Robert: Whenever I watch color theory videos on makeup, I think that they don't exactly
speak to makeup.
I have an artist background, I studied art for many many years, even on a scholarship.
So I understand the color wheel and how it works.
But it doesn't exactly relate completely to makeup so I'm going to explain the color wheel to you first
and then we're going to kind of like make it more makeup friendly and show you how to
use the color wheel principles with makeup.
So when you're looking at a color wheel,
you're looking at three different things,
you're looking at primary colors, secondary
colors and tertiary colors. Your primary colors are
your basic colors. They're single stand alone
colors. They are colors that cannot be made by mixing other colors. That is blue, yellow and red.
They are your primaries.
Now your secondary colors are your
colors that are a mixture of two primaries. For instance, if you mix blue and red together
it makes violet.
If you mix red and yellow together it makes orange.
If you mix yellow and blue together, it makes green. Those are your secondary.
They are simply a mixture of two primaries. Then your tertiary colors are a mixture of
primary with a secondary.
So if you were to mix yellow, which is your primary with orange your
secondary, it would make yellow-orange. If you were to mix red with orange, it would make red-orange.
Pretty simple. One more thing to talk
about in dealing with colors is
cool and warms.
A cool shade is a blue based shade.
That means the base of the color is blue. A warm shade is a yellow based shade.
It means the base of the shade is yellow. For instance, purple is typically known as a cool purple.
If you look.
you have cool purples
and warm purples. Just know that you can have warm versions of cool shades.
Same way with the blue.
You have your cool blue and your warm blues. You've added yellow to this blue
to make it
a warmer blue.
I think if you look at this
it kind of brings in your eyeshadows, it's much more realistic to look at.
You can see that you have cooler blues moving into warmer blues.
So there are warm versions of a cool shade.
You have cooler purples moving into a warm purple. For instance, that's a very cool purple. We've added
yellow to it, and that makes it
a more warm purple.
And adding a bit more yellow to it makes it even warmer purple.
So cool and warm, every shade you have a cool and a warm version. Here we have a
cool gray.
We've added yellow to it, that makes it a warm gray. So just know, a cool shade has a blue base,
a warm shade has a yellow base.
All right, I think this is a color wheel that more represents
a makeup color wheel.
And from this I can show you
how a complimentary opposite brings out
your eye color
more than a matching shade. For instance, if you had blue eyes,
no matter what the shade of blue might be,
if I were to take blue
and put it on your eye
you don't know what to look at. So it detracts from your blue.
If I were to take a bronzy
warm color
and add it to your eye it makes your eye look bluer.
So our point here is we always want to use complimentary opposites to bring out eye colors.
So anything that's warm will bring out blue. Even a burgundy can bring out
a blue.
You can see how laying that shade next to the eye
verses
a purple
brings the blue out more. And that's your goal.
If you had a green eye,
no matter what your shade of green,
once again,
if I were to use green,
it blends with your green and it does not accentuate or bring out your green.
You want a complimentary opposite.
Purple
will make your green eyes look greener.
Burgundy will make your green eyes look greener.
Copper will make your green eyes look greener.
And you can see by laying these shades next to green how it brings the green into focus.
And that's your goal.
If you have brown eyes
you can simply play with color.
You won't be competing
and so you can play to your heart's content. You can use any shade you want.
Now keep in mind though, some brown eyes
might have a little bit more gold to them.
If they have a little bit more gold to them,
once again your warm coppery shades will bring that gold out. Your purples will bring that gold out.
Your green will not
'cause it needs to be a complimentary opposite, you need to be opposite on the color wheel.
Exact opposite.
If you have brown eyes, they are a little darker, a little more warmth to them,
then your blues,
your purples,
all those shades are going to make that brown really really pop. Where as your
browns are not going to do that for it as much.
So hopefully
in seeing these laying there you can really how that effects it.
If you have just deep, deep, deep brown eyes, almost black,
you can use any color you want because that will be the focus.
Now if you have
multiple flex in your eyes which is quite
common
many times you'll have
let's say blue eyes
with golden flex.
Once again
opposite on the color wheel because you're going to see mainly blue and that's what we want to bring out.
Opposite on that color wheel are those warm coppery shades.
And those are what is going to bring out those shades.
Your burgundies,
any of those shades.
If you have green eyes
with your golden flex in there,
opposite on the color wheel,
your burgundies,
your warm browns,
your purples, it really brings out
that green and that gold.
Now if you have hazel eyes,
now hazel eyes are not one color.
They're a mixture of colors.
They are either green and brown or green and blue.
If they're green and blue
you get to decide what you want to bring out more. If you want to bring the blue out
come over to the coppery shades.
Those will bring out the blue.
If you want to bring the green out in it
come directly across
to the burgundy shades and the purple shades
And that will bring the green out in your eyes. So with a hazel eye, you get to choose what
you bring out. If you want to bring the blue out, we go across from the blue
to the coppery warm shades. If we want to bring the green out in it, we go across from the green to the
burgundies and the purples.
If you have green brown
hazel eyes.
once again
we want to bring the green
out because that's going to be the most exciting color. So you want to go directly
across
and use your warm coppery burgundies and purples.
You can see how
that does so much more for the eye than by using that green right on top of it.
Remember
how it works
is you want
the exact
opposite. If your eyes are blue, you go directly across
to those coppery warm shades.
If your eyes are green, you go directly across
browns, warm coppers, purples and burgundies. If your eyes are very yellowy
cut across strait to your purples.
