Let's be real about this... it's hard to figure out what makeup colors look good on you. And it seems like it's partially subjective, doesn't it!? I mean, how many of us have tried on a new sweater or a different shade of lipstick and encountered a few people who love it and a few people who... well, let's just say it's not their favorite.
Unfortunately, making the wrong colors choices can really be disaster. The wrong shades can make you look sick, vampiric, or oddly orange.
I wanted to show some pictures that proved my point, but it's hard. I don't want to pick on some civilian, but celebrities often have a slew of people telling them what colors to wear - and they rarely get photographed in the wrong look. But because I love you, I did dig and find 2 examples.
Let's take a look at someone who should know better: Cheryl Tiegs. This is a truly beautiful woman! But have you seen the show True Beauty? She looks awful, and it's not "an age thing". She looks a bit..."off"... Her hair isn't the right color and they're putting the wrong makeup colors on her. This woman has warm tones to her skin - she looks best as a golden blonde. Her hair in the show, though, is more of a cool pale blonde but with brassy roots. And whoever insists on putting baby pinks and cool toned makeup on her is drunk! Click the True Beauty link to see how she looks in the show, and look below to see her in the "right" colors:
Let's also take a look at Lindsay Lohan. I think she's amazing-looking, but she's typical of many of us when we're young: we want what we don't have. She wants so badly to be bronzed, golden and warm-complected. It's hard, because so many redheads are... but I would really classify her as a cool-toned gal from what I can tell from photos. I'd have to see her in person to be sure, but sorry: we don't run in the same circles! Take a peek at the evidence here:
Healthy, glowy Lindsay in cool makeup shades-
Lindsay trying to wear warm makeup shades-
Granted, in the second pic she's oddly orange'd herself with fake tanner, but try to tune that out and look at how wrong the makeup looks on her. Google Lindsay, and you'll find, oddly, that she wears mostly cool colors in her clothing, nearly without fail (including the bikini above). It's her makeup that seems to throw her from time to time. Notice, too, how she looks best in cooler hair tones: the chestnut, the natural red to her hair, the pale blonde. When you see her in the warmer hair tones (orangey red, golden blonde) she doesn't look as radiant, does she?
It's not terribly easy, is it, even for one of the most famous models the world has ever known and one of the most paparazzi'd girls out there. But I aim to help shed some light on the issue. Because once you learn the better colors for you, it gets just a bit easier!
We already discussed how to decipher your skin's undertones, see "Lesson: Am I Cool or Warm?". I hope that helped. But that doesn't really tell us all we need to know about picking just the right shades off of that ginormous display of lipsticks or eye shadows. Why? Well, there are 18 reds and 24 pinks on your average display*, and some are warm and some are cool. How can we tell what to do? Let's delve a little deeper... but after a quickie review:
Cool Skintone tips: white metals; white not cream; think sunrise, berries and Spring; good colors: pink, rose, fuschia, blues, silver, black, blue-green, blue-purple.
Warm Skintone tips: yellow metals; cream not snow white; think sunsets, Thanksgiving, and Autumn; good colors: peach, yellow, orange, olive green and other yellow-greens, bronze, brown, rust.
General tips: Don't feel stuck - you can often sneak in colors that aren't in "your" list. We'll teach you how! Just remember that usually wearing your color "opposites" will be a bolder look than wearing "your" colors, because working with opposite undertones/tones creates contrast and tension.
*completely fabricated statistic
Color Selection 201:
We've talked about selecting the hue that works best (hue = color), by generally following the chart above and the tips listed. Other things that are important when considering color choices include knowing the tints, tones and shades of "your" colors, and the really critical one: what goes with what. I'll briefly discuss that first bit, and we'll get into the latter in the next lesson.
- Tints - A tint is created when a pure color is mixed with white.
- Tones - A tone is created when a pure color is mixed with gray.
- Shades - A shade is created when a pure color is mixed with black.
Here are the pure colors:
Let's see if we can make that tint/tone/shade thing a little more clear:
So you're not just stuck with a few colors. You've got half of the color wheel in numerous variations!
If you're cool, you get all of the pure blues, blue-purples, and blue greens. But you also get tints of those colors, which means: pale blues, icy blues, soft green-blues, mauve, light pinks with a bit of a blue tone.
If you're warm, you get all of the pure yellows, oranges, yellow-greens, and orange-reds. But you also get tints of those colors, which means: pale golds, warm bronzes, soft mossy and olive greens, peach, and light reds with a bit of an orange tone.
You get all of the shades, too, so go as dark as you want with those colors. And if they are slightly muddy versions you're ok because those are tones of the safe colors!
Applying this in real life:
Example 1:
(image courtesy of KarlaSugar - The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself)
Let's consider the image above (swatches of several MAC shadows). It's 5 different purples, right? But what makes them different? Well, here's purple from our color wheel:
I'd consider Creme de Violet, Pink Freeze and Swish to be tints of purple; they are our purple from above with some white added. Nocturnelle is a shade of the color above; it's the purple above with black mixed in it. Hepcat is a different tone of purple- it's muddied because it's purple with both black and white (grey) mixed in it. All of these colors are cool, so look how many options you have besides just "plain old purple", cool toned gals!
Example 2:
(image above courtesy of KarlaSugar - The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself)
The Armani lipsticks swatched above are somewhere in the orange-red range; definitely warm colors. I'd say #45 is closest to the true color. #47 is a shade of orange-red (mixed with black). #42 is a tint of orange-red (has white mixed in it). #43 is more of a tone- a bit lighter but also slightly muddied (it's mixed with grey). What they all have in common is being warm - so if you're a warm-toned gal you can pick any of these happily!
Really generic tip: take a look to see if the lipstick, shadow, polish or blush you're perusing has gold flecks or silver ones, if frosting is present. See gold? You're dealing with a color that would nicely slide into the "warm" family. See silver? You guessed it: "cool".
(images courtesy of Scrangie)
Take a look at these reasonably close-in-tone pink nail polishes. While clearly different, they are about equal in depth of color. The one on the left is "cool" because it's got more blue (it looks a little purpley; I'd consider it a mauve). The one on the right is pink, but wait: it's not cool. It's got a touch of yellow in it, which makes it a warmer pink than the other (I'd call it a salmon). Use our "really generic tip" to look more closely at the swatches: the one on the left has a silver shimmer, while the frost on the right one has a gold fleck. This really cements the way they are classified. I could wear the one on the left, but the other would look sickly on me because I'm so cool-complected.
The Bonus Colors: Everyone can treat a few colors as "Free Spaces" like in Bingo. A great base for any outfit or makeup look can be had by grabbing up camel, neutral brown, black, or true navy. While these colors might not be completely flattering as the only colors on a shirt (see Jennifer Aniston here), they are fabulously neutral to the eye and play well with others - so feel free to use them to flesh-out a scheme.
(image courtesy of KarlaSugar - The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself)
For example, a nice neutral camel skirt goes well with almost any color in the rainbow as a top. Wearing a similar color as a color on the eye works with just about anything else (MAC's Saddle, Malt and Cordoroy come to mind - see swatch above)! Black shoes match just about anything you can throw on, and black mascara and liner are equally flattering (the exception: gals with invisible lashes and brows, but that's another soapbox for me to get on another time). Navy is a great eyeliner or mascara, too, but be careful and only treat true navy as a neutral (navy is almost black) because other dark blues aren't really neutral.
I'll talk about how to create a look with colors, meaning: how do we pick a lip/cheek/eye combo and how do we know which shadows will combine nicely on the eyes? After that: how to understand the craziness that is MAC foundations.