What colors never seem to work for you?
Grayer cheek colors, truer yellow for cheeks/lips. I don’t know that there are shades that don’t “work” for me when it comes to eyeshadow.
— Christine
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
32 Comments
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
Comments on this post are closed.
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
Pink , red, orange or yellow eyeshadows are horrible for me. Red lipstick does not work for me either,
Purple. I can maybe do purples with a lot of pink but true purples and cooler purples are a no go. Firstly, I’m not drawn to purple in general. It’s just meh to me. Then also it can make me look like a corpse or like I’ve been punched in the face?
Very white-based pastels. But once I realized I my color season was Deep Winter, I’ve had a much better time at picking colors.
A lot of orange eyeshadows, or some kinds of pink. The former just looks weird and the latter makes it look like I have eye disease.
All those red, pink and orange eyeshadows that have been so prevalent for the past 5 or so years. I can get away with some coppery orange shades if they have some shimmer but the matte ones – not good. When it comes to cheek and lip colours, I don’t like and don’t feel I look good in “unnatural” shades – blue, grey, green lipsticks or highlighters with those sorts of strong undertones. And because I’m cool toned, peach and coral blushes don’t look very natural or flattering on me, though I’ll take a coral blush over a green lipstick any day of the week!
Copper and dark bronze(rs) for my cheeks. Light ‘nude’ lipstick: even though I like the way it looks sometimes, it always ends up appearing streaky and like you can see my lip line unevenly. Oh, and brown/copper lipstick. Like it didnt look that great the first time around but I’ve since forgotten and decided to go at it again. Not a good look!
Cool toned eyeshadows or some browns that lean quite grey/ silver. But maybe I’m not used to seeing myself in other shades than warmer browns.
Funny enough I like purpley/ grey brown eyeliners lol.
I have fair pinkish skin (MAC NW 20), brown eyes, and greyish brown hair. These colors never work for me: brown and beige (except in eyeshadow), yellow, orange, coral, neons, “unconventional” lipstick shades. strong purple or blue tones, and pastels. As I get older, fewer and fewer colors and tones work for me, which certainly simplifies makeup shopping. But, the ones that work really work such as gentle medium-tone pinks and mauves and soft berries and reds in lip colors; and browns, beiges, greys and muted mauves in eyeshadow colors.
Silvery or cooler-toned highlights make me look sick, and purple and red eyeshadow makes me look like I got beat up at a designer sale rampage! Apart from that I have convinced myself that I can wear whatever I want ?
Oh, and I don’t like the look of a classic red lip on myself, although more orange-toned true reds I love.
Nude lipsticks. Every single one of them looks like I applied foundation or concealer to my lips or I look sick. I’ve tried countless variations, shades, brands, all those ‘nude lipsticks for every skin tone’ and none work.
Same. And my darker lip color peeks through. Not cute. A couple of sheerer nude glosses finally worked, but don’t really count.
Due to my being a true neutral anyting too gray or too yellow does not work on me. For eyeshadows that would mean blue-grays and gray-blues we’re just all out gray. for lips and cheeks it would mean anything too yellow orange or too yellow beige. unlike yourself, anything to grayish on the lips and cheeks doesn’t work on me either.
On eyes, some pastel and frosty shades, like pale green, pale and frosty blue, pale, cool lilac. Also, some really rusty, warm, reddish shade makes my eyes looking very tired.
On my lips, brownish, reddish brownish (i look very strict) and fuschia colours just look awful. Also some taupe shades, especially when leaning towards purple.
For eyes and cheeks, I don’t like yellows, oranges, reds, or neutrals that lean very warm. White-based pastels don’t work well on my eyes. And green eyeshadow clashes with my eye color, unless it’s olive green. For lips, shades that are too gray make me look dead. Peach and coral lip shades are difficult for me to pull off, though there are a couple that I like. And very dark shades look terrible on my lips.
Orangey reds. Maybe it’s not so much that they don’t work as I don’t like how they look on me.
Cool-toned reds & pinks anywhere make me look like a clown and a sick one if they’re around the eye. Black, neon, cobalt and sliver are harsh and unnatural on me. Any dark lip is ageing now, chalky pastels always draw attention to themselves, frosty cool pastels are almost as bad. Special call out to hot pink and fuchsia as the absolute worst.
Warm colors clash on my skin so badly! Jealous of everyone who can pull off orangey lipstick as it looks amazing on others. There is not a yellow or orange stitch of clothing in my closet, or any kind of burnt autumnal color. Even coral is iffy. Depending on the outfit I can sometimes do “cold” orange or yellow eyeshadow, things leaning toward neon, but never lip colors. Cold reds, pinks, and lavenders are my jam. I especially love lavender blush.
