A question often asked of makeup artists is “what colour should I wear on my eyes to make them stand out?” A common answer is “wherever your eye shade falls on the colour wheel, the opposite colour will enhance it.”
What, don’t have a colour wheel stashed in your purse? Amateur.
Brown eyes look sultry with green or blue, blue eyes look brighter with brown, and green eyes glow with purple or plum. Hazel eyes combine brown, blue and green; choose colours depending on the tone you’d like to emphasize. I actually love purple and coppery bronze for every eye colour. And heads up: pale eyes will look pretty with mid-tone shades; dark eyes will pop with richer tones.
Almay and Physicians Formula make this spotlight-my-eyes thing easy, too. The Almay Intense i-Color Play Up collection offers four colour-enhancing trios of shadows in a work-friendly, subtle-sheen formula ($9.95), plus co-ordinating liquid liner and mascara ($9.95 each). Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips also come in four eye-colour specific palettes, each featuring nine shimmery shades divided into “natural”, “playful” and “dramatic” trio options ($15.79).
IMPACT-BOOSTING TIPS:
1) My usual first answer to “what colour will make my eyes stand out” is “concealer.” Seriously. A creamy concealer, such as M.A.C Select Moisturecover Concealer ($18.50) that matches your skintone hides shadows in the inner corners of the lids and circles under the eyes so your eye colour can become the focus.
2) If you’re lash deficient, as I am, you want to add definition by making your lashes look thicker. Run a deep brown or black waterproof eyeliner along the inner rim of your upper lashes, at the underside of where the wee sparse hairs (so unfair) meet the lid. Try GOSH Velvet Touch waterproof eye pencil, $13, Lise Watier Waterproof Eyeliner, $16, or Revlon ColorStay Eyeliner, $9.95. Then use an angle brush to apply coloured shadow at the top side of where your lashes meet the lid.
3) For more eye-colour-specific makeup tips, click on the following:
F is for Fill ’er Up
Smoke it Up
Makeup for Your Eye Colour: Suggestions from Makeup-Pro Carmindy
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Jessica Biel’s eyes photo courtesy of Revlon. See the full effect of her eye makeup here.
Geek FYI: This post knocked on my brain at a birthday BBQ held recently for my new friend Julie Petendra. I spotted the most beautiful and unusual eyes I’ve ever seen — Patty Cusik’s eyes are an amazing citrus-green, and one day I’ll get a photo of her so you can see them too. In fact, I saw more gorgeous light-colour eyes (shades ranging from pale blue to smoky green) at that one shindig than I’ve seen in some time. Patty, Tania, Tara, Connie, Mary and Debbie, your striking eyes made me very jealous.
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i am soo confused bc i don’t know what to wear on my eyes. i love to wear make-up but nothing looks good. i have deep dark forest green eyes.what colours do you think will make my eyes pop?? can you help??
love cass
Sounds like your eyes are so gorgeous, it practically won’t matter! Seriously, though, on the colour wheel, the opposite of your eye colour is deep tones of purple, plum and brown (deep green looks good on dark brown eyes; deep brown should look sultry on dark green eyes, yes?). Copper and gold should also look gorgeous. These are all colours that look pretty with dark, forest green.
Could you e.mail me a photo of yourself, please? I’d love to see your skintone and hair colour as well. I’m at j9falcon at gmail dot com.
Thanks for your comment!
hello i have stress becouse i don’t know how to wear my liquid eyeliner, my eyes are like the olive shape. would you be able to tell me in steps how to wear my eyeliner?
Hi Amani,
If you’re stressed by liquid liner, try something else! Makeup is fun; shouldn’t cause stress. Try a waterproof pencil liner instead. If you’re determined to master the liquid liner, though, start by applying a fine line of pencil liner along the base of your upper lashes, then trace over it in short strokes of liquid liner.
Also check out Canadian Beauty’s post on this very subject — Henna is skilled at liquid liner and shares her own tips, the first of which is practice.
You could also consider heading to your favourite makeup counter for a liquid-liner lesson. Best to choose an artist who seems to wear liquid liner well, of course! Good luck, and have fun!
I am also just wondering what colour eye shadow would look with my eyes. Im confused because I am a hazel-green, so I have light brown in the center, then yellow in the middle, then dark green around the outside of my iris. I would like to bring out the green and yellow with eye shadow. Could you help??
