3 minute read
Which Colour For Your Eyes By Charlotte Ravet
Selecting colours for the eyes is often a real challenge. Our choices can be influenced by the colour we wear, the fashions trends, new product launches, and the colour of the eyes themselves.
When choosing our shades for makeup, a consideration that is important to make is to remember that all colours should work together and complement our natural skin tone, hair colour, and eyes colour. We often refer to colours in makeup according to palettes or seasonal palettes. These palettes can be split into three main categories: neutral, warm, and cool. Warm colours refer to warmth, fire and are all the colours that tend to be yellow, orange and red. Cool colours refer to cold; green, blue, and purple shades are cool colours. Neutral shades are in between, for example, peach, a soft green, or mauve and neutral shades of brown.
The real challenge when selecting colours for the lips, cheeks and eyes is the undertone of the colour itself. You might have heard ‘cool red’ to name ‘a lipstick’ or ‘warm brown’ to name an eyeshadow. It is the temperature of the colour. Colours can have an underlying undertone. Red is the overtone of the colours, and yellow or blue are undertones and refers to the temperature of the colour. A cool red will have a bit of blue in it, creating a slightly purple shade instead of a warm red with more yellow being a bit more orange. The underlying are easier to identify when placing the colours next to each other. Some shades will appear cooler or warmer when placed next to another colour.
When selecting colours for eyes, it is essential to identify if cool tones or warm tones generally suit you better and which colours to choose to enhance your natural eye colour. As a general guide, colours that are opposite in the colour wheel, complementary colours are great to create contrast and grab attention when looking at them.
Complementary colours can be identified as follow:
-Green-red
-Blue-orange
-Purple- yellow
BLUE EYES: Blue eyes can be enhanced by blue shades and peach and orange tones. If you have a cool complexion, prefer peach shades and pastel blue. If your skin tone is warm or olive, bronze, orange, warm brown can be beautiful to enhance the iris. Burgundy is also a great shade to use on blue eyes for any complexion, and purple suits a cool complexion.
GREEN EYES: Green eyes can be enhanced by burgundy, bronze, and a hue of green. Purple used to be the recommended shade, but it can be dangerous when used on a warm skin tone.
HAZEL EYES: Hazel eyes suit any colour but are usually enhanced with peach, pink and green. When selecting your colours, consider your skin tone to choose the appropriate shades.
BROWN AND BLACK EYES: Deep brown and black eyes suit any colour but can be brightened when using blue. A blue pencil applied in the waterline will open the eyes and create a softer look. If you want to create a deep black Smokey and have a fair complexion, enhance the tan, and keep the lips natural.