For eyeshadow nothing yellow, orange or red goes for me, even if it’s a matter of undertones, not pure color. I simply look sick, tired.
For lips I can do pinks.
I rarely experiment with blushes except my basics, so I didn’t tried things I didn’t liked… maybe too coral or too pink shades won’t suit me.
I’m pretty lucky that my coloring allows me to wear most shades. For reference, I’m very fair with neutral undertones (N13), warming up very slightly in summer. My eyes have central heterochromia iridis: The inner iris is brown and reddish shades. The outer iris is gray, light blue, and yellow, with a dark gray outer ring. They appear olive from normal viewing distance.
EYES — 1) Pure, matte grays. I have a lot of gray in my eye color. I have to have shimmer (or flat out silver), or hints of brown, blue, purple/lavender, or green to make them look good on me. 2) White based pastels and sky blues don’t do a whole lot for me, either, and must be used in small amounts as accent shades (brow bone, lower lashline, or inner corner). My irises have a lot of light blue in them, too, so I think that’s why. 3) Cool toned matte browns totally depend on the brand. They can easily go muddy on my very fair skin. Yet ABH Sultry’s and TF Steel(etto)’s cool browns look great on me, as well as some other brands’.
CHEEKS — 1) Any highlighters or blushes that are straight-up yellow or yellow gold. I look jaundiced. 2) Cool violet blushes without any pink drain all of the color out of my face. I have to make sure I warm up the rest of my face if that’s not the look I’m going for. 3) Orangish or yellowish bronzers and contours.
LIPS — I have transparent enamel that shows the yellow dentin layer underneath. Nothing can be done about it except get veneers. So I have to be careful with oranges and some really bright lavenders, as they can intensify the yellowness. KVD Poe makes them appear slightly green, but I wear it anyway. I just pick days I won’t be out of the house or talking much in public.
Oh, also for lips, pale nudes and “concealer” nude lips, especially mattes. I need a gloss, shimmer, or sparkle for these to work on me, due to being so pale.
Anything with a strong white base. Which makes those years I spent rocking the concealer lips look even more ghastly.
Red colors around my eyes are a no go. I really don’t care for nontraditional colors on me for lips or cheeks. That might be an age things. Very brown lipsticks look awful on me.
Also, most lipsticks with a white base just don’t look good. Very cadaverish for me.
The colours that don’t work for me as eyeshadows are: black, very dark grey, white, pink, red, orange and pastel neon shades.
For lipsticks: pinks, some reds (they turn pink on me) and the more unconventional shades.
Blushes: every other colour except peachy corals (no yellow/orange undertones).
I’m not a fan of bright pink or shimmery maroon eyeshadow on me. On my lips – bubble gum pink, bright bluish purples, orange-reds, corals.
An easier question is what colors do work for me? Haha. I go for a very natural, minimalist look so no bright lipstick shades, rather I prefer something in a rosy nude tone (my lips but better) or I stick to plain old lip balm or a very sheer gloss. On the eyes, I only wear one shade, WnW Nutty. For blush I gravitate toward rosy shades, or pale peach/coral if the shade works with my undertone. That’s it, simple!
Cool tones and dark make up looks never work for me- that super dark Smokey eye? Super dark burgundy lips all a hard no. The only cool tone I can do if not to cool is a brownish grey and some warmer purples not the blue ones
Anything with a strong yellow/orange undertone. I can wear some orange-toned reds and pinks, but they usually look best paired with a cooler shade.
My eyes seem to get along with anything, although I’m not too drawn on white-based pastels. For lips, white-based nude to pink lip shades don’t look right. Some neutral-mauve lipcolors appear greyish on my lips, too. For experimental shades like blues and greens, I personally think it has to be dark to give contrast. For cheeks, I was taught to use rosey-mauve blush, or something that mimics my natural flushed cheeks, but I appear dreadful. I prefer peachy-coral shades to look more awake!
For eyeshadow, it always comes down to the particular shade of the color. Finding a pink I could wear has been frustrating and left me turned off by a lot of recent palettes. I wonder if I’m overly picky or I see color nuances better than others.
I’ve never found any bronzer or contour shades that looked natural, not dirty, but I gave up a while back.
Pink based blushes. Silver, grey, Blue, and green eyeshadows. Any shade of bronzer ever. And light nude lipsticks, despite being Casper coloured.
Oh, and any highlighter that isn’t an icy white is always too darn dark.