Juggling three…. eyeshadow shades!

I asked my twitter friends what they’d like me to blog about next and I got an immediate vote for eyeshadow application.  It’s time this blog extends past skin care a bit into basic color techniques!

I know a lot of people who use one shade on their whole eyelid or one shade on their eyelid and one shade on their browbone.  I’m not a big fan of either of those looks.  When I wear eyeshadow (and admittedly, as a mother of two year old twins, I don’t wear eyeshadow daily these days), I wear three colors:  a midtone, an accent shade, and a highlighter.  This is what I teach my clients at their skin care pampering session and makeover.  If you’re in Cleveland, I offer these for free at my home studio.  If you’re not local, I send you samples by mail with directions and a phone consultation!  Have you ever felt like you needed a girlfriend to help you apply your eye makeup?  Well, as a beauty consultant, it’s my job and I love doing it.  So call on me!

The midtone is your neutral color.  That kind of boring color that doesn’t do a heck of a lot when worn alone.  It’s like your paint primer, if you will.  Your accent color is the one that makes your eye pop.  It’s darker than your midtone color and usually brings out the color of your eyes, even  if it is not the same color as your eyes.  The highlighter is a lighter color and can have some shimmer— this is almost ALWAYS applied to the brow bone (right under your eyebrows— take a look, do you need a wax?).

For deep set eyes with a prominent browbone I recommend the following:  apply the midtone above the crease- sweep across the brow bone.  Wow, we’re already breaking the highlighter on the browbone rule, look at that.  ok, I said ALMOST always up there, right?  Apply your accent shade to the outer corner of the lash line into the corner of the brow bone.  Sort of like a triangle on the corner of your eye.  Apply the highlighter color in this case only to the eyelid and alone the inner corner of the lower lashes.  The lightest color is on your eyelid, and your medium color is on your browbone, bringing your eye OUT more.  The accent color is on the outer corner.

For standard eyes, eyes that are evenly spaced, there are two widely used methods.  One is to apply the midtone on the entire lid, the accent shade in the crease, and the highlighter on the browbone.  The other method which I tend to prefer to teach is to apply the midtone on the entire lid, the accent shade as a triangle on the corner of your eye (blend well), and the highlighter on the browbone.  I’ve noted that the most compliments I get on my eyeshadow application are when I use this second method with a very light pink highlighter, a light blue midtone, and a dark violet accent.  I have hazel eyes and dark hair for what it’s worth (watch for another blog post on eyeshadow color choices at some point!)

For wide set eyes, you want to bring the midtone from the crease into the browbone a bit.  You want to have a tiny bit of highlighter in the far part of your browbone, but the bulk of the highlighter on the lid close to your nose.  Again, with the accent color, I prefer to put it as a triangle on the outer corner, but make the triangle larger than you would for a standard or deep set eye.  I like seeing the accent color come halfway across the eye for wide set eyes.  It helps draw attention closer to the center of the face and bring the eyes closer together.

Stay tuned to this blog…. in the future I’ll blog about eyeshadow color choices…. lip tips…. cheek color… foundation… and other color thoughts not directly related to skin care (because every well taken care of (female) face needs some color!)

Heather Price of Cleveland, OH, has been a skin care and beauty consultant since August of 2000.  Have you ever wished you had a skin care program that was personalized for your needs by a personal consultant?  That’s what Heather does- she sends you home with skin care and color products that meet your specific needs.  The result is smoother, softer, younger looking skin.  Clients feel better about their appearance which gives them the self confidence they need in their lives.  You can join Heather’s email list at http://freeskincarehelp.com – she answers every email response personally.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Eyeshadow Application. The entry is tagged under You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.