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Hundreds of makeup lines with dozens of hues – how’s a girl to choose? Just looking at your face can help you narrow it down to your best makeup palette. While choosing the wrong color makeup is not a federal offense, it can be a fashion faux pas.
Foundation
Foundation is the liquid, powder or stick makeup that smooths out your complexion. Choose one in the wrong color, and risk looking like you are wearing a mask. Determine your skin tone before even looking at the cosmetics counter. Check the inside of your wrist -- if your veins appear blue, you are likely a cool-toned gal with blue and pink undertones. If your veins look greenish, you are likely warm-toned with yellow and orange undertones. Choose foundations with similar undertones and then test them on your jawline. You should see no visible line of makeup in indoor or outdoor light.
Eye Color
Your hair color can give you some indication of the colors of eye makeup you should choose. Coppery redheads tend to have alabaster skin that eye colors such as eggplant, khaki, bronze and chocolate browns flatter. Blondes can pull off pastels. Dark haired beauties do well with jewel tones, silvery taupes and forest greens. You should narrow down your eye color selection according to your skin tone as well.
Cheeks and Lips
Hair color and skin tone also come into play when determining cheek and lip colors. Warm lip and cheek colors include oranges, peaches and corals; cool colors include ballerina pink and mauve pink. If you are dark skinned with naturally purplish lips, deep berries, fuchsia and chocolate colors will flatter.
Occasion
Where and when you are going can influence your makeup choices. For an evening out, you might create dramatic smoky eyes in granite colors but keep your lips and cheeks very sheer. If you choose a bold lip color that complements your skin tone, keep your eye makeup minimal. Overdoing cheeks, eyes and lips all at once might have people humming "Send In the Clowns." For daytime and the office, neutral colors are appropriate. The color of your outfit can influence your makeup choices. Avoid matching your eye shadow directly to the hue of your dress, though, or you will look too matchy-matchy.
