Color Theory for Makeup: Eyeshadows

1. Intro: How does color theory applied to make up? My name is Mira Metzler and I'm a professional makeup artist with a passion for art. I think the classic representation of he color wheel doesn't exactly speak to make up. When I decide the color treatment for my clients, I always trust color theory and my eye to get the best results with little effort. I'll explain some terms we need to understand before we start, relevant for the eyeshadows in particular. And I will show you plenty of examples to illustrate key concepts. So I'm going to explain the color wheel to you first, and then I will show you how to make it more makeup friendly, so that you can use color theory principles with makeup. The color wheel is a simple and powerful tool for understanding how colors relate to each other. We're going to create our own color wheel with eyeshadows, by using basic principles of color theory. And we are also going to use our eyesight to help analyze what we actually see when we look at the color. I hope you'll join me in this journey to learn how to take control over your eyeshadows! 2. Color Theory Basics: When we are looking at the color wheel, we actually see three different things. Primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. They are the main colors on the subtractive color system and cannot be obtained by mixing any other colors. The secondary colors are a mixture of the two primary colors. If you mix red and yellow, you get orange. If you mix red and blue, you get violet. And if you mix yellow and blue, you get green. The tertiary colors are a mixture of a primary with a secondary color. Tertiary colors are pretty simple to figure out based on their names. For example, red and orange will make red-orange, blue and violet will make blue-violet. Yellow and green will make yellow-green. We most likely know colors by their conventional name, like scarlet, indigo, cobalt, fuchsia, lime green. The colors that we see are actually the hues, the pure state of color. After applying tonal values to the color wheel, we have something like this, with shades and tints. Now let's talk about color temperature. Red, orange, and yellow are known as warm colors, whilst green, blue, and violet are considered to be cool colors. For makeup purpose, you need to know that any color can be warm or cool! A warm shade is a yellow base shade, a cold shape is a blue based shape. At a closer inspection on the color wheel, you can see that any color can have a cool for a warm version. For example, if you add yellow to violet, you get warm violet like purple. And if you add blue to violet, you have a cool violet like indigo. For greens, add yellow and you get olive tones, or add blue and you have emerald green. Next, let's see how to use the color wheel in makeup... 3. How to Use the Color Wheel for Makeup: Harmonies or color schemes, or groups of colors that work well together. There are many theories for harmony. And I will only talk about the ones that have most impact and use in makeup. First, I want to take a moment to say that the images I'm using in this video are not samples of my makeup work, and I have chosen them from stock photography sites to better illustrate the concepts that I'm teaching. The first harmony is the monochromatic color scheme. It involves variations from light to dark of a single hue. Monochromatic schemes are highly unified, but may lack variety. These schemes are a safe bet for intense makeup looks, like a smoky eye, even when the chosen color is bright and saturated. These blue shades... we can see how they transition from pearly white in the inner corner to almost black on the outer edge, with a blue gradient. The most used monochromatic scheme is made of brown shades and similar skin color hues, because those are the colors we use to achieve a natural looking makeup. These colors can vary in tonal value from a light cream to dark chocolate; and also in temperature from a warm vanilla to a cool eggshell. Analogous colors are any three colors which are side-by-side on a 12-parts color wheel. They are also unified, but have more variety than monochromatic schemes. In makeup, this makes for a fashionable look rather than a pret-a-porter and is often reserved for statement evening looks. Pair blue-purple, blue and blue-green To get to this peacock feather look. Or green, yellow-green and yellow for bright pop of color. A complementary color scheme is created with colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel. This is the most exciting harmony in makeup because when two complements are placed next to each other, they increase each other's intensity! You can see from the color wheel, we have a variety of complements, as each shade has a corresponding hue on the exact opposite side of the wheel. In makeup, the color choice is more focused because we always want to flatter the color of the iris by using an opposite complementary color for the eye shadow or any other eye treatment. Still, we are not going to put red eye shadow on green eyes and leave it at that! So, how would the color wheel in makeup look like? Something like this... It's much more realistic to look at. Here, I've put in a circle all the eyeshadows that are used for making my face charts, so I can have an overall idea of my options. When I look at this, I can see there is no yellow, but I have plenty of yellow-based colors to work with. Also, the violet family has a beautiful range of cool and warms. So do the oranges! Next, let's look at some examples... 