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Eye Color

One thing you should take into account when choosing an eyeshadow and eyeliner is the color of your eyes. You want to bring out your natural color. Your goal is to make your eye color pop and stand out, not for the eyeshadow to compete with or diminish your natural color.

The chart below can help you select your best shades.The key is to select a color that's the opposite of the eye color. For example, for blue eyes, choose a warm shade of brown or tawny or golden shades. Whenever you pair two opposite colors, they intensify each other. Using shades of eyeshadow or eyeliner that are opposite of green (coppery, warm browns or purple) will make the green in the iris of your eyes look brighter and much more green.

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Eyes

Highlight

The highlight shade is the lightest shade of the ones you will be using. Everything you highlight visually comes forward. Your shade choice can be more or less dramatic, depending on the shade you select. A matte finish provides a much more subtle look than a shimmer finish. The shimmer is more dramatic. For example, a shimmer highlight on deep-set eyes opens up the eye more than a matte shade. Lighter highlight shades are also more dramatic than soft of flesh-toned shades. How much you want to pull an area forward depends on whether you make a more or less dramatic shade choice.

Once you've chosen a highlighter shade, apply it to the brow bone (the area immediately underneath the brow's arch) and your eyelid. Do not apply it all the way from the lash line to the brow, because such a sweeping application can be unflattering to the eye shape. Also apply your highlight shade to the inside corner of the lower lash line. This will really help open up your eyes, making them appear larger and more youthful.

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Eye Shapes

Hooded Eyes

Hooded eyes are sometimes called "bedroom eyes", because the lids tend to look heavy and partly closed. There are two types of hooded eyes – those you are born with and those that you acquire. Applied correctly, eye color can help hooded eyes appear more open by minimizing the eyelid.

• Avoid using a dark eyeshadow over the entire lid, because it can make the lid appear heavier and will make the eyes look closed and small.
• Don't be tempted to highlight the brow bone too much; this can accentuate the hooded appearance of the eyelid.
• Avoid applying your highlight shade over the entire lid; it will just make your lid look even more hooded.

Application

1. Highlight Shade: Apply to the brow bone and along the upper lash line. Also apply to the inside corner of the lower lash line.
2. Midtone Shade: Start at the outside corner base of your upper lash line and bring the color up and over the entire hooded area. This helps the lid recede, by pushing the lid away and bringing the eye forward. Be sure to blend the areas where the midtone color meets the highlight color. Be sure to apply your midtone along your lower lash line; start from the outside corner and brush across toward the inside corner.
3. Contour Shade: Start at the base of the lash line and bring the color up and over the hooded area, layering it on top of your midtone. Do not bring it as far across as you did your midtone, but definitely come half way across the lid. Next, sweep your contour color underneath the lower lashes to define the lower lash line, starting from the outside corner and blending your way across. Don't miss this step! Hooded eyes really benefit from well-defined upper and lower lash lines.

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Eyeliner

Eyeliner can go a long way toward helping to define your eyes (opening them up and drawing attention to them), but if used incorrectly, it can be very aging. One important thing to remember. For you to look her most youthful, you might want to soften the eyeliner color choice. Some women think that they have to stop wearing eyeliner as they age, but that's not true.

Tip: If you wore black eyeliner in her twenties and thirties, switch to brown, to create a softer, more youthful definition in your fifties. If brown is too intense, switch to a soft bronze or taupe. Don't stop defining the eyes, just soften the definition.

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Eye Color

One thing you should take into account when choosing an eyeshadow and eyeliner is the color of your eyes. You want to bring out your natural color. Your goal is to make your eye color pop and stand out, not for the eyeshadow to compete with or diminish your natural color.

The chart below can help you select your best shades.The key is to select a color that's the opposite of the eye color. For example, for blue eyes, choose a warm shade of brown or tawny or golden shades. Whenever you pair two opposite colors, they intensify each other. Using shades of eyeshadow or eyeliner that are opposite of green (coppery, warm browns or purple) will make the green in the iris of your eyes look brighter and much more green.

If you have brown eyes, lucky you! You can experiment with a variety of colors and still enhance your natural eye color. So play to your heart's content with purple, green, gold, navy, silver, copper, or brown. Any color looks beautiful around brown eyes; you will not be competing with your natural eye color.

If you are wondering why you do not see a category on the chart for hazel eye, it is because hazel eyes are not a single color. Hazel eyes are a mixture of colors, either green and brown or green and blue. Choose the eye color you want to enhance, and refer to the corresponding color category. If you have blue-green hazel eyes, for example, you can choose shades from the blue or green category. If you have green-brown hazel eyes, you can choose colors from the green or brown category. You get to pick; don't be afraid to experiment.

