Color: Contrasts! How to Choose the Best Makeup Shades for Your Natural Color-Contrast Level

Beauty Basics
Have you always believed that knowing whether your natural coloring fits the "warm" or "cool" category would be enough to help you look your best? Or have you somehow secretly suspected that there might just be something more to it than that, yet wondered exactly what that something was? If so, read on. This article covers another, equally important, beauty secret that will help you look your best: the concept of "high- and low-contrast" coloring.

High- or Low-Contrast?
In order to find the truly optimal shades that will make you look your best, you'll need to determine whether your natural coloring is "high- or low-contrast." Do you have pale skin, but dark hair and eyes, or light hair, light eyes, and a deeper skin tone? If so, you have "high-contrast" coloring. (You could possibly have other combinations than those mentioned and still have high-contrast coloring, but the key will be that one or two aspects of your coloring will stand out in obvious contrast to the others.) On the other hand, if your hair, eyes, and skin are all light--or all dark--you have "low-contrast" coloring.

Natural Color Combos
Even the natural color of your lips can be an indicator of whether your coloring is high- or low-contrast. In combination with your hair, eye, and skin color, your lip color--without lipstick, of course--will add one more elements that will help you detect either the high or low contrast nature of your natural color scheme.

Made in the "Shade"!
This will then allow you to decide which shades within the warm or cool category will be most flattering to you. If you have low-contrast coloring and very light hair, eyes, and skin, you probably will not want to wear an extremely deep shade of lipstick. Even very dark eye shadow or blush might give you the "painted doll" look. In the case of low- contrast, medium coloring, you will need to experiment to see how dark you can go and still have your makeup appear natural. With low-contrast dark coloring, you'll probably want to stay away from lighter shades in most cases.