Hi Arie,
Your eyes sound so pretty! You have a number of options to play up the green in your eyes: plum, burgundy, lavender, eggplant and amythest. You’ll find each hue will make your eye colour look slightly different — totally cool.
You might also like to try a dark green, the same shade as the dark green around the outside of your iris, or deeper — that should enhance the glow of the light brown and yellow in your eyes.
Choose shades that are more intense than your eye colour — framing eyes is a lot like framing photographs. Pretty as a picture (or two). *grin*
My eyes are really big and are mish-mash of colours. They are green in the middle, then brown in the middle, then on the outside are grey, so I’m not sure on the colours for me, and find it hard to find the right colours, can you help me ?
Hi Frankie — your eyes sound totally cool. I can tell you right now that anything in the purple family will look great (purple looks amazing on green eyes and brown, and grey too). I’m talking lavender, violet, eggplant, plum, deep purple.
If you’d like to send a jpeg to me at imabeautygeek (at) gmail (dot) com, I will be able to suggest more.
You DO have very cool eyes! They’re a little more hazel, but similar to the green eyes example in this post with recommendations from “What Not to Wear” artist Carmindy: http://tinyurl.com/osjchj.
Definitely shades of eggplant, amythest, burgundy, purple and lavender will work for you to bring out the green. To emphasize the hazel, try green, as Carmindy suggests. I also think slate or gunmetal grey would make your eyes look really cool.
You have pale skin, so medium to dark shades at your lashlines should make your eyes pop. Look for trios and quads of eyeshadow that contain varying shades of the recommended colours. Try the light shade as a wash of colour all over your lid and under your lashes, and intensify a bit with the medium shades at your lashline and softly in your crease for a subtle daytime look. For more impact, blend the darkest shade along lashlines and at the outer corners of your eyes — or start with the medium shade all over your lid and under your lower lashes, use the darkest shade for impact, and put the palest shade on your browbone.
You an also try the very simple move of just using any of those shades of eye shadow, either in a medium or dark shade, to line your upper lashline. You can add emphasis with a thin line of dark eyeliner, either in a darker shade of the eye shadow you used or black, right along the base of your lashes. (You can also try using the eye liner first, then apply eye shadow.)
Another trick is dark eye shadow to line along the base of your upper lashes, and a smudgy sweep of the medium shade under your lower lashes. No pencil required.
If you like eye liner, though, take inspiration from the Glow Magazine cover image in this story: http://tinyurl.com/ydrjr8y
Smoky eyes is an amazing look on light-coloured eyes, and can work for day if you stick to medium eye shadow shades and line with medium or dark liner. For evening, you can add impact by smudging dark eyeshadow along lashines, too.
Let me know how things work for you!
I can’t figure out things that look very good with my eyes, they are golden-yellow. not brown, and not very hazel…just golden. I’m really not sure what looks good with them!!
Omigoodness, Kyra, you HAVE to e.mail me an image! imabeautygeek at gmail dot com! And I have to say I’m struck by the realization that every person who has posted a question here so far has eyes of the most extraordinary, beautiful colour. I have eye-colour envy every time!
Your eyes are going to stop traffic in shades of burgundy, eggplant, plum, purple and navy. I also think chocolate brown and dark grey would work very well to offset their unusual colour. A simple trick for you would be lining the rims in a chocolate brown, actually. And black eye pencil of course, with deep bronze eye-shadow — very exotic. (Black or dark brown pencil-rimmed eyes always offsets light eyes beautifully, and works with any shade of eye shadow.) Dark greens might work as well. Please do send me a photo! I have to see!
Gorgeous eyes. Thanks for the photo. Do let me know how those suggestions work for you!
Hi Janine,
I have medium brown eyes with yellow/gold rings around the center. Sometimes the rings look green. I want to make the yellow really pop. What color would do that?
here is a picture of my eyes…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/amanda496343/yeeballs.jpg
Hi Amanda,
Holy, your eyes are cool. I’ve never seen eyes like yours before — they make me want to play with different shades to see how they’d play up each tone.