You will see that there is a grey category. I think of this as a pale eye color. It can be pale blue or pale green, but what makes it special is that the iris of the eye is always surrounded by a dark ring. So, surrounding this eye color with rich, deep eyeshadow and eyeliner colors will make your customer's eyes glow.

Skin Tone

Skin Tone is another factor to consider when choosing your eyeshadow. By skin tone, we mean the depth level of your customer's skin. Your shade choices will make a difference in the intensity of your look. Women with dark ebony skin might want to steer clear of eyeshadows that are too white or light. Likewise, women with fair, pale skin should avoid eyeshadows that are too dark, unless they want a daring look.

Matching

Although some women think they should, you do NOT have to match your eye makeup to your clothing. Makeup – like your clothing – is an accessory to your customer. Makeup is not an accessory to your clothing. Matching your makeup colors to your clothes can wash you out and might not always flatter your best features.

Highlight

The highlight shade is the lightest shade of the ones you will be using. Everything you highlight visually comes forward. Your shade choice can be more or less dramatic, depending on the shade you select. A matte finish provides a much more subtle look than a shimmer finish. The shimmer is more dramatic. For example, a shimmer highlight on deep-set eyes opens up the eye more than a matte shade. Lighter highlight shades are also more dramatic than soft of flesh-toned shades. How much you want to pull an area forward depends on whether you make a more or less dramatic shade choice.

Once you've chosen a highlighter shade, apply it to the brow bone (the area immediately underneath the brow's arch) and your eyelid. Do not apply it all the way from the lash line to the brow, because such a sweeping application can be unflattering to the eye shape. Also apply your highlight shade to the inside corner of the lower lash line. This will really help open up your eyes, making them appear larger and more youthful.

Midtone

Your midtone shade is the most important shade, but can also be the most boring. The middle shade of your three eyeshadow colors, it is deeper than you highlight shade and lighter than your contour shade. It's the first step in the blending process and in creating definition in the crease of the eye. This shade should be the most natural – an extension of your skin tone. You'll change your highlight and contour colors more often than your midtone shade.

Your midtone starts the reshaping of your eyelids, because everything we add depth to will visually recede.

To apply it, start from the outside corner of the eyelid, because the first place you lay your brush receives the highest concentra- tion of color. Gently move you brush along the crease of the eyelid, from the outside corner all the way across to the inside corner. For a very defined crease, you can apply a few more layers of your midtone shade, always making sure to blend it where it meets the highlight shade.

Then if you want you can apply the midtone shade along the lower lash line. Start application from the outside corner, sweeping brush; across to the inside corner. Applying the midtone here before you apply eyeliner or contour shade helps create a blend, because you are building depth of color.

For a minimalist, rather than applying a highlight, contour, and midtone shade, just sweep the midtone shade across the eyelids for a very subtle definition. It will help the eye color pop but won't help to define or shape the eyelids as much as using all three shades will. Minimalists are usually short on time and don't have the patience for a lengthy application.

Contour

The contour shade is the deepest of the three shades. It's not necessarily stark or dark. The contour eyeshadow is the shade you can have fun with and change your mood. Because of its depth, your contour shade provides the most dramatic reshaping of your eyelid. This shape really helps define the eyes.

To apply, move a brush with shadow across your top lash line, from the outside corner toward the inside corner (brushing shadow along your lash line helps create a blended effect with your eyeliner, which is always more flattering and more youthful). Then, bring the color up into the outer portion of the crease and blend it inward (about a third or, at most, halfway across). Your goal is to create a gradation of color, with the outer corner of the eye being the darkest and becoming lighter as you move in toward the center of the eyelid. By layering your contour shade on top or your midtone shade, you'll get the blended, defined look. You can also apply the contour color underneath and along the lower lash line to define your eyes. (Blending it over the eye pencil gives it a softer, more subtle lined effect).

For a more daring eye, apply several layers of color to the outside corner of the eye, to build the shade's intensity. Add color in small amounts. You can always add more for extra drama, but once applied it, it's difficult to remove. If you need to soften your application, simply take a little loose powder and a clean brush, and blend it over the shadow you just applied.