You want a complimentary opposite, the exact
opposite on the color wheel.
All right, when we're talking about color theory and blush, I personally have a few rules of my own.
But the first thing and I think the easiest way to look at blush is it's not to contour your face with
it's not to reshape your face. It's to add life and color to your face.
A great rule of thumb
is if you were to run around the block
you don't want to use a shade of blush
any darker than what you flush to.
We have our ivory/beige, our bronze/ebony.
The main purpose for me showing you in this manner is I think that's really
where the biggest cut-off point is, is
between ivory/beige and bronze/ebony.
I do find that a lot of ivory/beige women tend to want to
wear your brown bronze/ebony shades. And as you can see, if we were to take
a very nice rich warm brown
bronze/ebony shade, if we were to try to wear it
on your ivory/beige skin tone it just doesn't work.
Just as if a very pale ashy shade does not work on your rich dark
bronze/ebony shades.
If you're going to have shimmer or sheen to your blush I personally prefer one
with gold shimmer versus silver shimmer. I think the silver shimmer looks to reflective
and ashy
which definitely does not work on bronze and ebony skin.
I will say though
that on darker bronze and ebony skin, I tend to like a blush that do have a little bit of a
sheen or shimmer to them
because they give the skin a little bit more of a glow and they prevent them from
looking ashy. But remember they need to have a gold
or a warm shimmer, not a silver shimmer. You'll also find
that bright
pops of color really look amazing on
your darker skin tones as well.
You will find sometimes that there are
some shades that are universal such as this nice
apricot color. It can work on your ivory
beiges as well as your bronze/ebony.
So sometimes there are universal shades.
The main important thing is not to try
to pull off something that's too dark
for your skin tone. And you're always better
off going with more color versus more
darkness. Okay so let's do a little experiment here. Let's clean off all the color
and let's compare wrong and right  for
different skin tones
so that you get a clear picture as to what
does and does not work
for different skin tones. I think the best
way to show that is just flat-out
comparing the colors.
Now, we have our ivory/beiges and our bronze/ebony.
We see that if we take this beautiful peach
it's going to work up and down all these shades.
If we take this brown berry,
it's going to make it look dead and hurt.
It's going to look like someone punched her in the face.
Now if she does want something more
intense we can go
to something bright.
We just don't want to go to something too
brown.
Because remember ivory/beige does not have that much brown in their skin and it would be
darker than what they flush to.
But it's okay to go brighter.
Another great shade any of your soft
peaches and pinks
are great for ivory/beige skin.
But once again if we brought across
dark browns,
toasted almonds,
raisins,
obviously not the right color you can
see how much prettier these go with the
skin tone versus these. These are going to make you look
almost muddy. Where as these are going to brighten your skin. Now let's do the same thing for bronze/ebony.
A bronze/ebony remember we want to brighten as well
but since there is so much brown undertone in their skin
you can see how these nice almond
warm raisin shades really work.
Nice coppery brown.
rich berry,
shockingly enough a bright apricot looks
great but we can see how the soft subtle
peach
is just going to look ashy for them.
So remember what she naturally flushes to is going to be a darker more intense
shade
versus what ivory/beige flushes to. And that's basically what you're trying to do.
You're trying to recreate that natural flush. You can do a brighter lighter
color as long as it's sheer and has a bit of shimmer to it so it just adds shine to the
skin.
But you're always going to be better
adding
more intensity
to your bronze/ebony shades.
So hopefully by comparing those side by
side
you can see
it's not going to work.
It's just going to end up looking ashy.
It's going to look ashy.
So they have the opposite problem from ivory/beige. We go too pale, going to look ashy, if we go
too dark it's going to look muddy.
Hopefully that made it a little easier for you.
When I'm thinking about color theory and lipstick I go through a series of
questions in my head. First and foremost
for me is what size are your lips.
Because a darker shade of lipstick will make
lips look smaller
or lighter shade will make them look fuller. So if you have thin lips the last
thing you want is a dark shade of lipstick.
Also
with ivory/beige skin
the fastest way to age yourself is with a deep,
dark lipstick.
Now it's different with bronze/ebony is the contrast between
the skin and the lipstick
is not very much.
But when you do the dark lipstick
against the lighter skin it's a higher
contrast that will age you.
The fastest way to look younger
especially on ivory/beige is with a bright
colorful warm lipstick
because it will add life and color back to the face whereas if you did a
more neutral shade
it would just
blend into the skin it wouldn't add
the brightness
that the brighter color does.
Also on bronze/ebony, a brighter color can as well, brighten their face as well if they
want to look younger and more youthful.
The second thing you want to think about is your skin tone.
Obviously with bronze/ebony because it
has a brown undertone they can wear
brown shades, they actually look very natural on them.
On ivory/beige, it's too dark, too brown, it's just going to make them look dead.
So you have to consider your undertone.
Also
you can think cool and warm but I find that always warm lips are a safe bet.
For instance,
your ivory shades can wear a cool pink,
they can wear a cool pink
but you'll find that it is much more
flattering for a warm pink.
Whereas
bronze/ebony obviously
it's going to be too ashy.
So to wrap it all up
I always keep a few things in mind first
being your lip size.
That's always the most important to me because you never want to wear a shade that's
dark if your lips are thin.
And a lighter shade will make them look fuller if they are thin.
And then secondly it is your skin tone.
You want to choose something that is very complimentary to your skin tone.
If you're not sure you want to play it safe, you can always choose a shade that's a couple three shades
darker than your natural skin tone. That will give you definition without being too much.
