Choose Makeup for Your Skin Tone

Make up colors change with fashion styles and seasons. The latest new color may or may not be right for you, so how do you take the gamble out of buying make up? You can get a professional makeover to help you choose the colors that are best for your skin tone, or you can learn to choose the best colors.

Steps

Determine Your Skin Tone

  1. Wear a white shirt and look in the mirror. Be sure you are in natural or incandescent light, as yellow light or fluorescent light will reflect off your skin. See if your skin appears to have more yellow-red -- warm skin tones; or more blue-pink -- cool skin tones. The skin tone is not your skin color, it is the color that is under the skin color that reflects or is enhanced against white. Skin undertone is often shortened to simply skin tone when referring to color. There are many skin colors, but only two basic skin tones -- warm and cool. Once you know your skin tone, you can select your make-up colors.

Assess Your Skin Color

  1. Decide which of the major skin color categories you fall into -- fair, medium, olive or dark. People with the same skin color do not always have the same skin tone. For example, you could be fair skinned and cool toned, or fair skinned and warm toned. You could be dark skinned with either cool or warm. It depends largely on your ethnicity and genetics. You may not be exactly 1 skin color category, and most people are in-between. Determining the nearest category will help you find a color palette more quickly.

Foundation Base

  1. Select a foundation that matches exactly with your skin color. You may need to switch foundations from summer to winter depending on whether your skin is slightly darker in summer months.
  2. Try the foundation on your skin. The best place to test foundation is on the skin between your lower cheek and jawbone. Foundations are either yellow-based or blue-based. Some make-up lines actually have words like "cool beige" or "warm honey" on their labels to indicate the tone it was made for.
    • Choose a cool color foundation with blue or pink undertones if you have a cool skin tone.
    • Select yellow-toned foundation for a warm skin tone.
    • If your skin is darker, be sure that the foundation does not make you look ashen. If so, try a different color or a yellow-based foundation.

Blush

  1. Choose a blush that will complement and blend into your skin. Blush is used to highlight the cheeks and should never look streaky, so choose something subtle within your skin tone range.
    • Darker-skinned people should choose blush in shades of plums for cool skin tones, or burnt orange-bronze for warm skin tones
    • If you're olive skinned, browns and copper blushes are for you.
    • People with medium skin tones should use apricot, coral, or peach blush.
    • Fair and cool skin types should try shades of pink or rose.
    • Try beige or tawny if you are fair with a warm skin tone.

Eye Shadow

  1. Choose a color that complements your skin tone and enhances your eye color.
    • People with warm skin tones can wear eye shadow with a golden hue, such as greens, browns, gold or pinks.
    • If you are a cool skin type, pick eye shadows in blues, grays, silver, pinks, and plums. Choose an eye shadow that is right for your eye color and skin color as well as your skin tone.
    • For darker skin types and eye colors, darker, bolder eye-shadow is easier to wear.

Lipstick

  1. Test the lipstick on a sheet of white paper to determine the lipstick's dominant color.
    • Warm reds and browns or pale warm shades such as champagne are good for warm skin tones.
    • Cool, dark skin types can wear purples, rose, and sheer, pink gloss.
    • Olive skin can choose lipsticks in warm browns, beige, reds and pinks.
    • Fair, warm skin types can wear lipsticks in warm pinks and reds, while cool skin types can try purple and cool pink.

Tips

  • All the above maybe best options of guide line but be creative, artistic and have a fun with colours.
  • A new hair colour may change the appearance of your skin tone. When you change your hair colour drastically or go from cool to warm hair colour, check that your make-up complements the colour your hair is reflecting.
  • If you already bought a make up product, but it doesn't suit you, try putting on less or more than usual.
  • Dark hot pink lipsticks look good on medium neutral skin tones.

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Sources and Citations

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