Midtone Shades

· Gold · Teak · Topaz · Sherbet · Wheat · Sparkle · Mingle · Aura · Siren · Limelight · Bubbles · Luna · Lucky

Contour Shades

· Limelight · Siren · Lucky · Vintage · Bubbles · Luna · Shadow · Jewel · Smoke · Twilight · Indigo · Ember · Topaz

Highlight Shades

· Vanilla · Wheat · Tulle · Silversmoke · Moonbeam · Sparkle

Hooded Eyes

Hooded eyes are sometimes called "bedroom eyes", because the lids tend to look heavy and partly closed. There are two types of hooded eyes – those you are born with and those that you acquire. Applied correctly, eye color can help hooded eyes appear more open by minimizing the eyelid.

• Avoid using a dark eyeshadow over the entire lid, because it can make the lid appear heavier and will make the eyes look closed and small.
• Don't be tempted to highlight the brow bone too much; this can accentuate the hooded appearance of the eyelid.
• Avoid applying your highlight shade over the entire lid; it will just make your lid look even more hooded.

Application

1. Highlight Shade: Apply to the brow bone and along the upper lash line. Also apply to the inside corner of the lower lash line.
2. Midtone Shade: Start at the outside corner base of your upper lash line and bring the color up and over the entire hooded area. This helps the lid recede, by pushing the lid away and bringing the eye forward. Be sure to blend the areas where the midtone color meets the highlight color. Be sure to apply your midtone along your lower lash line; start from the outside corner and brush across toward the inside corner.
3. Contour Shade: Start at the base of the lash line and bring the color up and over the hooded area, layering it on top of your midtone. Do not bring it as far across as you did your midtone, but definitely come half way across the lid. Next, sweep your contour color underneath the lower lashes to define the lower lash line, starting from the outside corner and blending your way across. Don't miss this step! Hooded eyes really benefit from well-defined upper and lower lash lines.

Wide Set Eyes

To determine whether or not you have wide-set eyes, measure the width of one eye. The space between your eyes should equal the width of one eye. If the space between your eyes is greater than on eye width, your eyes are considered wide-set. Your goal is the create the illusion that they are set closer together (visually pushing them in).

• To visually "push" your eyes closer together, you need to darken the inside hollows of your eye next to the bridge of the nose. Deepening the color in this area helps your eyes appear to be set closer together. To get the needed color depth, do not bring your contour color all the way in – just layer your midtone shade.
• Begin any dark-color application slightly in from the outer corner of your eye and blend your shadow up and in instead of outward, because blending it outward will "pull" the eyes wider apart, and your goal her is to "push" them closer together.

Application

1. Highlight Shade: Apply to your brow bone and eyelid.
2. Midtone Shade: Starting from the outside corner of the crease, bring the color toward the inside corner of your eye, making sure to bring it up and in, not elongating it out. Be sure to apply a few extra layers to the inside corners, to deepen the color and help visually push the eyes closer together. Now apply your midtone along your lower lash line, starting from the outside corner and brushing across toward the inside corner. This helps start your definition and creates a better blend when you apply your contour shade and eyeliner.
3. Contour Shade: Starting slightly in from the outer corner, brush it across the upper lash line and up into the crease of your eye. Also sweep it underneath the lower lash line, being careful not to extend the color beyond the outer edge of the eye.

Close-Set Eyes

The ideal space between the eyes should be approxi- mately the width of one eye. If the space between your eyes is less than one eye-width, you have close –set eyes. Your goal is to create the illusion that your eyes are farther apart.

• Keep the inside corner of your eyes and the areas closest to your nose as light as possible, to help visually push the eyes apart.
• Concentrate the darker shades on the outer corners of the eyes. Always elongate your darkest shadows, to help pull the eyes apart.

Application

1. Highlight Shade: Apply to your eyelid and brow bone. Also apply your highlight shade to the inside corner of the lower lash line. This helps to open up your eyes, making them appear larger and more youthful. This step is imperative for close-set eyes, because it really helps visually push the eyes apart.
2. Midtone Shade: Starting at the outside corner of the crease, bring the color in toward the inside corner. With all other eye shapes, we have applied our midtone shade from the outside corner of the crease to the inside corner; for close-set eyes, we will only bring it three-quarters of the way across, because we do not want to deepen the inside corner of the lid. This visually pushes the eyes closer together. We want to keep the area closest to the bridge of the nose as light as possible. Apply your midtone along your lower lash line, starting from the outside corner and brushing toward the inside corner. This helps to start definition and create a better blend when you apply the contour shade and eyeliner.
3. Contour Shade: Sweep it across the base of the upper lash line and up into the outer area of the crease. You definitely want to elongate this shade, to help pull the eyes apart. Confine it to the outer corners of the eyes – never bring it more than a third of the way in. Sweep it underneath the lower lash line for definition.

