Stand in front of any makeup counter and you will see that there are hundreds of lip, eye and nail colors. If you are in a department store there may be thousands of colors. How do you know which one is right for you? What you choose can make a drastic difference in your skin tone and your overall appearance. A shade that is wrong for you can make you look pale and washed out. On mature skin it can highlight wrinkles and age you 10 years. Knowing how to choose the right hues is vital for you to look your best.
The good news is that you can use many colors as long as you pick the right shades. To do this, you need to know two things. The first is your hair color (the one you have now, not the one you were born with). This will determine the depth or brightness of shade that will flatter you bestthe lighter your hair, the lighter the shade that will suit you, and vice-versa. The second is your skin tone, which will reveal the right shade for you. To determine your skin tone, look at the inside of your wrist while holding it over a piece of white paper.
If your skin is a shade of white, pink, blue or gray, you have cool undertones. If your skin is yellow or brown, you have warm tones. Here are the perfect hair and skin tone combinations:.
Blond or Light Brown Hair
Cool Skin
If your skin is cool, keep away from warm yellows. To look your best, base your look on cool, icy tones, particularly colors with blue or pink undertones, as these are the colors found in your skin. Do not put too many light shades on your face at once, it will make you will look pale. If you choose to wear pastel eyes and pale lips, add a lot of mascara. Your look needs a focuseither a darker eye shadow in your crease or a slightly more noticeable lip color.
Blond or Light Brown Hair
Warm Skin
Your skin has gold or yellow undertones so the most flattering colors for you are warm browns, shimmery gold, and greens, pale yellows or peach. Lighter shades look best on you.
Avoid any look that involves dark, heavy eyes. Your skin will look pale and you will look older.
Red Hair
Pale Skin
The main rule to remember with redheads is the simpler the better. Defining your brows is a must. You will look your best in bronze, browns, peachy tones, greens and the right shade of a soft wine. Heathery shades of pinks and plums are also very flattering. Choose dark brown mascara, and never leave home without it.
A redheads eyelashes are very pale. The one bold lip color a redhead can wear is a bright orangey or red-orange.
Dark Hair
Warm Skin
Nothing looks better on olive skin than dark shades of warm colors, ocher, dark green and tawny browns. Warm skin can also wear plum with a pinky undertone.
There are so many variations of each colorjust find the right hue thats flattering for you. Experiment, experiment, experiment! Once you find the right tones, youll know it.q
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Sylvia Hamowy is the owner of Reflections Cosmetics. She is a professional makeup artist, beauty editor, and former radio show host. She is featured in the International Whos Who of Entrepreneurs.
