Choosing Eyeshadow Colours

Eyeshadow comes in just about every colour you could possibly think of.  So how do you know which ones will suit you?  There are two different ways to help you go about choosing:

Use your eye colour to choose

This is probably one of the oldest rules in the eyeshadow book.  Choose your eyeshadow depending on the colour of you eyes.


To do this, we have to go back to our colour wheel.  If you use the colour opposite that of your eye colour, it directly contrasts it, making your eyes seem more vibrant.  Similarly, you should stay away from eyeshadows which are the same colour as your eyes.

Here's that wheel again

From this we can see that:


Those with blue eyes should wear orange toned colours
Those with green eyes should wear purples
People with brown eyes should wear blues


Now for the most part, this does work.  However, you don't want to be stuck wearing just blue eyeshadow do you?  Probably not.  The other problem is one that I have.  I have blue eyes, so should go with oranges.  But I have very cool toned skin, so warm colours like oranges are harder for me to pull off.  They look good against my eyes, but not so much against my skin.  Which brings me on to the second way of choosing colours....

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Using your skin tone to choose colours

As you've probably guessed, this my preferred way of deciding which colours look good.  If you're warm toned, opt for warm shade like oranges, yellows, warm olives and golds.  If you're cool toned, go with pinks, blues, purples and silvers.

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Of course neither of these ways are rules set in stone.  I believe that you can wear just about any colour you like, so long as you pair it with the right colours.

For example, if I want to wear a gold shadow, I'll team it with other blue or purple shadows (or eyeliners), to create an overall look that works on my cool skin tone.  The same goes for warm toned girls who want to wear a cool toned purple.  Contrast it with a red or orange, for a vibrant look which will still go with your skin tone.  Adding black as your main colour is also a great way to get some colours in that you wouldn't usually use.

They say that girls with blue eyes should stay away from blue eyeshadow.  I don't believe this at all.  Use a couple of different shades of blue, or mix it up with a couple of other colours to. 

If all else fails, balance it out with your lipstick and blush.

Below are some examples of looks which go against these rules, but still work.

Using black as the lid colour means more freedom with the accent colour

Blue eyeshadow on blue eyes Gold and red eyeshadow balanced out with purple eyeshadow, and a cool blush a lipgloss

Using black as the lid colour means more freedom with the accent colour

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So basically what I'm trying to say, is play around.  Start with the eyeshadows suggested by both methods, then go from there.  Mix and match those that you can wear, with those that you shouldn't.  Eyeshadows are the place you can be most adventurous, so take advantage of that!