I only wore glasses for school, and I rarely had enough energy to wear full eye makeup (and not to the point where I’d work around the glasses), so I’ll defer to those who wear them more frequently!
— Christine
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I have very poor eyesight and have to wear contacts or glasses. I usually wear contacts, but sometimes my allergy eyes act up and I have to spring for the glasses… when I do, I usually wear a really dark color in the crease and I thicken my usual winged black gel liner up a bit more. I also usually spring for an extra coat of mascara on upper and lower lashes. I find that dark or bold eye makeup always works best with glasses, so your eyes don’t look too “lost” behind them!
super helpful!
Glad to hear it! 😀
I tend to go very dramatic with my eye makeup. Once I have my glasses on, even very dramatic looks are somewhat subtle. I vary in colors but I always make sure to apply black eyeliner (I use UD 24/7 in Zero, or MAC Fluidline in black) and lots of mascara, which make my eyes pop through my lenses.
I’m the complete opposite… If I wear a dramatic look, it will look even more dramatic once I put my glasses on. I’ll look weird after I put on my glasses 🙁
Color!
It also helps that I wear rimless frames 😉
I wear glasses on a daily basis and here’s what I do and some tips as I’m a makeup artist as well:
*Shimmer definitely brings the eyes forward. If you use matte shades it’ll just be blah and barely noticeable.
*Less is more– since glasses already brings attention to your eyes, you don’t wanna over do it.
*Stick to everyday neutral shades and always blend a dark color into your crease for definition. I usually make sure to add a light shimmer color to my tearduct for a pop of color and also line my waterline with a white pencil or beige pencil.
*I love adding glitter to my eyes. My current favorite is Lorac’s liquid lustre.. adds glitter to eyes with no fallout. WIN.
*MASCARA, MASCARA, MASCARA: Sometimes I do two or three coats to make my eyes really pop and dramatic is the key. Definitely make sure to put mascara on your lower lashline as well.
*Eyeliner is your best friend: Since often times the eyes are very neutral, liner can change everything. The bigger the glasses, the thicker the line. The thinner the lashes, the softer the line.
*If your looking for a night look: you can play up the cheeks or lips.. bold colors work great!
*If you want a smokey eye: It’s good to smoke out the outer v and lower lash line. I’ve done a smokey eye with a lighter color in the crease this way it doesn’t overpower the eye and look funny with my glasses.
Hope this helps <3
I always get complimented on my eye makeup with my glasses on which means people can see it. That's the hardest part. Once your done with your eyes, put your glasses on and see what you need to fix. It really varies on the size of your glasses and such. This post has just inspired me to do a blog post on makeup with glasses.
I agree with many of these. I usually do a neutral eye look or something somewhat subtle because the glasses are already going to draw people in. I like to play up my make-up with cheeks or lips.
I’ve worn glasses since I was six years old. I’ve dabbled in contacts, but I find them uncomfortable, and I’ve been glasses-only since I was in eighth grade!
There isn’t one rule that works for everyone with glasses; it depends on your style of glasses, and also what sort of corrective lenses you have. If you’re far-sighted, the curvature of your lenses will often make your eyes look larger, so you may want to tone your eye looks down a bit.
Corrective lenses for near-sighted eyes tend to make them look smaller, so even rather dramatic looks can seem less “out there.”
I wear narrower acetate lenses, and I have a couple different pairs of frames. If you pick the right color and shape of frames, it can work with your eye makeup. I have green-gray eyes, so whenever I wear plums or teals it seems like the green color pops. I have glasses in these colors so they’re not competing with looks, they’re helping.
I also think that it’s a good idea to have stronger eyebrows when you wear glasses, so don’t overpluck and keep them filled in. I’m fortunate to have thicker, darker eyelashes, but mascara is a must if I’m wearing more dramatic eyeshadow, so they don’t get lost. All these things work together and end up making the glasses just part of your look, instead of the whole look.
I also think that it’s a good idea to have stronger eyebrows when you wear glasses, so don’t overpluck and keep them filled in.