4. Examples: Now let's break it down for each iris color. My approach is combining two harmonies by using eyeshadow colors next to each other on the color wheel that are also all complements to the eye color. If you have blue eyes, you want to make them pop even more with a color like orange. But rather than putting pure orange on your eyelids, you'll have better results with an analogous color scheme based on that orange hue, but more wearable. Copper, bronze, chocolate and all browns will work well to bring the blue in your eyes with little effort. Blue eyes are most often in a cool color, so any warm color will work well, even this apricot color with red hues. On the other hand, a blue eyeshadow would only detract from the iris, because it's the same color and nothing stands out. Same with purple: there's no contrast, no play, no interests, just a color that sits on the eyelids. If you have green eyes, look for colors that have a red bias like purples, burgundy, pink, or even copper. You can see how these colors bring the green into focus. If you would use green eyeshadow, again, you wouldn't know what to look at: the iris or the eyeshadow? So it's not flattering for the eye. If you have brown eyes, you can play with color with more flexibility because no color will compete with your iris color. Brown is basically a darker shade of orange, so you will benefit from cool blues more than anything. Brown eyes could also be a very warm brown and a green color treatment will bring the red hues in your iris, making it look even warmer. Often, brown eyes have some other colors in them. If you have hazel eyes with a golden inflection, you will use your golden colors and the violet family to enhance them. Hazel eyes often appear to shift in color from a brown to green. If you have green and brown, you will want to enhance your green flex because that's the most interesting, by using red-based colors. Gray eyes are a very cool blue with different flex in them, and they may appear to change color from gray to blue to green depending on clothing, lighting, and mood. If you want to bring the blue more, you will apply the same color treatment as for the blue eyes: the yellow-based colors will bring out the blue in your eyes. If you have golden flex, your golden eyeshadows will bring that out even more. The purples, pinks, and bordeaux will bring out the green because they have a red bias. Now let's make our own color wheel... 5. Eyeshadows Color Wheel: In this tutorial, I will show you how I made a custom eyeshadow color wheel using a palette from my personal makeup kit. The palette I'm using has 12 colors, varying from matte to sparkly. First, I drew a circle, divided it in 12 slices and labeled them. Then I swatched all my eye shadows on a separate piece of paper using Isopropyl alcohol to get a better payoff and transferred to paper. This way, I get similar results to applying the colors on skin. I also gave them names based on the colors I saw on paper, and not the names given by the cosmetic brand. This helps a lot arranging them on the color wheel. I start with the purples and dark blue, and move towards the reds, which are represented by the pinks. I also have several browns and I will finish off with dark green. I hope you find this helpful and you will try the same with your eye shadows! 6. Class Project: Your class project is to make a color wheel with your own eyeshadows. You will need at least three eyeshadows, and you don't have to actually put them in a circle. Just swatch them and get to know them. Get to know their color, their bias and how they work for you. One quick note: You can choose any eyeshadow color you like! These are just guides for enhancing your makeup looks with little effort and guaranteed results. As always, have fun with your makeup and find new ways to express yourself! 7. EXTRAS: Hand Drawing RYB Color Wheel : If you need some guidance, this video will help you draw a 12-parts color wheel by hand. Each part has a 30 degrees angle. Hope you find it useful. 8. EXTRAS: Eyeshadow Swatches: This video shows my approach to swatching eyeshadow colors on paper using isopropyl alcohol. The paper I'm using is designed for face charts, and it holds makeup well. You can get the same results by using watercolor paper. Copy paper for drawing paper will require some works to build up color. Towards the end of the video, you will see side by side my eyeshadow swatches with and without using alcohol... you'll notice there's a big difference. I hope you find it useful! 9. Thank You & What's Next: Thank you for taking this class! If you enjoyed this class, please give it a thumbs up and leave me few words in the review section I'd love to hear from you. Also, don't forget to check out my other classes here on Skillshare, where we talk about cleaning makeup tools and brushes and also how to paint with makeup to make a facechart. See you soon!