colors

ok...this is going to sound silly.... how do you know what color your skin is? i THINK i'm sort of a light olive-y tone...but i really don't know. i have trouble matching colors to my skin/ hair (i have pale skin and super dark brown hair-almost black. eyes are dark brown). i know purples are supposed to bring out my eye color or the opposite color is supposed to do something? and what about lipcolors? i can never find anything that compliments me! i always read what certain skin colors are supposed to wear (mainly in terms of reds!) but i can't figure it out. so how do i know what my coloring actually is?? for 18 (almost 19) years i haven't had a clue.i 've kind of given up on makeup because of my coloring issues. please heeelllllpppp!!!

Go into a store that does makeovers! I used warm-toned foundation for years because I had what looked like olive skin when I was younger and people always assumed that it was a warm olive tone. Wrong. That's what happens when you get fifteen year old girls who don't know a damn thing about makeup working at the pharmacy over the summer v_v As it turns out, I have 'cool' undertones in my skin, and that was why I always looked 'off'.

But if you go to a place like, say, Clinique or MAC, here they hire people that have had to do extensive classes and training in JUST matching foundation. Once you have the foundation right, go from there. Without seeing a photo it's hard to know what would look good on you, but a safe bet is green- there's a shade to suit everyone. I have very dark hair and (these days) pale skin, and everything from teal to olive can look good. It does depend on a few other factors- if eyeshadow isn't well applied and blended, no matter how complimentary the colours are, it won't look great.

As for lipstick, stick to nude tones until you're feeling really experimental. I love a good nude lip. I bet coral colours would look good on you, too (enough colour so they're not boring, but not too much so they look pinky).

You can do all the 'if you look better with silver, you have cool toned skin- gold warm toned' but that's not always correct. Honestly, get your foundation matched somewhere reputable. It worked for me.

thanks! i'm going to the mac store tomorrow!