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What’s your favourite makeup look to wear with glasses?


What’s your favourite makeup look to wear with glasses? Share!

I don’t wear glasses, so I’ll be looking at your answers for inspiration! 🙂

Thanks to Meghan for today’s questions! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.

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Catheline Avatar

Favorite eye look with glasses depends on my frames — I wear my dark navy thick frames most often and with them I do a bold cat eye or simple iridescent shadow with mascara. The cat eye I do in shimmery aubergine gel liner, dark brown, black, or bright blue.

LC Avatar

When I go out to hit the town, I don’t usually wear glasses. But with thick dark framed glasses, I think a pair of strong, inquisitive brows is a fierce look! ;D

Since the frames are already doing a lot on the face, I would go for neutral shimmer eyeshadow and clean, simple dark brown liner. But of course, it depends on your mood… do you want to be Beyoncé from the first part of her “Partition” music video where she drops her napkin on purpose and have her maid pick it up? Then rock dark liner, brows, and bright red lips.

Metal frames are very tricky and, IMO, have to be worn very carefully so as to make sure you don’t give vibes of someone who doesn’t know how to turn it out.

Robyn Avatar

I wear glasses and honestly I don’t do my makeup any different than I would when I wear contact lenses. The only downside to makeup with glasses (depending on the style of your glasses) is that I get an oily patch that makes my foundation goopy on on my nose. You can’t see it unless I take my glasses off ans then is visible and I need to blend it in and powder.

Kat Avatar

I have the same problem! The best fix I’ve found is to use a lot of setting powder in the area and that helps a little, but I’ve never been able to completely get rid of the problem. I’m thinking I might just stop putting foundation in that spot altogether!

Nancy T Avatar

For me, wearing them is a necessity as I am unable to wear contacts (bummer!), so I actually have over 40 years of dealing with it! Eyes, especially lighter eyes can disappear behind the lenses of most, but not all, lenses, so I emphasize my lashes and lashline quite dramatically, always create a crease for some noticeable contour of my hooded lids, and NEVER forget my eyebrows! I do find that I can get away with a lot more in the way of eyeshadow, especially depth of color, I can easily do full-on smoked looks, crazier color combos, and if I want to, just a subtler pin-up eye look. Lips and cheeks: almost anything goes! As long as they’re in keeping with whatever I’ve done with my eyes, ie; pin-up cut crease w/ red or bright lip, smokey eye with nudey or mlbb lip, sometimes everything is shades of purple!

Melanie Avatar

I don’t think you have to wear a special make up just because you wear glasses. In fact the eyes only seems to be bigger or smaller if you have more then +4 or -6 dpt provided you take good glasses. I myself have more then -9 dpt, so my eyes really looking a little bit smaller. Nevertheless I wear simply that make up I want. 🙂
Greetings from Germany!
Melanie

Sarah Avatar

Agree with this completely. All these tricks or things you “have” to do or “should” do is so YMMV. I have very hooded eyes, so liquid liner isn’t an option. I do my normal eye looks, and then put glasses on, lol.

Tina Avatar

I like simplicity in the eye, like simple smoked out liner and mascara, and a bolder lip. I tend to tone down the brows a bit too because there’s already the frames of the glasses drawing so much attention to the eyes. Plus, I’m blind as a bat and that’s pretty much all I have the patience to accomplish when I’m that close to the mirror trying to apply my makeup.

Christine Avatar

I think a lot depends on how your glasses are framed, no frames or very fine metallic frames have a quite different effect than bold colors or thick black frames. Or short or near sighted glasses. I am short sighted and need tinted glasses so my eyes appear smaller and the eye area darker. I never wear completely matte looks as it makes me look tired. My lid shade would always be light and satin or shimmery (f.e. MAC Expensive Pink). And never ever a smokey eye. If I wear a light colored lipstick I would use a more intense blush to avoid having all action going on around my eyes only

Kimberly Avatar

I’m shortsighted, so I wear glasses everyday that tend to reduce the appearance of the size of my eyes. I usually go for a light champagne eyeshadow, tightlining/cat-eye and a fair coating of mascara. I stay away from smoky eye makeup because it’ll make my eyes smaller than they already look.

Lisa Avatar

I’m near-sighted and find that my glasses make my eyes less prominent, so I usually go with a more subtle and neutral shadow design. Because I’m very pale and want to make my eyes look bigger, I’ll use Urban Decay W.O.S. as a base, add a touch of light shimmer on the center of my upper lid, and apply a neutral-to-cool matte tan or light taupe just above the crease to create the illusion of more lid space. Sometimes I’ll do a colorful liner to switch it up, but I don’t think it ends up making a difference to anyone but me, LOL. I always make sure to curl my lashes before applying mascara. I also pay a lot of attention to my brows since glasses frames will accentuate any asymmetry. I think I spend the most time on my brows.

