Looking good is easy if you ensure that your natural colors are in harmony with the colors you are wearing. This means ensuring that the colors of the makeup you choose blend well with your overall skin color and hair color. This is crucial as matching colors in this manner ensures that the makeup you apply highlights your face and adds value to it, instead of taking away from it or distracting attention.
The secret to doing flattering makeup is to build on what you are already gifted with, your natural skin tone and hair color. Here, it is also important to remember that successful makeup is more about using the right shades of colors than bold colors itself.
Primarily, skin has two shades of color called the undertone and the overtone. The overtone of your skin is what you see when you look at yourself, and because this skin is exposed to numerous elements such as tanning, it changes color over the years. However, the undertone of your skin remains much the same throughout your life as it is considered the inside or permanent shade of our skin. Here, it is good to understand that your skin color is different from your skin undertone, it is the base of your skin color, or like a natural foundation at best.
Choosing the Correct Makeup Colors for Your Skin Tone
When it comes to doing makeup, finding out the correct skin tone is paramount. To do this, you simply have to look at the inside of your forearm and wrist, where veins are generally visible. If your veins appear slightly greenish, that means you have a yellow skin undertone or a warm skin tone. However, if your veins appear more bluish, you clearly have bluish-pinkish undertones or a cold skin tone. Should you not be able to clearly make out the color of your veins, and the overall area has a beige tint, then you possess a neutral skin tone.
Another popular and easy way of determining your skin tone is to wash your face well, and pat it dry. Now stand in front of the bathroom mirror and hold a plain white sheet of paper next to your face. If your face starts looking slightly yellow or red in comparison, then you have a warm skin tone. Similarly, if your face gives off a pinkish-bluish aura then your skin tone is cool. And should your face simply come across as brownish then your skin tone is neutral.
Choosing the Right Hair Color for Your Skin Tone
Just as makeup is all about blending skin tones and artificial shades that suit you and compliment you in a natural looking way, so is hair color. When it comes to hair color, your makeup must add to your overall
appeal. The general thumb rule tried and tested by experts over the years, states that you should color your hair no more than two shades darker or lighter than the natural hair color you are blessed with.
The same goes for hair lowlights and highlights as well, as such shading of hair ensures it frames your face beautifully and in a way that it brings out only your best features. Should your skin tone be warm, then hair color shades of honey, auburn or golden would suit you really well. For people with cool complexions generally shades of beige, brown and black look good. And as always, people with neutral skin tones are free to experiment with colors, as most shades of black, brown and golden would suit them well!
When it comes to hair, the hair color you use should always look natural and not stand out. For example, if you have a warm peaches and cream skin complexion, then a warm, copper hair color would lift your face and add certain brightness to it. Similarly, for fair skinned people, golden or blonde hair would do little, when compared to a nice deep brown hair color that would immediately frame their face, highlighting their bone structure.
