The Color Wheel in Makeup 101 and How You Can Use it in Your Makeup Routine

There is often confusion when it comes to terms like color tones and color correction and under tones. Makeup, like all other forms of art, is made according to the artist's personal preferences and style and there are no limitations to what you can do. Extreme forms of makeup can be seen in on the ramps but the truth is that those looks are pretty darn difficult to pull off in real life. But if you can then hats of to you. But for a more wearable style, the makeup wheel can aide you in deciding optimum colors and provide best options for your particular set of features.

This is the color wheel: We all know that in makeup we often use the two words- cool and warm colors.

General colors falling in the warm and cool categories

Q1. So then why are there cool reds and warm reds and why do I hear about a warm green? 
The answer is that every warm color can have some cool tones in it for e.g a red can have some blue mixed in it to make it a cool based red. Similarly a green can have some orange mixed in it to make it a warm based green.

Q2. So then what are neutral colors?
Colors that are formed when 2 colors from opposite sides of the color wheel are mixed are neutral colors. These usually fall into the grey, beige and brown families.

Q3. What's my skin tone, warm, cool or neutral?

Well, there are some fool proof tricks to find out:

COOL TONED: If you are cool toned, you will notice that the veins on your wrist are mostly blue. Your face has pink tones to it and silver jewelry looks awesome on you. A blue based red lip color looks good on you.

WARM TONED: The viens on your wrist are green and your face has yellow or golden tones in it. Gold jewelry looks amazing on you. Warm red lipstick suits you well.

NEUTRAL TONED: You guessed it...veins are both both green and blue, you can pull off both silver and gold jewelry equally well and you face has some pink and some gold.

Q4. How can I use the color wheel to help me select shades for my makeup?

It depends in what look you are going for but for the sake of simplicity lets discuss the main 3 schemes.

1. Complimentary colors: This means you are going for maximum contrast by using the opposite colors of the color wheel. So if you have blue eyes, the opposite of blue in the color wheel is orange. So that will maximize the blueness of your eyes and make them pop because of contrast. Brown eyed girls are lucky because neutral colors can pull of any color with good contrast. So if you use a green eyeshadow, a red color will maximize the impact of your makeup. To tone it down a bit use the colors next to the main color of your focus whhich brings us to...

2. Analgous colors: means using colors that next to each other on either side of the main color you are focused on....

So this look will create minimal contrast. It will give you a subtle more natural look. So if you have purple eyeshadow you can use pink lipstick to give a lighter more wearable look

3. Monochromatic colors: means using the same color on all your features but in different shades. For e.g using a light pink eyeshadow, a subtle pink blush and a medium pink lipstick. The result is a natural subtle enhanced face. Though boring, it looks stunning.

Q5. Well whats all the talk about color correction, no concealer does it for my under eye circles.

Well you need to cancel the darkness by applying a shade of concealer that is opposite to the tones in your under eye circles. In natural light just see in your circles are more blue tinged, then you need a concealer that is yellow toned, but if its more green, then you need something in the orange family. These called correctors and after using that just go over the area with your regular concealer or foundation.

Yup that was a quick 101 on the color theory and how we can apply it in makeup. Hope it was useful.