Rumour has it blondes have more fun. Being a blonde myself, I haven’t yet found a way to use my hair colour to bring more fun into my life (except for my stellar Sandy from Grease impersonation). But I have picked up a few makeup tips for blondes that will help make your morning routine more fun. Read on for makeup tips to help you feel like your own Sandy, even on a rough day.
Golden arches
Well-defined brows act as a frame for your eyes, making your face look elegant even without makeup. But a strong brow doesn’t make much difference if you can’t see it. Eyebrows can easily disappear on blondes, so you’ll want to make them a shade or two darker than your hair colour to help them stand out.
Tinting is the easiest and most effective option, which you can get done at most hair salons. It’ll run you about $10 – $20. Skip the DIY: if used improperly, the dye can colour the skin around your eyebrows darker as well.
If you can’t spare the cash, there are also many eyebrow shadows on the market. Smashbox makes a particularly good one called Brow Tech that comes in dual shadow packs with colourless wax to keep the colour in place all day.
A good lashing
Most girls are after lashes with length and volume. Most blondes just want to see that their lashes are even there. Getting the colour on isn’t the problem so much as getting it on your roots and distributing it evenly. There are two solutions to this:
1. Choose a mascara with a long brush and short bristles. The long brush distributes mascara evenly across the width of your lashes. The shorter bristles make it easier to get at your roots without touching your eyelid. Use small, quick strokes while tilting your chin up to get your lashes as far away from your eyelids as possible.
2. Embrace the messiness. Choose any mascara you like, but I prefer one with a short, thick brush and long bristles for this job, like CoverGirl Lash Blast Fusion. Then go to town, letting mascara go where it may. It sounds far-fetched, but it’s a lot easier to get at your roots when you aren’t worrying about letting the brush touch your eyelid. You may have raccoon eyes after (which can easily be fixed with a Q-Tip dipped in eye makeup remover), but raccoons don’t have dayum-sexy eyelashes.
Complement and contrast
Most natural blondes have fair skin, and that can make choosing makeup colours difficult. Anything too dark will wash you out or look too harsh.
Pink shades of eye shadow are the most flattering to contrast eyes. You can really do any colour for day so long as it isn’t too dark, but take your eye colour into account as well. If you have blue eyes, avoid blue shades of eye shadow as it’ll look monochromatic and your eyes won’t stand out. Experimenting with bold colours like turquoise or violet will look killer on blondes since it’ll stand out against light skin and hair. L’Oré©al HiP Bright Shadow Duo in Flamboyant is one of my favourites.
Using blush and lipstick that compliments your skin tone (be it cool, warm or neutral) will instantly liven up your face. Veteran makeup artist Cheryl Gushue uses fabric to find out a client’s skin tone, one pink piece, one peach piece. Hold each up to your face; your skin will do the rest.
Your skin either livens up and goes bright or looks dull, said Gushue. As soon as it’s the wrong colour it looks sallow and it’s like it’s fighting against you.