Try deeper shadow or liner shades at your lashlines to create more contrast between light and dark. (Try lining your inner upper and lower rims in black, dark brown, purple — even dark green. Make Up Forever and GOSH make great water-resistant liners in lots of colours.) How do they look if you wear gold and bronze?
hi janine! so i had a question about eye makeup for my eyes. i have greenish yellow eyes that are round and deep set…how can i use dark shadow and liner to make a dramatic look for going out without making my eyes look smaller or making my undereye circles more pronounced? ive emailed a pic of my eyes (im the one on the left) thanks!
Hi Elise,
I’m so sorry for the delay in replying to you — times are nutty on this side of the screen.
You definitely have arresting eyes, and they’re large, too! The first thing you can do to minimize under-eye shadows and make eyes look even bigger is ditch the mascara on your lower lashes. You don’t need it — your eyes are that amazing, and you’ll see how leaving the bottom lashes bare will open them up as well as open up your very pretty face.
For drama, purple, plum, eggplant, copper, bronze, chocolate, gunmetal — even navy and deep green will look lovely. Anything darker than the shade of your eyes will make them pop even more. You can line your inner rims with the same colour or with dark grey, chocolate brown or black; just make sure the shadow you run under your lower lashes is a fairly fat line of colour, like the application in the photos of this post, or in any of these smoky-eye posts.
For a softer look — look-again beauty, I call it — try softer, mid-tone shimmery shades of lilac, slate grey, and gold, and line the inner upper rim with soft brown pencil. Stunning on you. As well, add a dab of shimmery white or champagne shadow on the inner corners of your eyes, the tearduct area.
You can also make your eyes look even more exotic by extending the shadow out a little at the corners. Have a look at the Glow Magazine cover in this post.
Also: leave your browbones bare. If you put a highlight shade there, your eyes will look more deepset. When you apply shadow, blend it up higher than your crease so you can see it when your eyes are open, but make sure it fades to nothing under your brows.
And know this: even without makeup, your eyes will always attract attention. Gorgeous.
Please let me know how any of these tips works for you!
P.S. Why does your photo friend look so familiar to me?
hi Janine.my eyes color chenges evrey time i am wering diferent color clothes.grey,green,yellow.brown.could you tell me whitch eye shadow is best for all of this color.thanks.
Hi Shiva,
You’re lucky — you get to pick which of your many eye colours you want to emphasize! Purple, plum and eggplant will certainly look good with all those colours; deep bronze is another great option.
Have fun!
Hi Janine,
I have prom coming up soon and I was wondering how to do my make up. My eyes are a weird kind of hazel but I’ve been told in the sun you can see its brown around my iris, then green, and then a light blue/gray. Im wanting to play up the green or blue if I can.
Suggestions? Thank you :)
Oh, and my eyes like to change colors from a lighter brown or sometimes a nice green
Hi Perri,
Sorry for the delay in my reply — hope this is still helpful for you!
Your eyes sound gorgeous. I always translate “weird” as “unusual” and therefore beautiful.
To play up the green in your eyes go with a purple or plummy shade. Play with variations — violet, eggplant, amythest — to see which brings out more intense green.
To bring out the blue, try copper, bronze, rust or chocolatey shades.
I think you might also want to play with green, such as dark emerald or forest. Green might surprise you.
Let me know what your favourite is!
Hey Janine,
I’ve been looking for a different natural look. My eyes are hazel with keystones on the bottom and sides of my eyes that change from green to blue. Is there a way to make my keystones always look blue and keep my makeup looking natural?
Hi Alyssa,
You must send me a photo so I can see! imabeautygeek at gmail dot com!
Now, when it comes to eye colour that seems to change with mood and lighting, wearing a particular colour can’t really stop that from happening, although it can enhance a particular shade more.
Without seeing your eyes, my suggestion would be to smudge shimmery chocolate brown shadow along upper and lower lashes. You don’t want any harsh, obvious lines, nothing that looks like you used eyeliner.
To keep the overall look natural and soft, curl lashes and use dark brown mascara on upper lashes only. Black will also work if you keep the application moderate.
On cheeks wear a colour that echoes your natural flush. Cheek tint is a great idea. Benefit’s PosieTint is a good one to try, a fresh change from the usual rosy finish.
On lips go for a sheer soft pink or watermelon shade of gloss, or a dab of tint or lipstain.