How do you figure out what colors to wear together (in a makeup look)?
For me, it’s primarily based on what I need to test next, so I’m often not making choices that necessarily work together in a cohesive look! On the odd time when I am choosing, I usually start with eye makeup and go from there. I tend to pair cooler eye makeup with cooler lips and cool or more neutral cheeks, while warmer eye makeup often gets paired with warmer lips and cheeks. I usually start with darker shades in the crease and then work my way onto lid shades, usually more shimmery and brightening either on the center or inner portion. Most color combinations are born out of what my eye gravitated toward in a palette or when looking at some singles — and lots and lots of practice playing with various colors and textures over the years!
Pure experimentation or how I’m feeling that day, lol. Sometimes I’ll wear a cool-toned look, but not want that color on my lips and I’ll wear a warmer lip and/or blush to give my face some life.
I am not good at this so I mostly copy others, you especially.
Since my general mood and laundry situation determine what color clothing I’ll be wearing on a given day, my makeup look will be something that works with whatever that is. Venue also affects my decision, too. At least to a certain extent, I guess?
I try to coordinate with whatever lip color I’m wearing, since that’s the focal point of my look usually.
If I’m doing a bold eyeshadow look (rare), I’ll probably wear a my-lips-but-slightly-darker type shade.
I don’t worry about it too much and generally just pick products that I want to play with or a look I am recreating from some inspiration. If I have a bunch of new products then I always want to incorporate those products into my look so that often dictates which direction I am going in. I do prefer cool toned looks but since I own so many warmer shade products, my looks almost always include some warm tones.
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to duplicate the same look, which can be frustrating when I find a combination that really looks good.
I do think about what I’ll be wearing and try to make sure it won’t clash.
At the end of the day, I almost always lean toward a neutral pink-ish overall tone with bronze hints, a pale lid (makes me look younger and eyes more open) is a must, and deep crease colour. I’ll go more peachy often, it feels fresh, especially in spring.
I struggle with browns, I feel they look muddy on me, and make the brown in my hazel eyes deepen, when I prefer the green/gold tones to pop out more.
I see bright greens on some MUAs and youtubers and I love it, but have not been brave enough to use green yet.
I’m more concerned about the overall look from afar; I really prefer to look fresh and elegant.
Not much planning goes into my look but today I thought of using muted colors for my eyes and go from there. I like my blush and lips to go with my eyes. My eyes are the star of the show!! Lol
I’ve been consistently using tape on my eyes lately and it’s helped so much with my partial hooded eyes. I’ve also been doing my eyes first. I’ve never had much fall out but it helps with the tape.
Hi Janine (or anyone else who understands this),
I’m curious about what you mean when you say you’ve been using tape on your eyes.
Would you fill me in?
Thanks much!
Hi Gilad
I use scotch tape I first stick it on my leg then I line it up with the lower lash line on the outer corner. I have partially hooded eyes and it helps me not go too low with my shadows. When I’m done with my upper eyeshadows I take the tape off and reapply my under eye cream as the tape removes it.. it helps me do a more cat eye look on the outer v.
Then I go ahead with my face makeup. It makes a sharp harsh line tho but I apply my concealer with a sponge and I soften the line with that.
I think Nicole Gueterriz did a you tube video not long ago using tape. I put mine at an angle going up slightly to give my eyes a lifted up look. Hope I explained this good enough.
Cheers, janine
I do struggle with this, especially when I look at palettes. Is there a pattern to looking at palettes? If there is more than 4 or 6 eyeshadows in a palette it makes choosing the colors I wear a little more difficult for me.
Part of my inspiration for my eye looks comes from either the seaon or what I am wearing so I can complement the look. Another aspect is where I am going too.
I find I can either wear cool toned shades or some warm toned shades or mix the two. For example taupes and blue, olives and golds, cool toned greens and gold etc.
Definitely no pinks, oranges, reds, or most purples as eye shades.
For lipsticks, my favourite shades are coppery browns, berry, ginger and some reds.
It’s mostly subconscious now. I’ve been using makeup for about 38 years. Lots of time practice!
Also, my mom used to model, and both parents painted, so I figure a mix of genetics and exposure gave me a great sense of color. I always colored and drew growing up, and took some art classes at school. I know color theory.
When in doubt, I try the color combo on my face. Worst comes to worst, I can wash it off. This gives me a chance to see if a look works, figure out why if it doesn’t, and tweak it to make it look good. I do a makeup rehearsal before important events such as weddings, husband’s work parties/banquets, etc.
Pretty much the same as you Christine on the cool-cool and warm-warm pattern and definitely I go with my feeling at the moment (flow of the Spirit perhaps, I don’t know). I choose the colors that call to me “try me” for eye looks.
As for what I place where on the lid, that depends on something that may have influenced me in the past week or month that I want to try out. I almost NEVER recreate the same eye look. Like my cooking, it’s rare I can make the same thing twice.
Sometimes I do dark in the center, light in the inner corner and darker on the outer area. But then I may do an entirely light lid with a darker crease. I also tend to change up the number of colors with a minimum of three to a max of six or seven. The only thing that remains a constant is my lightest highlight eyeshadow under the brow (though I use up to two different colors) and light cheeks.
And last is always my lipstick, which I’ve had the hardest of time finding the exact match I want with the rest of my look and am slowly improving.