I take the most risk with lip color. I love a bright lip with fresh skin and subtle eyes anyway, but that could be because I’m lazy and pressed for time at 6 AM and don’t possess the skills to wear a lot of bright eye makeup. Plus it doesn’t really suit my job or lifestyle (yet I do own the Electric palette).

Quinctia Avatar

You have W.O.S. and the Electric palette. One of my favorite things is Walk of Shame on the lid, Revolt in the inner corner, and whatever bright I want in the outer v. Still a nice pop of color, but blended out, it doesn’t seem super extreme.

Aging Ophelia Avatar

I’m just getting into wearing my new glasses (due to aging eyes) and the most important thing for me is to curl those lashes well.

Victoria Avatar

As someone who wears glasses their whole life, I can do a little more eyeliner and get a little creative with my eyes. I emphasize my brows more, eyeliner is a little thicker, I brighten my eyes with a champagne liner at my lower lash line since my eyes are kind of small. lol

I only put BB cream on areas where my frames doesn’t touch my face, light powder to set it, then I am easy with highlighting and bronzer. For lipstick, honestly anything can work. But the tricky thing of doing makeup with glasses, I have to be sure it looks good if I don’t have glasses on at all.

Kat Avatar

I wear glasses every day (I have bifocals, which means no contacts unfortunately!) and I try not to limit myself to certain looks. I think you can make anything work, as long as you’re conscious of the glasses. It also depends a lot on what your glasses look like!

My glasses right now are on the larger side, with clear plastic frames. The only thing I avoid is harsh eyeliner (liquid eyeliner, winged eyeliner). It makes my eyes look very close-set. With glasses though, I always make sure to at least put a bronzer in the crease, or else I can look very washed out or bug-eyed. Since the glasses bring attention to my eyes I need to bring some dimension there. But otherwise I do what I like! 🙂

Tessa Avatar

I go against a lot of the standard advice (heavy liner, upper eye only). I tend to pick something light/bright for shadow (Stila Wheat is one of my favorites), then curl eyelashes — maybe most important step for me — then coat lashes in a non clumping very black mascara. I comb it out if I have to. Somehow clumping looks worse behind glasses, to me! I might line lower lashes with a pencil liner, also. That’s generally where I put the more interesting colors.

On the rare occasions I do wear glasses and use upper liner, it’s liquid liner, and I give it a good upward cat eye flick, so that eyes aren’t dragged downward with all that heaviness going on around them.

Ericca Avatar

Tessa, I am like you, I only line my upper lid. I rarely do a cream liner in my lower water line. Im near sighted and I usually don’t wear a lot of makeup but I do make sure my brow game is superb.

Gillian Avatar

I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 18-months-old and I have very bad eyesight, so I need to wear them all the time! It doesn’t bother me though.

Anyway, my favourite look is to do a cat eye using liquid eyeliner on the top lash line and a coloured eyeliner on the lower lash line, which I smudge well with a matching eyeshadow to really soften the edges. Then sometimes I’ll smoke out my crease colour for a really smoky look if I fancy it. If not I’ll keep my eyeshadow very simple, sometimes just a wash of a shimmery neutral or taupe.

To keep the eyes looking bright I like to use a light eyeliner on the water line (usually Stila Kajal in Topaz).

Add lots of mascara and you’re done. 🙂

Megz Avatar

I hate getting stuck with wearing my glasses, I’m 100% a contacts person! When it’s unavoidable I like a shimmery, glowy flesh toned eyeshadow like Stila kitten all over the lid with thick cat eyeliner only on the upper lash line paired with a bold lip.

Lulle Avatar

If I need to wear my glasses rather than my contacts and I want my makeup to be noticed, I know I have to go bolder/more dramatic. Glasses just tone it down a lot (mine also make my eyes a little appear smaller). So my favorite makeup to do when wearing my glasses is either a smoky, or a look with a lot of shimmer.

Tova J Avatar

I usually wear contacts, but yesterday I got a stye so today I had to wear glasses… I went for a brown winged liner with black mascara so my lashes would stand out without being to long and hitting my glasses. But drawing that wing and making it even was a pain, since I’m very very short-sighted haha…

Kristal Avatar

i feel like whenever i have an eyeshadow look thats too bold or smokey for my taste, when i put my glasses on it definitely tones down the whole look! also having a bright undereye is important bc a lot of your attention will be drawn there, so i like having a nice pop of colour on my lower lashline! and my frames are pretty big so i need bold brows to balance everything out :DD

Rachel R. Avatar

I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 13, and I’ve always worn exactly the same makeup as I do when I don’t wear them. I think one can actually get away with bolder eye looks more easily with glasses. On the other hand, when there’s not a lot of time to do my makeup, I’ll sometimes cheat and just put on mascara and let my fancy frames be my eye look (my are matte purple metal with an open vine design and olive accents).