Amen. When I first bought the dark-rimmed glasses I wear now, I’d expected the opposite: that my sparse brows would need less help than usual, as the rims would be doing the work for them. So. Wrong. *g* It’s the other way around: untouched, my brows look messy and scraggly and untended in contrast to the smooth, thin, dark line of the rims! If I tend them well, however, the result is a look that’s smooth, dainty and surprisingly refined. Strange but true.
I’m myopic and I wear glasses with lenses that makes my eyes look smaller. My frames are simple titanium silver so it doesn’t overwhelm my face. I can get away with wearing dramatic smokey eye and colorful shades and I make sure that my eyeliner along the outer lash line is thick to make my eyes look larger, light eyeliner on lower water line and lots of mascara on upper lashes and no mascara on bottom eyelashes. I also don’t wear full faux lashes because it touches my lenses, but I can get away with wearing eyelash flares.
I don’t wear glasses, but a friend of mine does, and she always lines her eyes with a bright coloured eye shadow. Green or blue or gold or purple. It’s not quite a intense as bright eye liner, but it’s very interesting and pretty. Neatly applied mascara as well, she goes for length rather than volume and it looks really good.
I am definitely a believer in a strong line of eyeliner. I also try to stay away from shimmers or glittery make-up shades on my eyes because on me they end up getting lost behind my glasses. I concentrate the bulk of the strong colors on my lid since I have deep creases.
I’ve been wearing glasses since I was six D: I make my eye makeup stand out more by going more dramatic than what most people say is daytime appropriate 😛 I also like to contrast it with the color of my frames – right now they are black, and I find that bright & neon eye shadows stand out more. My previous frames were silver, so I usually went with darker eye looks with those. Mascara is a must; I sometimes like to use false lashes too, but finding a pair that’s dramatic without being too long (otherwise they get stuck against your lenses when you blink and you’ll look stupid lol) can be a little difficult.
I definitely agree that more definition is needed around the eyes, especially if you wear the dark, thick-rimmed ones that are so popular right now. Lately I’ve been doing a “kitten” version of a 60s cat eye using gel eyeliner just on the top lashline; then I use a shimmery, pale highlighter just under the brows and in the inside corner. I do a darker neutral shade in the crease and last I put a nude shimmer shadow across the lid. Dark black mascara. I think the most important thing with glasses is to always have well-groomed and defined eyebrows. Otherwise all the rest is for naught.
I wear my glasses all the time! So when I go out,i usually go with frost eyeshadows, with kohl to line my eyes or sometimes use my highlighter colour as an all over eye eyeshadow! It really makes your eyes stand out..
I foil my MAC Pigments 🙂
I wear my glasses only when I don’t feel like wearing much makeup…. they have thick black frames and I think they look fab with only a little mascara, bold brows and bright lips! I feel like I can hide behind them when feeling blah….especially at school!
I’ve recently been banned from contacts because of overuse so have been stuck with my glasses for the last 4 months. and I am a HUGE fanatic of full eye makeup, everyday, so it killed me to have to wear my glasses. Something I’ve learned that works is a dramatic winged eyeliner which really pops from behind the glasses. I also have started loving just a neutral semi-shimmery shade on the lid with a matte brown crease to define, so it looks natural but your eyes dont get lost behind the glass. Hope that helps! (Also, one other thing that came out of toning down my eye makeup was my love for face products! I now just do a winged eyeliner (with maybe some glitter on top) and play up my cheeks and lips :D)
I tend to wear contacts more often, but when I do wear glasses I darken my crease more and line my eyes a bit darker too. In addition I find it helps to pop a light and shimmery eyeshadow into the inner corner of the eyes and onto the middle of the lid.
But I think it depends on the glasses. Mine have black rims, so I have to “exaggearate” my eyemakeup a bit so my eyes don’t disappear behind my glasses.
Don’t be afraid to be heavy-handed! My glasses shrink my eyes so any colour i want to stand out has to be much more intense and cover a larger area of eyelid than it would if i was wearing contacts. Also i agree with everyone else about eyeliner! Even just a thin line across the top helps everything look a bit more put-together and defined behind lenses.
