How do you chose colors?

[Shirin]

Hello ladies,

I thought I'd ask a general question which might sound stupid, but how do you actually chose make-up colors? Warm colors for warm-toned skin and cool for cool complexions or vice versa for a contrast and a complement?? I am olive, is that a neutral color rather than a warm color? Or I might have olive with pink skin, as my cheeks are naturally a delicate light pink/rose? And lighetr colors for dark skin or vice versa? I often got advised to wear brownish blushes and lipsticks but it looks too dark and muddy or greyish, makes me old although I have olive skin which isn't light and is brownish?

And how do you choose eyeshadows, rather warm colors if you ahve neutral or cool eyes or vice versa? rather compliment or complement? I find it trickiest when it comes to lipsticks. Often it is all too warm, too coraly on me. However beigy browns mkae me look ill and darker brown old and over-done, whereas anything with blue is too cool for my skin and makes me look old too! Blushes also tricky. Pliums and purples don't suit me at all. I know fresh papaya bright light coral suits me great as a blush and roses, but not sure if warm pink or cool pinks. Like I have both Babydoll and Tart and not sure which one suits me better or if any is the flattering color for me, maybe both too dark although i have dark skin?

I am guessing with Purr and Bare that any eyeshadow with gold in it doesn't really flatter me although I am olive so I must have some gold in my skin? Should it not clash with undertones and only complement? Or say you have greenish skin so greenish shadows are good on you, or you have yellow skin so gold is flattering on you?

I am really confused. i thought I knew what colors suited me. Now I don't even know if I am a cool or warm or neutral skin tone.

But as a help, as in clothing colors which look best on me are neutral light browns, peachy rose, salmon, blue unless it is navy, sky-blue and turquoise, a very fresh spring green but only when i am really tanned. Black is a NO NO on me, as well as grey or any dark colors, and reds. Orange or coral however looks fab on me. But then most coral lippies are too coral:too warm on my skin.

If it helps I'll attach a pic next time. But you can already see me under FOTD.

I know some of you are real experts when it comes to make-up and coloring and it is so much easier to know about others, myself I am quite talented to finding best colors and best make-up for others, every time i put make-up for a friend, they and their surroundings were like wow, didn't you you're that beautiful , but for some reason I can't have any clue for myself. So please give your opinions. Thanks.

[JenW]

So much of chosing color products has to do with what you personally like. I truely think that cool toned people have problems with very warm colors, and warm toned people have problems with very cool colors. Other than that, it is what you are comfortable with. I have come out of a color rut quite a bit since finding Silk Naturals. I am guessing that many of the colors look good on you, but just don't suit your taste more than your coloring.

To me, olive is slightly warm toned, but not so warm that cool colors don't look good. I know this because I am olive without the golden component to make me farther along in the warm scale. For people in the middle range of cool/warm, it all depends on what you are wearing in my opinion. I cannot carry off any warm tones when I am wearing a fuschia top, but I can if I am wearing a melon one. Also, I am currently training myself to be comfortable in a redder lippie, just to get out of my comfort zone a little. I do have issue with very warm colors on me; they just really don't look right. Kind of like you with browns. The coolest ones look all right, but I am usually not that comfortable in them. I also avoid lippies that are very pink.......my lips are already pretty dark, but it is a preference issue on the coolest shades. We all have our trials and errors when it comes to colors.

[tizzylou]

I totally agree with what Jen said, much of the time it is a matter of personal perference. However, I also know that becuase I am warmed toned, ( I wear a mixture of warm gold and peach) that some colors are just to cool toned to look right on me. For example I had poly (I have since regifted it), and no matter what I paird it with, it just never looked right. I'm guessing that is more are cool based color, and thus clashed with my warm skin. I wear many of the warm toned eyeshadows with out a problem, but the blue based color tones just don't look right.

While I have Tart and can wear it successfully, I generally will choose Lovelace, Satisfied or something similair in color and tone because that is what looks the best on my.
Like Jen, I am working very hard at trying to wear a red lippie or at least something more colorful, but when looking for reds, I need the orange based ones , not the blue based or again they just don't look right.

Keep playing with colors, eventually you will find what looks the best one you, and then it is easy to start looking for blushes,eyeshadows and lippies that will the best undertones for you.