Laurie Avatar

I have black plastic frames that I wear sometimes (alternating with contacts). I’ve found that an eye look that brings out the upper lid works best for my eye shape and glasses frames: A manicured brow with a creamy matte highlight helps draw the focus back to the eyes and away from the glasses. What also works well is a warm transition shade (like UD’s Riff; or a diffusion of MAC Uninterrupted through the crease and into MUG’s Beaches and Cream) and a well defined outer corner. I like a warmer transition and crease when I wear my glasses, because it creates a more striking contrast with the black frames. 🙂 And finally, a light-colored upper makes the eyes pop, too (again, that contrast); I like to pair this with a bright emerald green liquid liner or my trusty inglot black liner.

Ann Avatar

I’ve always wondered about this question as I sometimes wear glasses if I’m not wearing my contacts. I absolutely love wearing a dark lip color (dark red, purple or brown) with my dark brown or black framed glasses. I go lighter on my eyeshadow color (either champagne shimmer, or very light pink/lilac shimmer) with black liner, lightly applied. My favorite lip color is red with glasses. Any variation of red…cool, warm or neutral red. I think the strong lip color looks kinda sexy and confident with the glasses.

However, when I wear my dark red framed glasses, it’s flattering when I wear a dark pink/fuchsia shimmer lipgloss. It sounds bold with a lot of colors going on, but it looks pretty and unique. It’s hard to explain unless you see a picture, but I love how bright my face looks with the colors.

Cory Avatar

Now that I’m out of my 20’s, I only wear rimless glasses. I feel like they leave my eyes & face more open than the thick-rimmed glasses that I used to rock. So basically I’ll wear any eye makeup look that I can cook up!
* even when I wore the thick-rimmed glasses with the wide sides, I still would rock just about any eye look I felt like creating. Why not? 😉

Genevieve Avatar

As I always wear glasses, I do, what would be for me, a normal look. Depending on what I am wearing – I use a darker colour closest to my lashes, then blend in a lighter colour for contrast. You can wear whatever eye shadow, liner etc you like with glasses – the only thing you have to be careful of is mascara. Very long lashes will streak your glasses like a wind shield wiper – most annoying!

Quinctia Avatar

I always wear glasses, and the short answer is whatever I like.

The long answer is always making sure I had stronger brows to go along with the frames, and since I’m near sighted, my lenses shrink my area a bit…which means that things seem less dramatic. So I usually don’t do anything super flat/super neutral.

Grace Avatar

I alternate between glasses and contacts. I find a strong brow, dark liner, and extra mascara are a must.

One pair of glasses I have are a deep red, and one time I put Colour Pop Drift, a similar color to the frames, in the outer v with Fringe on the lid and MAC Kid in the crease, and I was surprised at how good it looked.

Sheb Avatar

I recently started wearing glasses full time again after being a slave to contacts for years and I just wear my makeup the same as I would otherwise.

Love the look of a cat eye with glasses but it’s easier said than done when you’re very shortsighted and keep smashing your hand and liner against the mirror. 😛

Selena Avatar

Wearing glasses allows me to go a bit darker and bolder with my eye looks as the barrier of the glasses adds a certain wearability to the looks even when it’s daytime. However, it can get frustrating when I spend a long time on a good eye look only for it to be unnoticeable when I put my glasses on, so I tend to go simple and then do a really bold lip color, usually a dark red, bright pink, or even a blue (much to my mother’s dismay!)

Susan Avatar

I wear glasses 100% of the time. I prefer to emphasize my eyes with color , liner and mascara. My eyes are pale and don’t show without it. My frames are black. They just don’t show without color. I like a soft bright lipstick that vnbraoedees

Laura_Lou Avatar

I usually wear my contact lens but when I do wear my glasses I like to make sure that my brows are properly filled in otherwise my thick black frames kinda take over my face. I usually do my brows, black winged liner and lots of mascara and maybe a more bolder lipstick than usual.
I don’t think you have to do your makeup any different if you wear glasses, I just like to emphasise my eyes because I feel they get a little lost behind my glasses otherwise because of the frames I wear.

Kayle Avatar

big eyebrows for sure but i fill those in even when i wear my contacts, lol. my two favorite things to do are either black eyeliner with a really bold lip color or colored eyeliner with nude lipstick. i love colored eyeliner because eyeshadow makes my eye area look super cluttered, so colored eyeliner is easy to see and cleans things up a bit.

Gigi Avatar

Smokey eye with a BIG winged eyeliner.
And either you can go for the nude lipstick to keep it simple and the eyes as the main focus, or go a bit James Bond vampy, and add a deep plum or deep red lipstick.

Erika Avatar

I love to wear red lipstick with a light smokey eye. It’s difficult to get eyeshadows to show up behind glasses but I find shimmery and metallic ones do the best.

Brittany Avatar

No eyeshadow and usually not even any mascara; just bold brows and lips. It depends on the glasses I’m wearing (I have three pairs I rotate between). My everyday glasses sit close to my eyes so even with no mascara, my bare lashes rub against the lenses and make them dirty, so mascara would make it worse. I have two other pairs that don’t do that so I can wear mascara, but I don’t do eyeshadow because you can’t even see it behind the frames.

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