Makeup Color Theory

Do you ever get lost in your makeup trying to match your makeup with the right blush or lipstick? I sure do. I hate when I have a great look and I want to top it off with a lip color and try five or six and none are what I want. Half the time I just use chapstick and leave it be.

I saw this video that has really helped me understand warm and cool colors. Even if you know color theory, it's a fun video that may present things in a different way. It's also helpful for all you nail polish addicts in terms of nail art and picking colors for manicures.

For those of you new to the game, warm tends to refer to yellow-toned colors while cool tends to refer to blue-based colors or the opposite, depending on how you were taught. Whatever way you label colors, grouping them into yellow based and blue based will make it easier when matching shadows, blushes, lipsticks, etc. Some colors can be either depending on the base color or shimmer (blue based pinks, pink with golden shimmer, etc). It can really make a difference if you're wearing the wrong colors for your skin tone, especially when it comes to red lipsticks!

I've had trouble recently wearing pink lipstick now that I'm a little darker with all this beautiful summer sunshine. I thought it was because my skin color had changed, but I realized I had started wearing a certain blush that is a warm orange (yellow based orange) with golden shimmer, and ALL my pink glosses are cool pinks (blue based pinks) so together they don't look well together. I found a blue based pink blush to pop on my cheeks, and bam, the lip gloss suddenly looks good again.

Back to the beginning of the post! I pulled out my blushes, all three of them. Three. I have a bazillion lipsticks and eye shadows and I can only find THREE blushes. I need to venture out and buy a few more. I'm thinking a matte or two, given that I have oily skin, and I really shouldn't be wearing shimmer blush anyway. Any recommendations for matte blushes for a light olive skin tone? I'm thinking Illamasqua Naked Rose, but if anyone has a recommendation (especially a cheaper one) I'd love to hear it!

Milani Baked Powder Bush in Rose D'Oro, Milani Baked Powder Blush in Dulce Pink, Smashbox Soft Lights in Prism

Now that we've established I have a meager blush collection, I'll show you what I mean about the wrong blush for the lip gloss. The far left is the one I've been wearing mostly, which is obviously yellow/gold based. The far right blush is a blue based pink with silver microshimmer at the other end of the spectrum. The middle blush is a kind of chameleon. It's a neutral pink that almost leans blue with golden shimmer. I'd still classify it as a warm blush but I think with the right undertones it could be a blue based enough for cooler makeup, especially in the winter. 

Blushes: Top-Milani Baked Powder Blush in Dulce Pink, Bottom-Smashbox Soft Lights in Prism

Lip Colors: (L-R) Wet N Wild Don't Blink Pink, Milani Glow Girl, Revlon Cherish, Milani Quick Flash

All of these glosses are blue based pinks, none of them lean golden or yellow. At the top is Dolce Pink, our neutral pink with golden shimmer, which against Rose D'Oro above looks almost blue based and cool, is very warm and golden against these blue based lipglosses. Smashbox Prism at the bottom, while a little chalky and matte looking here, matches much better with it's blue undertones.

Summary? Next time you do your makeup and your lip color is off - check if you're still within the warm/cool family. If not, exchange the blush or the lip color for something in the same family and it'll likely click into place!