows up to 3 options and up to 2,048 variants per product (as of November 2026). A large range with multiple finishes can hit that limit faster than expected.

How shade names are typically structured

Most makeup brands name a shade with three parts: a shade code, a color description, and a finish type. In practice, these arrive as one combined string in a supplier file.

For example: "RG-01 Rose Gold Shimmer" breaks down as:

• Shade code: RG-01
• Color name: Rose Gold
• Finish: Shimmer

Some suppliers present these as separate columns. Many do not. When they appear in one cell, an upload team needs clear guidance on whether to use the whole string as the shade name, or to separate the finish out.

The shade code is often dropped from the customer-facing option value. A customer browsing a filter does not need "RG-01" in front of "Rose Gold." Whether to keep it or remove it is another decision the team will ask about if the brief does not address it.

Common finish terms and how suppliers write them

Makeup finish terminology is not standardized across the industry. The same finish can appear under several names depending on the supplier, the brand, or even the product line. The table below lists the common terms and their typical variations.

Finish type	Common variations in supplier data	What it describes
Matte	Matt, M, MT, Matte Finish, Flat Matte	No sheen. Light-absorbing surface.
Satin	Sat, Stn, Semi-Matte, Soft Matte	Low sheen. Between matte and gloss.
Shimmer	Shm, Shim, Shr, Shimmer Finish, Micro-Shimmer	Fine light reflection. Subtle sparkle.
Metallic	Met, Mtlc, Metal, Foil Metallic	High-gloss with a foil-like sheen.
Glitter	Glt, Gltr, Chunky Glitter, Sparkle	Visible glitter particles. Coarser than shimmer.
Gloss	Glossy, High Gloss, Shiny	Smooth, reflective surface.
Dewy	Dew, Luminous, Glow, Fresh	Soft glow finish. Common in base products.
Sheer	Shr, Transparent, Light Coverage	Low pigment density. Light wash of color.
Duochrome	Duo, Multichrome, Color-Shift	Shifts between two hues depending on the angle.

When your supplier uses abbreviations, the upload team cannot always work out which finish is meant. "Shr" could mean Shimmer or Sheer. "M" could mean Matte or Metallic. If your brief includes a translation table like the one above, tailored to your supplier's specific abbreviations, the team can enter values confidently without querying back.

Shopify does not enforce a standard vocabulary for variant option values. Option names and values are free text, so a store can use "M", "Matte", or "Matte Finish" in the same option field. Shopify treats them as three distinct values, so consistency must come from the brief, not the platform. See how Shopify handles product variants for the technical setup (Shopify Help Center, as of November 2026).

Shade naming inconsistencies that affect makeup upload teams

The most common problem in makeup data files is that finish terms are not used the same way across all products.

A brand may sell lipsticks with "Matte" as a finish type, and lip glosses where the word "Gloss" is part of the product name rather than an option value. A supplier file that mixes both can leave an upload team uncertain whether "Gloss" on a particular row is a finish option or part of the shade name.

Other inconsistencies that come up regularly:

• The same finish appears as both a suffix and a prefix ("Matte Rose" and "Rose Matte" in the same file).
• One product line uses abbreviated finish codes ("M", "S", "G") while another spells them out.
• A limited edition range uses finish names the main range does not ("Crushed Velvet", "Lacquer").
• The shade code format changes between product lines (letters, numbers, or a combination).

These are not mistakes on the supplier's part. Different product lines often come from different manufacturers, and naming conventions are not standardized across them. An upload team that receives the raw file without guidance will need to query each inconsistency before entering values.

The key decision: finish as a separate option or inside the shade name

This is the structural question that an upload team cannot answer for you.

Option 1: Finish is a separate Shopify option. This means your product has two option fields, for example "Shade" and "Finish." A customer can filter by finish type across the entire range. This works cleanly only when every shade comes in every finish. For example, if all 12 shades are available as Matte and Shimmer, that gives 24 variants, and the option structure handles it well.

If the range does not have consistent availability (some shades only come in Matte, others only in Shimmer), this structure creates variants with no products behind them. Those empty variants cause display problems and confuse customers.

Option 2: Finish stays inside the shade name. The shade option value contains the full description: "Rose Gold Shimmer", "Rose Gold Matte." Customers see the full name when they select a shade. Finish is not a separate filter.

This is the simpler choice for mixed-availability ranges. The downside is that a customer who wants only matte shades has to read each option rather than selecting a filter.

Your upload team can build either structure, but they need you to choose before the job starts. Changing the option structure after upload means editing every variant manually, and the option names themselves cannot be changed without affecting existing Shopify URLs. Shopify's product variants documentation explains how option names behave once a product is saved (Shopify Help Center, as of November 2026).

For guidance on how shade data maps to Shopify's variant system, see Makeup Shade Ranges: What to Send Your Upload Team for the detailed variant structure and limits.

What to document in your brief for the upload team

Before sending makeup data to a Shopify product uploading team, document these points explicitly.

Shade name format. Specify which parts of the supplier shade name to include in the option value. For example: "Use only the color name and finish. Drop the shade code. 'RG-01 Rose Gold Shimmer' becomes 'Rose Gold Shimmer.'"

Finish handling. State clearly whether finish is a separate option or part of the shade name.

Abbreviation key. List every abbreviation used in the supplier file and what it maps to. This is the single most useful thing you can add to a makeup brief.

Product line differences. If different product lines use different naming conventions, document each one separately. Do not assume the team will carry rules from one line to the next.

Shade code treatment. Confirm whether shade codes appear in option values, are stored in a separate field (such as a metafield), or are dropped entirely.

A one-page naming reference covering these points lets the team work through a large range without stopping to query. Our beauty product data entry service handles makeup catalog work as part of a full upload job.

For a complete overview of what to prepare before any upload job starts, see What to Send Your Upload Team Before a Shopify Job.

You can also see how the same naming approach applies to related upload briefs on the makeup upload hub.

Frequently asked questions