As spring arrives (it IS arriving, right? RIGHT?), PeaceBang notes that the green eyeshadow trend of last year is still going strong. A reader wrote today asking how to find the peacock shade worn by Emily Blunt in “The Devil Wears Prada” (MAC or Urban Decay or Smashbox ought to be able to set her right up with something she’ll love), and PB notices that several bright green shades are sold out on Sephora.com.
There’s no reason to get this crazy with it when a soft wash of color will do.
Keep the rest of your face fairly neutral if you’re going with green eyeshadow. And please, PLEASE don’t match it to your outfit! I mean, don’t wear a lime green dress and match it all exactly to a lime green eyeshadow. And do use a light hand while applying — remember how your grandmother’s eccentric friend Lil had bright green eyeshadow all kind of caked onto her eyelids? You want to apply with a small fluffy brush (a sponge is very difficult to work with in bright colors) and blend, blend, blend. Don’t leave the inner corners all crumbly and do remember to clean up any dusting of green that winds up on your cheek. You don’t want to look like the Lucky Charms spokesgirl. “Magically delicious!”
I have a tendency to pick the more, er, radical, shades on the rare occasions when I can bear to be around a makeup counter at all. I used to have a habit of wearing lots of black and matching the eye shadow to anything coloured I had on (e.g. black trouser suit with coloured shirt or shoes) – if that’s wrong and will make the baby Jesus cry, how DO we decide on a shade?
Thanks!
[Let me stop laughing first about “making the baby Jesus cry.” This may take awhile. Okay. Okay. Now Joan. Just tell me that you’re not, like, slapping on bright blue eyeshadow or pink lipstick on an otherwise bare face so as to look like you’re made up to “go with” your touch of bright clothing. You’re not doing that, right? Because that would indeed make Jesus, Mary AND Joseph cry. If you’re wearing vibrant make-up colors, you want to make sure your skin looks polished and not blotchy, and that all the elements of the face are balanced. Like, I’ll do a little bit of foundation to even out splotchiness, apply a neutral long-lasting lipstick with lip gloss over it, and do some blush and my eyebrows. Then I’ll say to myself, “Well, I’m wearing a black suit with a French blue blouse, so I think I’ll put a smoky metallic gray on my eyelids, well-blended, and then sweep a really vibrant blue on my lower lid just for fun.” Of course everything is super blended and winds up being subtly dramatic rather than shocking (“OMG, that woman has bright blue eyeshadow matching her shirt!”). Say I’m wearing a brown-based outfit with a touch of bright orange in a scarf or something. I won’t look for a bright orange lipstick that matches the scarf, but I will wear a lip color that really pops, though, and extra blush. The point of make-up isn’t to make it into an extra accessory but to draw attention to your face and make sure that you’re not being upstaged by other elements of your outfit. Does this help? – PB]
I have been using L’Oreal HIP Bright Duos Shadow, Riotous 328. It is a bright green for the eyelids with a slightly darker highlighting color. I have brown eyes with green undertones and I have gotten many compliments on this makeup shade. For women like me (over 40) bright eyeshadows lighten up the face and make the dark undereye circles less noticeable.
sorry but any mention of green eyeshadow reminds me of the green shadow trend years ago, when i heard a maintenence man say he was adjusting the A/C because the secretaries were beginning to mildew!
I can’t claim the “making the baby Jesus cry” meme for my own – I suspect I first heard/read it on Ship of Fools.
I do wear foundation to gently enhance my natural shade of dug-up-vampire skin, but usually go without lipstick because my lips are really red and they feel dried up and weird with lipstick on – when I am working in offices with aircon I put translucent lip gloss on about fourteen times a day.
Thanks for the help – I think reframing makeup as face-enhancer rather than competing-with-shirt will probably sort out the problem!
Oh, PB, tis me again, but I have a question!
I am some kind of cross-breed between a Winter and a Summer; I have pale skin, dark hair, hazel eyes, and pink lips (my friends in high school said I looked like Snow White). I can wear black and white, jewel tones (sapphire blue, ruby red, amythest purple), and shades of red, blue, pink, and purple. I cannot wear yellow-based colors: brown, yellow, orange, or -uh oh- green. The closest I get to green is teal (peacock-teal).
I love, LOVE this look, but that gorgeous shimmery kelly green makes me look sallow and jaundiced. So, PB, do I do this look with a deep teal? I don’t want to look overdone (especially with my pale skin) or cartoonish. I typically use nearly neutral colors– shimmery pink on the upper lids, brown along the crease; lavender on the upper lid, deep purplish blue along the crease; taupe and deep brown for super-neutral. Most of these are pretty pale, along with my super-pale skin, but I love these bold looks. Help!