Makeup Tips: Your Eyes

Focusing on your eyes when you do your makeup is definitely the way to catch someone's attention. We are taught to look people in the eye when they talk to us, this way they know we are listening. Make your eyes something worth looking at. If you want them to be the first thing people see try making them dramatic and noticeable. Do this by applying a sheer foundation that closely matches your skin tone. Set it with powder (which also helps so that your face does not look shiny). Use a light brown or medium pink toned blush. Something that shows, but does not stand out too much. Line your eyes with a black liner. Smooth it out by smudging on some black or gray eyeshadow cover where your lined. Use a deep gray eyeshadow color for your lids. Only cover just up to the crease of your eye and than give it a blended look up just past the crease. Make sure your lashes stand out with some black mascara.

When you do your eyes you generally have an eye liner pencil, mascara, a few shades of eyeshadow and maybe an eyebrow pencil. How you use these items properly can depend on your skin tone, hair color, or just your personal preference. People with darker skin tones will want deeper eye colors, rich tones, like dark brown pencil and brown or color shadows. Those of us with pale skin can define our eyes better using medium brown liners and beige or medium brown shadows.

Basic eyeshadow application consists of two colors. Use the darker color just above your lashes on the upper lid. Then use a lighter shade up to the crease and blend them so they look like they are meant to be together but aren't turned into one color. Simplicity in eyeshadow would be just putting one color on the entire upper lid, usually a light color. Stay away from blues and bright greens, unless you want to look like Mimi from "The Drew Carey Show." One trick to enhance your eye color is to use colors that resemble natural eye color. For hazel eyes try an olive green and a beige. For blue eyes use a small amount of pale blue shadow as a highlighter.

If your lashes seem to get swallowed up by your shadow be sure to use mascara to boost them back up and out! If you want eyes that look bright and awake, even when you don't feel that way, get a white eye pencil or some white shadow. Add just a dot of white on the inside of your eye (by your nose) and another one on the outside. This also helps your eyes look bigger and stand out. Why not let your eyes shine! This even works when you are going for that smoky eye look.

Resources: Woman's Face: Skin Care and Makeup, Kim Johnson, 1997