Beautiful Differences: How to Find the Right Make-Up Palettes For Your Skin Tone

 

So I’m sure you have all been in this situation before:

You are running late in the morning and have no clue what you are wearing to work, and then it happens! You run out of your most necessary beauty product!

Typically, when this happens to me, it is a result of me already being “too busy” and putting off a trip to the store even though I know I’m running low on a product I love.  This happened when I completely ran out of my favorite primer the other day. So I ended up making a special trip to the Sephora on Lexington Avenue after work, since I can’t go a day without this product! When I walked inside, as usual, I was sucked into everything around me. The smells, the packaging, and, oh, the colors! The many, many, many color options in there can be almost paralyzing. (Wouldn’t it just be easier if there was one shade of lip gloss to choose from?) This quandary of mine lead me to my computer to do a little research on skin tones, color palettes, and how to narrow down my search when it comes to figuring out which make-up shades work best with my skin tone.

So the first piece to the palette puzzle of make-up is to figure out exactly what skin tone you have. I thought this would be the easy step, but, was I ever wrong!  I eventually learned that the best way to establish your skin tone  is to spend a little bit of time examining a part of your body that is rarely exposed to sun (or sunless tanning products). A great place to look is your nail beds. You also want to do this in good lighting.  (If you are heading for the opera, the lighting will be different than when you go to a picnic, so be sure to look at your skin tone in various light situations.)  You also want to look beyond the typical fair, medium, dark, olive tones and determine the actual color notes in you skin. There are 5 main color categories for skin tone: peach, yellow, red-orange, red-blue, and pink-blue. You may need to pinch areas of your skin in order to see these hues.  So then, you would be a combination of the two, for example…fair and pink-blue, or olive and yellow.

Once you have determined this, you obviously want to start with your base make-up matching your natural skin tones (foundation, powder, concealer, etc). Then, you want to look into the 4 main color families (for make-up) to determine which should be your go-to shades whenever shopping for color such as blush, eye shadow, lipstick, lip gloss, etc..

Coral Family-This includes all shades of orange with hints of reds. These colors often look great on darker skin tones.

Rose Family- This includes pinks and reds. These colors usually look best on the fairer skin tones.

Earthy Family- This includes your browns, grays, yellows, greens, and ambers. These colors often compliment medium-fair to medium dark skin tones.

Purple Family-This includes purples and blues. These colors can look great on darker skin tones.


By staying within specific groups of color when you are doing your make-up, you will be able to compliment your skin tones and achieve your desired look. Think of your beautiful face as a blank canvas and don’t be afraid to experiment with color and also venture out of the different palates, even if it is not what you usually gravitate to.  Cut out photos in beauty mazazines and try them out at the cosmetic counter in your favorite department store, where the beauty consultants are more than happy to help.

And, remember, rules are made to be broken! The best way to know how something really works is to use your mirror and trust your feelings about what makes you feel fabulous.

What is your go-to color for make-up?  Are you subtle or bold when it comes to color?

Fashionably Yours,

Allison