What’s better than makeup? Something in your eye color, worn next to your face.
I’ve been astonished by the effectiveness of this a number of times recently when I changed during the day from what I was wearing into a brown shirt. Part of my wardrobe strategy is to have one of every kind of shirt I wear in brown.
Not to discourage you from wearing makeup. Have you tried E.L.F.?
Hmm, so what about using eyeliner in your eye color?
Really? I have very brown eyes, but wearing brown really makes me look washed out. Maybe I should check out more browns….
That’s a good question about the eyeliner. I don’t currently have any in brown, I have cyan (the compliment of brown) and very dark grey (the color of my “ring” around the brown). I’d love to know what others think.
Beck, the browns that I have been noticing especially recently have been a wee bit darker than my eye color. Let me know if you notice a pattern, because I can always amend my advice. 🙂
I have also noticed the same effect on some blue-eyed people recently, but it’s not across the board every blue. Besides value, also look at chroma (which means how muted or clear the color is).
Good suggestion- It does freshen me up to wear brown! Even when I haven’t put on makeup, brown is always more flattering than most any other color.
I am trying to buy more brown in all my various clothing layers: pants, skirts, cardigans, camisoles, blouses, and shoes… that way I can mix and match much more easily. I’m just resigning myself to the fact that that’s what I look best in so I might as well buy accordingly!
Rebecca, I wonder if I’m the exception that makes the rule?
I have brown eyes, but I wear little brown near my face (although when I wear eyeliner I do wear brown). I have a brown t-shirt on today, but it is lightened by a peach cami showing above the v-neck, and I wore an off white/peach/pink/brown tweed blazer over it. I have a rich brown square neck camisole in silk charmeuse that looks wonderful on me, but I wonder if part of the reason it does is the shine and life in the fabric?
The corollary works like a charm though. I do very well in strong bright blues, from aqua, turquoise through teal and royal right the way through deep sapphire.
And no, I haven’t tried E.L.F. Yet ….
Wendy, do you feel it washes you out, like Beck said it did her?
I wanted to suggest that maybe it had to do with color value contrast, like a person with darker skin and brown eyes might need to throw some white in with brown for contrast, but I think Beck has fair skin, so I’m not sure that works.
On the other hand, you didn’t say that brown didn’t look good on you, but that you don’t wear it. Perhaps your personality is the variable then, since you like the contrasting color. Not to be too analytical …
I had to weigh in on this one! I have deep blue eyes, and blues look great on me. Especially the deeper shades. I’m anxious to try something on in cobalt! I also find it funny that I’m naturally drawn to blue.
For the most impact in your eye makeup, go with the opposite liner/shadow for your eye color – brown eyes wear blues, green eyes wear purples, blue eyes wear browns…. the contrast makes the color of the eye more intense. Or at least that’s what I found working nearly 5 years at the makeup counter and what they told us in our training, etc. My eyes are mostly green and I wear purpled browns or purpled grays to make my eyes pop.
I am guessing the brown shirt still has to be in the proper warm/cool family for your skin tone for this one to work – a blue/pink person needs a cocoa brown and a golden person needs something a bit more, well, golden in undertone…?
Hey, Dana! That’s great, then, I’ve been doing my eyes right! (Although there are days when I just want something more subtle.)
I wonder if that cool/warm thing is the trouble with some of the brown-eyed ladies not wearing brown well? Probably especially if the individual’s coloring is extremely one or the other.
My coloring is warm, but not extremely. I haven’t worn much in the golden browns since my hair went gray; usually it’s a dark espresso brown, a basic chocolate brown, or an almost burgundy brown. Since brown itself is a warm color, I guess wearing the cooler browns is sort of a way of hedging.
Thanks for sharing!
A wash out. That could be it. Or a drab out. It may be a skin tone issue.
The brown that looks best on me is a Nanette Lepore baby doll top in brown silk charmeuse I got on sale last year. I think the sheen of the fabric works well — adds life perhaps. Perhaps it falls into the “cooler” concept. But I would keep this discussion to coolness of brown, because there are warm colours I wear and look good in, too.
That top sounds beautiful, Wendy!
Thanks Rebecca. I like it. 😉
i have a question about wearing the same color as your eyes. my eyes are gray– is it still a good idea? i feel like gray is so drab and lifeless.
erin ~ If you feel that way about gray, you probably need an alternative.
Is there another color present with the gray? I have one daughter whose eyes are half gray and half green; she likes gray, but often combines it with green. Also, are your eyes the kind that look gray in certain circumstances and another color in others (such as different weather or depending on what you are wearing)? If so, the colors they look then would be good choices.
Another way to make gray seem more interesting, if you are not opposed to wearing alot of neutrals, is to combine it with white or black. That adds drama.
Does that give you some ideas that will work for you? If not, I can probably come up with more. 🙂
Huh. With brown hair and brown eyes, I’m afraid I might look like a UPS package if I wore brown.
Kidding!
I wear brown sometimes only because the hint of red/copper in my hair makes it stand out.
Checking out E.L.F…..
UPS package? he hee.
Brown and copper. Oh yeah!
I remembered your advice when I was browsing a sale in a local shop and they had lots of funky scarves for a dollar apiece. Bought a long, narrow fine knit horizontally striped scarf with a sheen to the yarn that contained my hair color – a kind of honey camel – and the same teal as the ring around my eyes, plus many other colors that it seems interesting to think about to wear such as a muted bronze that I think is the undertone or lowlight of my hair.
I have a new (to me, thrift store) warm muted hot pink jacket and I had the idea that it was the same pink as in the scarf and would work for extending the jacket into next fall. And it does. Putting the fall scarf with the summer jacket makes it credibly fall if worn with any of the midtones of the scarf.
So thanks! I knew all that bit but it was a timely pointer in the right direction.