How to Help Teen Girls Determine What Color Makeup Suits Them

Now that your teen is ready to start wearing makeup, it's important to give her a few basic color palette pointers to avoid a few disastrous, clown-like makeup mishaps. Help her fill her makeup bag with colors that accentuate her natural beauty, rather than overpowering or washing out her features because of poor color choices. Start with her skin tone, since it plays a large role in her perfect color palette, and then help her experiment with those colors to find the ideal combination for her personality.

Things You'll Need

  • Blush
  • Foundation
  • Lipstick
  • Eye shadow

Instructions

    • 1

      Look at the veins on your teen's wrist to determine whether she has a warm or cool skin tone; if her veins look blue, she has a cool skin tone with blue or white undertones, whereas green-looking veins are indicative of a warm skin tone because of her skin's yellow undertones. Choose a blush with a brown or peach undertone for a warm skin tone, or a blush with purple or pink undertones for a cool skin tone. Peachy pinks and pinkish browns can work for both skin tones.

    • 2

      Take your teen to the makeup counter to choose the best foundation color. Because you'll want a shade that blends in seamlessly with your teen's skin, it's best not to try guessing at the best color at home. There are six major classifications of skin tones: light, fair, medium, olive, brown and black. This gives you a general guideline, but matching the perfect foundation color within these categories is difficult to do without testing them out.

    • 3

      Find three foundations that look similar to your teen's skin tone and swipe a sample of each one from her cheek to beneath her jaw line. Stand in natural light to see which color blends in with her skin completely.

    • 4

      Use lip size and skin tone to determine the best lip color. Avoid bright colors on full lips because they'll make her lips look even bigger. Stay away from dark colors on thin lips because they'll make her lips look thinner. Nude lipsticks, pinks and bright red colors work well with light and fair-toned skin, while teens with a medium skin tone can show off pink lips with brown undertones. Deep brown or berry colors will complement yellow undertones on medium skin tones, while brown and purple work well on girls with dark skin with yellow undertones.

    • 5

      Determine the best colors for eyes by using a combination of your teen's hair color and skin tone. Fair to medium skin toned redheads generally wear corals, ambers, salmons and similar earth tone colors well, different shades of pink work well on blonds with a similar skin tone, and soft red colors complement brunettes with fair to medium skin tones. Vivid shades of red compliment fair to medium skin tones with dark brown hair, and soft pinks, corals, browns and other soft natural colors work beautifully on teens with deeper skin tones and black hair.

    • 6

      Incorporate eye color into the eye shadow color equation. Make blue eyes stand out by using a contrast color, such as brown, peach or rose, or highlight gray eyes with purple or brown. Use a blue eye shadow to bring out brown eyes, but stick to a less-intense shade of blue, or try pink or burnt orange if your teen has fair skin. Plum eye shadows can make green eyes look more vibrant, while bronze eye shadows work well, too.

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