The Makeup Anarchist

In any form of art (painting, interior design, fashion, makeup, etc) to be successful, you need to have knowledge of color theory.  Unfortunately, most women do not take an art class before they start putting on makeup and clothes… and many that do, don’t think to apply it.

This article will touch on basic color theory so that it is easily retained and how to incorporate it into your makeup. But keep in mind, trends are always changing, so I’m going to try and keep it down mostly to the always-true facts. The first part of this article will be basic color theory, and the second will be how it applies to cosmetics. You may or may not know a lot of this or all of this already.

I know it looks like this is going to be long and confusing, but I’m keeping it pretty basic. It’s easy to understand and I broke it down into smaller sections. It just appears long because it takes a little bit of information (some of which you may already know) and applies it to a lot of different things. So grab a drink or snack, take a deep breath, and get ready to learn!

Basic Color Theory

• Primary Colors – Primary colors are colors that cannot be made by combining other colors. The three primary colors are YELLOW, RED, and BLUE.
• Secondary Colors – Secondary Colors are the colors you get when mixing two Primary Colors. The three secondary colors are ORANGE, VIOLET, and GREEN.
• Tertiary Colors – These are the colors you get when mixing a primary color and an adjacent (on the color wheel) secondary color. These colors are red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, indigo, and magenta.

Basic Color Wheel

This color wheel is easy to remember… Just two triangles (one upside down) combined to make a 6 point star… One triangle has Primary points (with yellow at the top) and then fill in the secondary colors by ‘mixing’ the primaries.. then the tertiaries are inbetween… Yellow at the top is important, but whichever side the red and blue end up on isn’t really… Due to technology, many color wheels are RGB (red green blue) instead of the RYB (red yellow blue)… you may also find many that don’t put yellow at the top… it’s not particularly important where it is, but for our puposes it makes the warm/cool/neutral argument easier to understand.

If you want to see an advanced color wheel, CLICK HERE

• Shades – Shades occur when mixing a color with black. Burgundy (red + black) is a shade of red.
• Tint – Tints are what result when mixing a color with white. Pink (red + white) is a tint of red.

Warm/Cool/Neutral

• Neutral – A vertical line down the middle of the color wheel through yellow and violet mark the ‘neutral’ territory
• Warm – Yellow, Red, Orange, and Violet fall into the Warm category
• Cool – Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet fall into the Cool category

Yes, I’m aware that I put both Violet and Yellow in all three categories. That is because they are ‘neutralized’ by consisting of an equal balance of warm AND cool tones. That’s why I said it was important to put yellow at the top in these color wheels.

Complimentary Colors

Complimentary colors are found by choosing the color directly opposite of the color you’re trying to compliment on the color wheel.

• When you layer complimentary colors, they neutralize.
• When you put them side by side, they intensify.

Examples of complimentary colors are Blue and Orange, or Red and Green. If you find red on the color wheel, directly opposite of it is Green, same goes for blue and orange.

WHY DOES ANY OF THAT HAVE TO DO WITH MY MAKEUP???

I’m glad you asked! Have you ever wondered why you see weird color concealers when you buy makeup? Or why some colors make your eye color stand out while others kind of make it fade away? Or why certain colors make you look sick and others make you look radiant?  COLOR THEORY!

First we’ll touch on concealers. This seems to confuse a LOT of people… and there may be more weird concealer colors out there than you even realized.

Concealers and Color Theory

Corrective concealer colors have to do with the neutralizing effect of layering complimentary colors.

Green neutralizes redness in the skin. So green concealers would be used for blemishes and any other redness on the skin.

Lavender neutralizes yellow in the skin. This concealer would be put on any yellow discoloration.

Salmon (an orangy pink) is used for neutralizing blues. This is *usually* the correct concealer to use for under eye circles that look blue and is also used for professionally covering blue ink tattoos.

Yellow is used to neutralize purple. Not many people have purple skin, but *some* under eye circles can look purple if the person has a lot of red in their skin, or any veins under red/pinkish skin… Yellow is the ‘standard’ for under eye circles in the everyday market, but if you have bluish circles, or greyish circles, you probably want to stay away from this… let’s go back to basic color mixing… blue + yellow = green.

Where most people go wrong: Even if you use the right corrective concealer colors, you still need to remember to probably go over that concealer with something in your skin shade, and not to RUB over it (you don’t want to rub the concealer off!)… gentle patting will do. An example would be if I used a green concealer to cover a pimple. I then would go over it with either a skin tone concealer or a foundation and pat it until it’s blended. Also, don’t forget to set with a powder so it stays put!

Foundations and Color Theory

This can be a confusing subject, and once you figure out what your skin classification is, your world can get turned upside down when you jump to a different brand.

First we’ll cover universal understanding for undertones and complexions:

Pink undertones = cool complexion

Golden undertones = warm complexion

Balanced undertones = neutral complexion

How do you know what undertones you have? It’s usually really difficult to tell. The easiest way usually falls under what jewelry and clothing looks best on you. This is not the standard rules, but it’s the easiest way for *me*.