[Rhys]

You can have all kinds of undertones to your skin - really. I'm as cool as you can get (Climax is a pretty balanced blush, but it usually looks orangey on me if I haven't got any sun, and both Lovelace and Maybe Baby come out orange on me no matter - so far as I know they don't on anybody else). Even neutral is pushing it. BUT - I have a really strong gold undertone, so I can wear gold - just so long as the base colour it's in isn't too warm. I think it's why I can wear Rich - that's kind of apricot (it's discontinued now), but it's a goldie-apricot, so it suits.

And women with olive skin can have all kinds of different undertones, too.

Have you tried a sample of Petal? That's a great pink very delicate blush - so if you seem to do better with less intense pink blushes, it might suit you. It does NOT look like the photo at all in real life, it isn't a brown-based pink. Poppy's a coral and on the warm side, and for you it might suit. Or you might be able to wear Lovelace, and Stardust looks pretty balanced - worth samples, at least. If the problem with Tart is the intensity, you could try Tart Light.

For lippies, Raindrops on Roses is gorgeous, and hasn't got any brown - it really is a great rose. Ice Princess is a perfect cool petal pink - on me anyway - it works a bit better than Precious does, even. If you can wear red that isn't screaming, then try Hot Blooded. Berry Crush and Rare Berry have looked good on everybody I've put them on so far. They might not suit you - but they might. Lippies can be tricky on account of your own lip pigmentation, though.

Eye shadows are a difficult call. Some of it is eye colour (though you have brown eyes if memory serves, so you can probably wear some shade of most colours), some of it's preference, some of it no doubt is skin tone, and some of it's a mystery. Have you found any you really like so far? And what kind of colours do you feel comfortable wearing?

[ladycattat]

Hi Shirin!
maybe I am making your question too simple, but the way I choose my colors is usually based on the clothes I am wearing that day.
If we go under the assumption that we wear colors(clothes) that are flattering to our complexions that is half the battle.
It also depends on my plans for the day(or night.) I am a stay at home mom, so even though I do a full face of makeup, I tend to keep to pretty subtle colors for daytime.
I am also kind of a matchy-matchy kind of a person so that also factors into it.
I also take into account my hair, skin and eye color.

My hair is reddish-brown and highlighted. my eyes are hazel and my skin is very fair with a yellow undertone and freckles.
Today I have on a black fitted t-shirt with a graphic tattoo print in taupe, blue, yellow, red and purple.
Since the shirt makes a statement, I don't really want my make-up to compete with it.

Today I am wearing Fire and Brimstone on my eyes to pick up the little bit of purple in my shirt, Maybe Baby blush since for me it is the perfect neutral, and Iced Mocha wand lippie.

The really great thing about SN are the samples. It makes it really easy to try things that you thought might never, ever work for you. I got a freebie of Tart once, and almost fainted at how bright and coool and pink it is. But with a light dusting of it, I look like I have just come in from the cold....all fresh and glowy.
Don't be afraid to try things out of your comfort zone. The worst that will happen is it won't look great, and maybe you can tweak it with some colors you already have, give it away, swap it, or worst case scenerio, return it for store credit.

HTH,
Laurie

[Shirin]

thanks all for your replies,

Rhys to answer your question, so far about eyeshadows Nekkid is best on me, because it has distinct color but it isn't that pinbk on me, just a beautiful mysetrious flattering colro on me. So I tried also Creamsicle, Purr and Bare. But Bare and Purr, they seem too gold on me, like you can only see the gold, and it is screaming, and Bare was way too dark on me (I actually mixed Bare and Posh with Sandy which is white chalky on me). You know my lids are quite dark brown. Purr actually turned purplish on me and wasn't flattering. On my bone which is light it looked great. Does that mean I have some gold in my skin so the gold comes to tell?

I love Creamsicle, Purr as they are in the pot. Wished they'd be teh same on my lids.

