Makeup is all about colours, colours and colours - in their
different hues and intensity. Since I have
come to realise that colour combination and colour management is very important
in makeup application and understanding of its techniques, then I have chosen
to write again. Enjoy!
Primary colours which
are basic colours that cannot be obtained by mixture of other colours. They are
Red, Blue and Yellow.
Then we have Secondary colours which are obtained by the mixture of two primary
colours but are also strong colours; Orange - gotten from yellow and red,
Violet - from red and blue and Green - from yellow and blue.
Now all these colours have
their soft pastels which are also known as earth tones or off tones
-
Off
tones of Red: pink, burgundy, rose, fuchsia, tan, bronze, copper, ruby etc.
-
Off
tones of Orange: caramel, coral, peach, salmon, apricot etc.
-
Off
tones of Violet: lavender, purple, lilac, magenta, mauve, etc.
-
Off
tones of Green: jade, khaki sage, aqua, mint, avocado, teal, army green, sea
green, olive, lemon green etc.
-
Off
tones of Blue: powder blue, aqua, steel, baby blue, pewter, turquoise, royal
blue, teal, sapphire etc.
Having known all these, there are rules that guide the use of these
colours when it comes to makeup, in order to achieve a beautiful makeup
outlook. (Though since makeup is about expression, one can still very much go
against these rules especially for runway, fashion or photography makeup, but
outside these it is advised that a makeup artist should stick to the rules).
Law of colour
compatibility
-
All
earth tones are compatible with all earth tones. For example, you can have pink
eyes hadows and pink lips.
-
All
earth tones are compatible with a primary colour. For instance, you can have a
mixture of gold and green eyeshadows and peach lips, orange lips or even red
lips.
-
But
not all primary colours are compatible with each other. For example, you can’t
have blue eyeshadows and red lips, or green eyeshadows and red lips, they are
both strong colours and that means the eyes and lips are calling for attention
at the same time which shouldn’t be.
Note:
When your clients do not know their
likes and dislikes in terms of makeup tones of eye shadows, lipsticks, blush
etc., then stay as colour compatible as you can. Stay with soft earth tone
colour as they are very colour compatible with any colour of eyes, hair and
clothing.
Also there should be coordination
between the eye makeup and lip lips, once the colours on the eyes are bold and
making a statement, the lips should be calm and vice versa.
I believe we understand makeup colour
theory in line with colours and their combinations now.
Strive to get better!