Pink/Cool undertones usually look BEST in silver/platinum/white gold jewelry. If you put on a blue (true blues) shirt, your skin looks healthy. If you put on a bright orange shirt, you’r skin will usually look kind of sickly. If you look at the underside of your forearm, your veins usually appear blue.

Golden/Warm undertones usually look best in yellow gold colored jewerly. Your skin will look healthy in orange shirts, when true blue shirts make you look sick-ish. The veins in your forearm might appear more green.

Neutral undertones look good in both silver and yellow-gold jewelry as well as being able to wear any color.

Yes it is possible to have different undertones in different parts of your body. If you’re still having trouble, you might want to enlist in the advice of a professional.

Where it gets even MORE confusing: Some companies such as MAC follow a true color wheel and place pink undertones in the WARM category and yellow undertones in the COOL category. The yellow side of beige is cooler than the red/pink side of beige. So someone saying that they have a ‘cool complexion’ could mean either pink or yellow depending on what they know to be cool/warm. So never assume people are just ‘wrong’ by their classification

Eyeshadow and Color Theory

Now we get to the fun part. Making your eyecolor just POP. This is where the color wheel is most helpful, and this is why your eyes may appear to change colors depending on what makeup, clothing, and hair color you have next to them.

If you find your eye color on a color wheel, exactly opposite of it is it’s complimentary color, and placing these colors side by side will intensify both colors.

We’ll start with Blue. If you have blue eyes, directly opposite of blue on the color chart is Orange. So logically, shades of orange will make your eyes look more blue.

For Green eyes, the complimentary color is red. So shades of Red will make the green in your eyes stand out more.

Hazel eyes can be fun… Wearing red toned eyeshadows will make the green stand out, wearing purple toned eyeshadows will make the gold stand out, and wearing blue toned eyeshadows will make the brown stand out

It’s usually not realized that Brown eyes are usually a shade of red to orange and you probably need to look at an advanced color wheel to determine what color matches closest to your eyes, but for the majority, the complimentary colors are going to be in the blues.

WELL I’M NOT GOING TO PUT RED EYESHADOW ON AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!

Your right… I’m not telling you to wear red eyeshadow. As a matter of fact, red can make you look very tired or sick, and maybe you’re not the type to wear orange eyeshadow. But complimentary colors are just what makes each color the MOST intense. And if you take a moment to really think about opposites on a color wheel, then logically, if you have cool toned skin, you probably have cool toned eyes, and directly opposite of a cool tone, will be a warm tone, which is why they neutralize when layered and stand out when next to eachother, and it probably wouldn’t be flattering to your skin tone if that’s something you’re worried about.

Fear not!

The complimentary colors are a *guide*. I personally, when I’m trying to make my eyes stand out, devide the color wheel in half and try and stay on the opposite side. As an example, if I have blue eyes, I’d take blue and orange on the color wheel, and divide right between them… every thing on the orange side would be colors I play with to make my eyes more blue… and the closer I get to orange, the more blue my eyes will look. Play with shades and tints. And remember, there are warmer versions of cool colors, and cooler versions of warm colors. So with blue eyes, I might play with browns (shade of orange, remember!) or pinks, or peaches, or pinky purples… it just really depends on your exact eye color and complexion and more importantly, preference!

Here’s a mini guide for ideas to play up eye colors… this is in no way the rule! Just a way to get you thinking about color theory as more than the basic ROYGBIV colors, and to help you brainstorm and get even more ideas.

Again, those are just ideas and you can add to the list. There are variations in eye color, like blue eyes that are more grey, blue-green eyes, gold-green eyes… so the colors ideas I have may work more for one person and not for another. It’s best for you to find your closest eye color match on the color wheel and go from there, I just wanted to show that just because red is your complimentary color, that there are variations of red and you don’t have to find a fire-engine red eyeshadow to make your eyes stand out.

So why are there ‘rules’ saying you shouldn’t match your eyeshadow to your eye color? Again, it’s color theory. It’s not that you shouldn’t. It’s that you shouldn’t if you’re trying to make your natural eye color stand out more. If you have blue eyes, wearing blue eyeshadow isn’t going to make your eyecolor itself stand out, it’ll distract from your eyecolor, especially if the blue eyeshadow is more intense than your eye color. Please don’t argue that wearing a pound of blue eyeshadow makes your blue eyes more blue, because it doesn’t. It might make your eye area stand out as more blue, but it won’t bring out the natural blue in your eyes… that’s not to say that wearing it is wrong or that it looks bad… it might even be really flattering on you, but this article is to help explain how to make your eyecolor stand out all by itself.

Also, this is applying to color theory, so please, no comments about my telling you what to do… this is just basic information. You can wear whatever colors you want for whatever reason you want! If you want to wear purple foundation, go ahead… rock it! It’s all about what you want in the end… And if this article helps even one person acheive what they want, or helps them understand and make their makeup less complicated and confusing, then it served its purpose!