As to blushes, I actually like the color to show, even with Tart it doesn't show enough on me if i don't put it on with a flat blush instead of the foptic. I'd go for Lovelace and for Stardust, the soft rosey pink one, the new one, but I absolutely don't like any shimmer in my blushes.
For eyeshadows however I notice that some textures just don' look good on me, Pionk Twink I guess is sheer, the texture and its kind of shimmer just doesn't work with my lids. Metallic shimmery ones like Nekkid work best on my skin.

About olive undertones. As somone siad there are may undertones to it. And the problem is I still haven't found out what undertone I have to it. I mean, it isn't obviously yellow, but not that green compared to italians. And I am perplexed that my cheeks when I am not very tanned are of such a delicate light peachy rose color and my lips are very pale pinky brown, but quite pigmented.

As to my eyes, they change color lots and lots. Once I had dyed my hair almost golden blond, the lightets golden brown. It actually looked great on me, my skin looked less dark, adjusted, and my eyes, they tutrned into honey brown. They can be slightly greenish brown, light chocolate brow, cafe au lait, cool brown, warm brown.

My hair is quite dark, very dark brown with some bliue balck and with some reddish brown in the sun.
I guess I am a real mixture in pigments?
My mum was quite light, not olive at all, or maybe the lightest olive, she had creamy ivory skin and it turned a soft bronze golden in summer. She had middle golden brown hair but very dark brown eyes, much darker than mine. Everyone in my family looks diofferent pigment wise, but I am the darkest, the most olive. 7 generations back we had someone in Tibet in opur family, it shows a bit on me I think, my eyelids are slightly oriental. My grandmotehr was a dark olive, my mum's mother, whereas my dad's mother has the whitest skin and light brown hair, honey eyes.

Haha. Seems liek I inherited a bit of all?

[Ghost]

Hey Shirin

I completely agree with what everyone says. I'm cool toned as they get but I have the same problems as Rhys, climax looks a little too orange on me, can't do maybe baby to save my life, but I do looove lovelace, and I can pull off Rich and can wear gold (even though I hate gold jewellery) I swear it’s the red hair.

But I've found through trial and error that I can wear some cool tone blushes, Strawberry & champagne, lady, babydoll (carefully applied), but I just can't pull off light tart and depending how I apply charming and cosmic. Those colour are just too cool for me. Same for the warmer side, I can wear lovelace, rich and wish you were here, but I have to be careful with satisfied, gemini and at times poppy. But The ones that compliment me are the cool & warm tone blushes petal, stardust, foxxy (discontinued, WHY???? ), flirt. In fact I actually made a custom blended blush of S&C, charming and lovelace - my best blush ever, the next day Karen brought out stardust, almost identical

When it comes to eyeshadows for me all bets are off!!!!! I wear anything and everything, defiantly personal preference. Though I do believe a person should know what colours to wear and for me that’s always down to eye colour not skin tone. I mean I have blue eyes and I should wear more browns to make then pop right, wrong I hate browns (don't boo me) but I brought the Karen's BB stonewashed palette anyway and I'm glad I did. If fact I've compromised with myself (does anyone else have those internal arguments?!?!) and I've promised that instead of wearing browns, I'll wear more bronzy and taupie colours. That's a lot coming from some who usually wear bright, bold colours. You see for me e/s colours and combos are an express of yourself and you should where what you like, how you like - don't get me wrong if the colour makes me look like a clown after a night out, then no (but I've always thinks it down to the application not the colour most times )

Hope this helps Shirin

[Shirin]

You're right Ghost,

colors are meant to make us feel good, a therapy, so you are right to wear colros you love, no use wearing colors one doesn't love! It seems that I am not the only one in love with colors, I bet most women love make-up becuase they love colors, I had started collecting semi-precious stones as a kid because the colors of nature always fascinated me and made me feel so spiritual!

[Rhys]

I agree. Unless it's some deadly dull business or government thing, or something else where you really need to be all prim and proper, eye shadow is great fun to play with, and it is down to application more than the colour itself - provided that the colour suits you.

I can't wear Nekkid to save me, but Sandy is one of my best highlight colours, so we're different there, but so what? Makes the world interesting. And for neutrals, taupes work well for me, and some browns. I love Cougar because it can pretend to be neutral when you need it to be, but it's a fun colour, really, and you can do so many things with it. And you'll eventually find colours like that for you, too.

Don't be afraid to experiment!