Generally, it’s just a matter of taking my glasses off – I’m nearsighted, so most of the time I only really need them for lecture or driving (though I tend to leave them on because, well, I’m sure I’m not the only one who misplaces them like crazy!). When I do a dramatic eye, I wear my “nice” glasses, which have a very minimal, slim-framed design that don’t distract too much from the face. If I do a bolder lip, I usually go for a neutral eye and my thicker frames, which are still cute but definitely cover up more of my eye area. (Unless the lip color clashes with the glasses, which are pinkish purple. Then I use the black ones.)
I eyesight isn’t very bad, but I do have a pair of glasses for when I need to look in the distance all day. On those days, I prefer very light shimmer eyeshadow and lots of mascara. I don’t want to use dark colors because my eyes will look like two black holes behind the glasses.
YouTube “makeup for glasses”. Michelle phan has two good tutorials, pixiwoo has one, and MissChevious has one.
I put the focus on the mouth.
I personally do lots of liner and mascara!
i wear glasses daily, and i don’t change my eye makeup for them. i wear what i want to wear. my mom is the same way. we never think about what our makeup will look like once our glasses are on. if it looks good once we are complete, then we are happy!
A strong outer V and crease (regardless of the color) is essential in making my eyes pop. I play up my top lashes as much as possible. I’ve gotten so used to wearing my eyeshadow this way that a subtle look just doesn’t work for me.
My eyes are my best feature, so I make sure my frames are fabulous — edgy and noticeable. My frames usually cost around $600-$800 since I am unable to wear contacts.
I am nearsighted and very pale, and I usually wear quite round, nerd-ish glasses with a dark brim.
I can go quite dark and heavy with eye makeup and it still looks suitable for office and work. The glasses with their dark brim already put a lot of focus on my eye area, so a bit more darkness on the eyes themselves doesn’t seem to matter.
I tend to highlight my eyes a bit more though. The glasses seem to drown the highlights away somehow.
I never had any issues with my eyes looking either too small or too big with glasses on.
The only thing I stay away from are bold lip colors. No matter how subtle I go with my eye makeup, thanks to the brim, the result always looks too much for everyday use.
Good point about the lip color, I have noticed the same thing. I have on impulse bought some gorgeous lip colors and they almost always look like way “too much” on my face with glasses. For daily use I usually just do a lip balm, sometimes with a very slight tint. I have a few lipsticks that I like that are close to my natural lip color, but I’d say 80% of the lipsticks I try/buy I end up never wearing…
I wear glasses daily. I always line my upper lash line, even if it is just a thin line with a pencil. I also keep the inner corner clean and neutral, but drag in a single color from the outer corner. The bottom lash line gets a soft sweep of eyeshadow over a brown liner. The single color gets played up when paired with the neutral inner corner, the shape of your eye gets accentuated by the color you have chosen. Keeping the color simple makes this wearable, highlighting the natural beauty of your eyes, but can be fun and bright, if you like. And of course, I layer the mascara. ^_~
Black eyeliner is the standard for people with glasses. I use gel liner to make all sorts of designs, anywhere from fishtail to cateye to Egyptian-inspired lines. If black is too much, one could use a medium brown liner and do the upper and lower lash lines. (Think of it like a reduced ‘raccoon eye.’) Medium eye shadow colors also make eyes pop behind lenses. Grass green, emerald, lilac, turquoise, gold… Or for the fun of it, match your eye shadow to your frames!
I am super duper nearsighted and wear glasses every day. Because of my Rx, my eyes look smaller than they really are. So liner is a must. Black, brown, jewel tone greens and purples…I usually try to exaggerate the size and shape of my eye by winging it up and making it thicker toward the middle and end of my eye.
I like using more colorful shadow looks, even during the daytime, because the glasses mute them a little so they don’t look overdone. Rich jewel tones are especially effective because they “read” well through the lens. You can make these colors even more vibrant by foiling or by using a base like NYX Milk. Glasses also make mild eyeshadow fallout less noticeable, yay!
Mascara–helps a lot to make my eyes look more wide open. I look for volumizing formulas.
Brows–I used to not bother because I figured my glasses were already framing my face. However, defining my brows makes my face look much more polished and balanced.
