How To Pair Your Eyeshadows Like a Pro

Today I am going to show you how to pair eyeshadows together to create tons of looks. For many of us, it can be confusing when we are looking at a palette of colors to try and figure out which ones work best together and which ones won’t. This tutorial will help you to learn which colors, finishes and combination work best together and hopefull help aid you in picking which shades to choose from.

Three Basic Rules of Pairing Eyeshadows Together

  1. Always include a neutral –  Using a neutral eyeshadow along any brighter shades you may use will keep the look more wearable and tone down the overall look.
  2. Always mix your finishes – Eyeshadows come in finishes, shimmer and matte. Using all shimmer on your eyes will make you look like a disco ball while using just matte finish eyeshadows will look to flat. Using a combination of both with give depth and detail to the look.
  3. Use a light, medium and dark color – A mixture of these three, regardless of the color scheme, will give you a well rounded look with a lot of dimension.

Skin Tone Shades

Now we can move on to blending shades. You always need to have a couple of shades that can be used for blending that are close to your skin color. One a matte finish and one with a shimmer finish. The matte one you will use under the browbone to blend out any harsh lines, the shimmer will be used to highlight under the browbone or in the inner corner to open the eye and make it appear lighter.

  • Fair Skin – Vanilla Bean (matte finish), Shimma Shimma (shimmer finish)
  • Medium Skin – Creme Brule (matte finish), Purely Naked (shimmer finish)
  • Dark Skin – Latte or Cocoa Bear for very dark skin (matte finishes), Glamorous (shimmer finish)

Below is a guide that gives you different kinds of color combinations that you all can put together. There are two ways of doing this Monochromatic Looks and Polychromatic Looks.

Monochromatic Looks

These are where you take one color in varying shades and do a look based on just that color.

This look incorporates a light, medium and dark pink. The dark goes on the outer part of the eye, the medium pink on the middle of the eye and the light pink goes in the inner portion of the eye. Blend together this gives you an overall pink look.

This is a traditional dark brown smokey eye. This is where you take a dark brown and place it on the lid, a medium brown in the crease, and a light brown or tan color right above the crease to blend the colors out.