Prominent Eyes

If the eyelids and eyes are full and tend to extend out from the face, this is described as having prominent eyes. The goal here is to visually push the eye away from us and help the eye appear to recede into the face. We do this by creating a light-to-dark effect with the three eyeshadows, with the darkest shade applied closest to the lash line and fading as you go toward the brow. For prominent eyes, we are actually trying to make the eyes appear smaller; we want to minimize their fullness.

• Never highlight the eyelids – the eyes will appear even more prominent. Remember, everything we highlight is visually pulled forward.
• A deeper or contour shade across the entire eyelid helps to minimize the fullness and makes it appear to recede.
• With this eye shape, you can apply the eyeliner all the way around the eye with the same thickness and intensi- ty, because we actually want to close the eye slightly.

Application

1. Highlight Shade: Apply to brow bone only.
2. Midtone Shade: Start at the base of the upper lash line and bring the color up and over your entire lid, all the way up to your brow bone. Laying your brush first along your lash line and working your way upward gives you the highest concentration of color at the lash line. Be sure to apply your midtone along your lower lash line, starting from the outside corner and brushing across toward the inside corner. This helps start your definition and creates a better blend when you apply your contour shade and eyeliner.
3. Contour Shade: Again, start at the base of your lash line and bring the color all the way across the lid and up into the crease. Then sweep the contour color under- neath the lower lash line, to create definition and further help your eyes recede into your face.

Deep-Set Eyes

As the name suggests, deep-set eyes are eyes that are set deep into their sockets. The brow bone also extends out farther with this eye shape than with any other eye shape. The goal with deep-set eyes is to bring your eyes out and forward, while pushing your brow bone back, to make the eyes look more properly set on the face. The great thing about deep- set eyes is that they are much less likely to start to droop as you age.

• A dark eyelid does not work for this eye shape. You want to highlight the eyelids of deep-set eyes as much as possible, to help bring them out. A dark lid pushes them farther back into the head.
• Darkening the crease is also unnecessary for this eye shape.
• There is no need to highlight the brow bone, since it is already prominent. Highlighting brings it forward even more, and we want it to recede.
• When you wear eyeliner, keep it as close to the lash line as possible (very thin). Thick eyeliner, especially on the upper lids will work against you when you're trying to bring out the eyes.

Application

1. Highlight Shade: Apply to the eyelid and into the crease. This helps pull the eye forward. Also apply your highlight shade to the inside corner of the lower lash line.
2. Midtone Shade: Apply your color right above the crease, not in the crease. Starting from the outside corner, bring it across the lid toward the inside corner just above the crease, blend- ing it up onto the brow bone. Now, apply your midtone along your lower lash line, starting from the outside corner and brushing across toward the inside corner.
3. Contour Shade: Apply contour from the outer corner of the upper lash line, then up onto the brow bone, once again to help make the area recede. Next, sweep the contour color underneath the lower lash line, starting from the outside cor- ner and blending your way across. Tip: Use a brighter (not necessarily a darker) color of shadow. This also keeps you from deepening your lid too much.

Droopy Eyes

The definition of a "droopy eye", is that the outer corners or your eyes turn slightly downward. They are sometimes referred to as "sad, puppy-dog eyes". Your goal is to make the outer corners appear to turn up, rather than down. It's actually very easy to do! You just need to start your color application slightly in from the outside corner, on top and especially along the bottom lash line.

• You want to create what we call an "open-ended" eye, which means that the color from your top lash line and bottom lash line do not meet at the outer corner of the eye. If the color meets at the outside corner, it will accentuate the droop. By leaving it natural, you actually create a visual lift to the eye.
• When applying mascara, be sure to concentrate on the middle to inside lashes. Defined lashes in the outer corners of the eyes also accentuate the droopiness.

Application

1. Highlight shade: Apply to brow bone and eyelid. Also apply your highlight shade to the inside corner of the lower lash line.
2. Midtone shade: Starting slightly in form the outside corner of the eye, bring the color across and into the inside corner of the crease. Be sure to bring the color up and in. Now, start- ing just slightly in from the outer corner, apply your midtone along your lower lash line. Be sure to start from the outside corner and brush across toward the inside corner.
3. Contour shade: Starting just slightly in from the outside corner, bring your color up and into the crease. Next, sweep contour color along the lower lash line, being sure once again to start slightly in from the outside corner. Tip: When wearing color along the lower lash line, begin your application about an eighth of an inch from the outer most corner. For eye shape, do not use eyeliner along the lower lash line. It can look too dramatic. Instead, use your contour shade to define along your lower lash line.