Application–I don’t bother working around my glasses; I just take them off. Because I’m really nearsighted, I use travel size brushes so I can get nice and close to the mirror. Also, sponge tip applicators and fingers usually give me more vibrant color than bristle brushes.
For a few months now, contacts have been irritating my eyes. Fearing long-term problems, I’ve been wearing glasses exclusively instead – and ran headfirst into this problem! As the other ladies have mentioned already: high-drama looks seem to be the best counter to heavy frames and reflective lenses. Despite a very pale complexion, I aim for a slightly darker brow than I’d have attempted pre-glasses, and well-curled lashes coated very generously with black mascara – including a (gentler) coat on the lower lashes.
I line heavily, almost starkly, across the upper lashes with a very rich, dark brown or black – almost always the latter – and choose a selection of eyeshadows that will give me a very high-contrast look. Lately I’ve enjoyed teaming together ‘HalfBaked’ and ‘Darkhorse’ from UD’s Naked palette, for instance: MAC Brulee heightening the browbone, HalfBaked buffed very gently across the lid, with Darkhorse for heavy emphasis on the crease and to smoke out the lower lashes as well. It’s a look which would be horrifyingly overdone on my complexion if not for the glasses – but with them, I need the emphasis of a bold, smokey eye.
Most of the time I wear contacts, and when I’m wear my glasses it usually means I’m being too lazy to wear anything more than mascara and a swipe of skin colored shadow to even out my lids – like today 🙂
But on those occasions when I’m wearing glasses because my contacts are bothering me, I stick to lots of mascara and light, shimmery shades that brighten up the eye area and make my blue eyes pop even from behind a frame. I find bright colors look weird behind glasses (and on me in general) and anything too dark over powers me.
The nice thing about glasses is that you can wear bolder and brighter colors, and not look like you stepped out of the circus. What I usually do when i wear my glasses is make my inner corners really pop by using a bright color or white, ill line my waterline with a white or skin tone eyeliner and not use too dark of a color in the crease. Also, highlighting under the brow bone finishes off the look nicely. I tend to avoid darker, smokier eyes with glasses because i feel like they make my eyes look too tired. I am a huge fan of black eyeliner, so most of the time i use black eyeliner instead of white or skin tone to really define my eyes. But all that matters is how comfortable you are with color and shades/highlights. And, you can always play around with all of it to see what works best for you.
Very excited to read these responses since I wear glasses pretty much all the time. I wore contacts through high school, but I got reeeeeally tired of them. I’m 27 now and love glasses!
I tend to do slightly more dramatic eyes than I would if I were not wearing glasses. But, I also think my eyes are my best facial feature so I like to enhance them the most. I don’t wear eyeliner very often, but I ALWAYS wear mascara (I LOVE Maybelline’s Volum Express The Classic [I recently tried Maybelline’s Falsies and was really disappointed, it didn’t enhance my lashes nearly as much as “The Classic” does]). I also tend to wear more shimmery eyeshadows than matte, but I think that’s more just my preference, not sure how much that has to do with wearing glasses. I’ve also found (at least on my face) wearing darker colors in the crease of my eyes really helps my eyes POP, without being “too much”.
I wear glasses all the time. Honestly, for me I usually do every single look regardless. Glasses frames your face and draws attention to your eyes already…so anything goes. From smokey, natural, simple wing, etc. it all works. The only thing I could never do is wear false lashes with my glasses.
I wear contacts 90% of the time, but on days when I’m wearing my glasses, I just make sure to apply my eye makeup a little heavier than I normally would. In fact, there’s been a few times where I’ve been wearing contacts and accidentally put my eye makeup on way too heavily for my tastes but didn’t want to go through the trouble of taking it all off and putting it on again so I’ve just popped out my contacts instead and put on glasses. Instantly tones it down!
I wear glasses all day, every day and I have those super nerdy black plastic frames so it’s not like they’re subtle…
I tend to use shimmer and metallic eyeshadows for emphasis, matte and even soft satin finishes just tend to disappear behind my lenses (which admittedly are really thick) – I like to stick with golds, beiges, browns and taupes for neutral looks but I can also get away with deep pinks and purples because the colours aren’t so noticeable behind my specs.
