How to Choose Makeup Colours That Flatter

The first thing you want to think about when choosing makeup colours – from eyeshadow to blush, bronzer to lipstick, is will they flatter your complexion.

You will find that when a color doesn’t suit you, the color of the makeup is noticeable, whilst when it does flatter your colouring, you are noticeable and you just look like a more glamorous version of you, rather than someone wearing lots of makeup.

If you have had a color analysis this makes it really easy to choose makeup colours, as you can just be guided by your color swatch.  As you can see in the photo below, in the top picture, the swatch below each of the palette relates to the colours in the swatch, whether it’s the blush colours or eyeshadow colours.

Versus  where I’ve swapped the swatches around, when you look at the bottom photo (in the picture above) you can see that the cool swatch colours don’t relate to the warm palette of makeup, nor do the cool makeup colours relate to the warm swatch below them.

Warm colours:                     Cool Colours:

Peach         Pink

Coral                                              Rose

Golds                                              Silver

Bronze                                             Grey

Olives                                               Blue

Camels                                             Cool Mushroom Brown

Choosing Eyeshadow Colours

Warm         Cool

Blue eyes      Bronze, Gold, Brown                     Pink, Cool Brown, Grey, Navy

Brown eyes   Olive green, gold, bronze              Blue, navy, Silver, Pink, Forest Green, Teal

Green eyes                Warm Mauve, bronze, camel          Lilac, pink, Cool Brown, Deep Forest Green

Hazel eyes                 Warm Mauve, bronze, camel

Choosing Lipstick Colours

So the first thing to consider is – do the pinks in my swatch relate to the blush color I wear?  Do my eyeshadow colours relate to the colours in my swatch?  If not, then you may need to choose other colours that do harmonise.

When we’re looking at lipsticks – you can see there are cooler and warmer lipstick colours.  Again, these colours need to relate to your color swatch.  Just remember that as lips have an underlying colour, that will change the way the lipstick looks on your lips, as compared to the back of your hand, or on a piece of white paper!  And I can tell you that I’ve seen the same lipstick look pink, brown, red and mauve on different lips!

But as your starter guide compare your lipstick colours to the burgundies, reds and pinks in your swatch (even on the back of your hand) and see if there is harmony there.

One of the things I do for my clients is sell a makeup range, so that I can choose the colours for them that I know flatter as I’ve made sure already that they work really well with their color swatch.

For some more advice why not check out these posts:

Choosing a foundation colour

How to Choose a Red Lipstick – and more here

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