Techniques · 2 min read
Bridal Makeup Colors for Your Skin Tone (Fair, Brown and Dark Skin)
Updated
The right colours make bridal makeup look effortless. The wrong ones make it look like makeup. Choosing well comes down to two things: your undertone (cool, warm or neutral) and your depth (fair to deep). They’re separate questions, and you need both answers.
Find your undertone
- Cool: rosy or pink-toned skin, bluish wrist veins, silver jewellery flatters you, and you burn easily.
- Warm: peachy, golden or yellow-toned skin, greenish veins, gold jewellery flatters you, and you tan easily.
- Neutral or olive: a mix of both, sometimes with a slightly green-grey cast. Both metals suit you.
Your undertone usually matches your natural hair and eye colouring too, and it doesn’t change with a tan. A tan only changes your depth.
Shade guide by skin tone
| Skin | Blush | Eyes | Lips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Soft pink, peach, tea-rose | Champagne, taupe, soft mauve, light brown | Rosy nude, soft coral, sheer berry |
| Medium | Rose, apricot, coral | Bronze, warm brown, plum, copper | Rose, warm pink, mauve |
| Olive | Warm rose, terracotta | Bronze, olive-gold, aubergine | Brick-nude, terracotta, berry |
| Deep | Plum, berry, brick, cinnamon | Gold, copper, rich plum, navy, emerald | Berry, mahogany, blue-red, deep cinnamon |
Choose foundations without a pink base, which can turn grey on deep skin, and use a tinted setting powder rather than translucent. Very pale pastels and frosty nudes can look chalky, so rich, clear colours are more flattering.
Make your eye colour stand out
Shades opposite your eye colour on the colour wheel make it look more intense:
- Blue eyes: peach, copper, bronze, champagne
- Green and hazel eyes: plum, mauve, rose, burgundy
- Brown eyes: plum, navy, forest green, gold and almost every neutral
Keep the face in harmony
Keep your blush and lipstick in the same colour family, choose your lip shade last, and check the full look in daylight. When undertone, depth and colour family all agree, the makeup looks like it belongs to you.
Frequently asked questions
What lipstick colour is best for a bride?
Choose a shade in the same family as your blush and one step deeper than your everyday nude, so it shows in photos.
What eyeshadow colours suit a bride?
Soft neutrals such as champagne, taupe, mauve and soft brown suit most brides. Add a deeper shade chosen for your eye colour at the outer corner.
Our lesson on foundation matching covers undertones and shade testing in depth.