Eyeliner

Eyeliner can go a long way toward helping to define your eyes (opening them up and drawing attention to them), but if used incorrectly, it can be very aging. One important thing to remember. For you to look her most youthful, you might want to soften the eyeliner color choice. Some women think that they have to stop wearing eyeliner as they age, but that's not true.

Tip: If you wore black eyeliner in her twenties and thirties, switch to brown, to create a softer, more youthful definition in your fifties. If brown is too intense, switch to a soft bronze or taupe. Don't stop defining the eyes, just soften the definition.

Here are some ground rules:

• If you line the bottom lash line, you must line across the top lash line. Without the balance along the top lash line, the depth along the bottom will pull the eye down and make them look older and tired.
• Likewise, the color along the bottom lash line should never be deeper than the color along your top lash line, because, this too, will drag your eye down. Many women want more definition along the top lash line than along the bottom, and this is always okay. For example, a deep brown eyeliner along your top lash line with a soft bronze along the bottom creates a softer, more subtle look.
• You can line along the top lash line without lining along the bottom.
• For a soft, natural look, you can skip eyeliner. But you can get a natural look by using an eyeliner brush and a dark eyeshadow to add a little soft definition at your lash line. Using an eyeshadow instead of actual eyeliner gives you subtle definition, without making your eyes looked lined. Or you can wet any Elizabeth Arden eye- shadow for a more dramatic look.

The goal of applying eyeliner is to create definition and make the eyes the focus of your look. Defined eyes wake your face up and create a wide-eyed, youthful expression.

There is a simple rule of thumb that works for all eye shapes. Along your top lash line, you want your definition to start at the inside corner of your eye. Here, the line should be thinnest, then slowly make it become wider as you apply it across to the outside corner of the eye. This creates the definition that you are looking for without closing the eye. Aim to apply eyeliner along your upper lash line as close to the roots as possible; wiggle the pencil using little back-and-forth motions to really work the color into the roots. Along the lower lash line, the color should be most intense at the outside corner, fading away as you move toward the inside corner. You want to bring it all the way across the bottom lash line, but make sure that the color fades in intensity from the outer corner to the inner corner. The same thickness all the way across the top and underneath the lower lash line can close the eyes and make them appear smaller. Whereas a gradation of color across the top and along the bottom adds definition and attention. Place the color as close to the lash line as possible. YOU DO NOT WANT SKIN SHOWING between your lashes and eyeliner!

Cake

Elizabeth Arden's Dual Perfection Brow Shaper and Eyeliner is considered a cake liner. It looks like an eyeshadow but is much heavier and more highly pigmented. Cake eyeliner is easy to apply and gives a similar effect to liquid, cream E, or gel. It gives you the most dramatic effect.

Dampen your brush before applying it. Starting at the inside corner of your top lash line, move the brush slowly across the lash line. Be sure to make the line its' most nar- row at the inside corner, gradually getting thicker as you reach the outside corner. As your brush reaches the out- side corner, you can give it a little "kick" upwards, which helps lift the eye. When lining the lower lash line start once again at the inner corner and slowly move the brush along the lash line. Do not be heavy handed with the application along the lower lash line as this will look too harsh and stark. The line should look the thickest at the outer most corner.

Tip: With all liners the secret to creating the perfect definition along the lash line is to get the color right into the base of the lashes (especial- ly along the top lash line).

There is a trick to create defini- tion like no other. Simply use a fine-tipped brush to carefully push black eyeshadow (Indigo) into the base of the customer's eyelashes. This defines the eyes and makes the lashes look thicker, without making your eyes appear "lined".

Application: Using a Powder

1. Dip the same with the above method.

These are two areas that many women miss.

Mascara is everyone's favorite way to add definition to the eyes. Layering mascara creates the most dramatic definition.

Tip: Black mascara looks good on almost everyone. Black gives the most definition. If you want a softer result use brown or brown/black.

For thicker lashes: Start at the base of the lashes and hold the mascara wand in a horizontal position, working it from side to side, as you work your way up to the end of the lashes. The mascara particles will attach to the sides of your lashes and make them appear thicker.

For longer lashes: Hold you mascara wand in a vertical position. Starting at the base of the lash line, pull the wand up and out to the end of the lashes. The particles will attach to the end of your lashes, making them appear longer.

If you want both – simply apply multiple layers, using both techniques. For example, apply your thick- ening coat (horizontally), then let it dry. Then apply your lengthening coat (vertically) and let it dry, and so on. Two or three thinly applied coats of mascara are far more effective than a single clumpy one.