Coloured eyeliner – purple is a favourite, though charcoal and bronze/brown are great as everyday standbys. I usually only wear black eyeliner at night. I’ve also on occasion worn bright cobalt blue liquid liner and a teal green metallic liner to work and had positive comments on that – it’s nice to know people still notice your eyes behind glasses.
Groomed brows – I fill with powder and make sure they are well defined.
Curled lashes and a decent mascara – I have learned the hard way to make sure my mascara is completely dry before putting my specs on, otherwise I end up with black streaks in my vision line – gah!
I just am not-so-shy with my application; even though I am older, I still put the shades on a bit too boldly so that when I put on my glasses (wear them all the time), my makeup is visible but not too much.
I wear my glasses about 50% of the day, but I’ve never relly found a reson to wear my makeup different because of my glasses?
Day-to-day i wear a neutral eye with a massive winged eyeliner (pinup-style), or sometimes a neutral cut-crease.
And for evening i typically evolve it into a smoky eye and slap on some false lashes.
I wear my glasses a bit lower than most, so i don’t find lashes to be a problem.
I often hear people talking about makeup for glasses, but I honestly don’t see any reson to wear my makeup different because of my glasses.
Maybe my particular style of makeup is very suitable for glasses and i just don’t notice any problems? 😛
The only thing i might do diffrent if i know I’ll be wearing my glasses allot is that i usually draw my brows relly strong and graphic to take some focus away from the frame.
(I have relly thick black frames on my glasses)
🙂
I can’t see anything without my glasses, but that doesn’t stop me from wearing bold and dramatic looks. For everyday eye makeup, lots of mascara is definitely a must, especially concentrating on the lower lashes because they stand out more than your top lashes when you wear your frames. A nice, even winged eyeliner is always great in making my eyes appear larger. I love to wear a nice shimmery color on the lid and inner corners and make the crease a little darker and add black on the the outer corners. Blending is always very important, so I take my time and make sure everything blends together. I love a nice highlight, whether it’s shimmery or matte, because it makes your brows stand out and help to frame your glasses. I also make sure that my brows are nice and frame my glasses and fill in any sparse areas. Under-eye concealer is a must because glasses tend to cast a shadow, making under eye circles appear larger.
I don’t worry too much as long as my eye shadow and liner colors are bright or dark enough to be seen through the lens! Eyebrows matter since they can be seen over the frames.
Yes, indeed. Well-groomed eyebrows are a must, because no matter the size of your frames, glasses make shaggy, overgrown brows look a lot worse.
I don’t do anything special because of my glasses!
I wear what I like!
And one thing I love: Glasses tone down any make-up look!
And I always get compliment when Im wearing a bold look so.. Yay!
It’s rare for me to wear my glasses out of the house, but I would go for drama – a crease shade and well-smudged shadow liner rather than an allover wash or duo alone. It also seems like a good excuse to wear winged liner and maybe a little glitter accent on that. 😀
This question is difficult because near sighted glasses make eyes look drastically different from far sighted glasses, as do different prescription strengths. I’m near sighted, and I wear the thick rimmed glasses in a purple not black. I usually do very neutral make up. The most color I do is a purple in the crease occasionally or colored eyeliner. I usually use a champagne cream shadow, and nothing else (or some eyeliner, or something, but no other color) or a neutral shimmery shadow over the lid, a matte color in the crease, but just a little, I like looking fairly natural. And a bit of eyeliner. I like to look pretty natural. I also only wear foundation on my chin area (where my acne scarring is worst). I wear mascara, not much, just enough to make my blonde eyelashes black. I’m pretty boring, I know. I use lots of bright lipsticks, though. I get the definition for my eyes with my dark (But not black) glasses, and minimal eye makeup, and bold lipstick for adventurous days. On me minimal eye make up looks best unless I really want to make a statement. (Seriously loving make up for ever eyeshadow in 39, matte plum, in the crease or as liner right now, it’s a similar tone to my glasses so they don’t clash!)