[Fiona2003]

Hello Makeup & Beauty folks!

I have been asked to be in a wedding at the end of March and I am having some problems planning my makeup.

A bit about me:
I have a very fair complexion with slight peachy tone.
My cheekbones are well-defined, so I soft-pedal on the blush.
My hair is a light golden brown and cut in an angled bob to frame the face (tips of bob are 1" longer than chin length)
I wear glasses, but they are small with a thin bronze wire frame. The lenses are "cat eye" shaped.
My eye color is hard to describe - a mix of green/gray & blue. The average person when asked will tell you my eyes are blue.
I am 31 years old.

A bit about the event and outfit:
The wedding/reception are on a Friday evening. I'm told that Friday evening weddings are to be considered "formal".
The gown is a dark purple chiffon (close to royal purple) and is strapless, but we will have lightweight (see-thru) shrugs as jackets.
The shoes are silver satin slingback sandals with 3 inch heels.
I will be wearing silver set lavender pearl and amethyst teardrop earrings and a silver/pearl necklace.

So, given that information - which I hope is enough - could someone make suggestions for a color palette for my makeup? I've tried medium grey smokey eyes and that looked dreadful. I do have matte plum colored eyeshadow, but am afraid to look like a purple yurple. Should I go for dark eyes or light? Matte or metallic?

Also, I am very confused about lip color. I usually wear shades close to rosewood or blush (medium neutral pinks - just slightly darker than my natural lip color). My favorite lip color is Estée Lauder 124 Potpourri. Like the eyes, I ask - Should I go dark or light? Matte or metallic?

I read once in a book that you should either go "big" on eyes OR lips - like, you can't do dramatic color on both. (e.g. bright red shiny lips should pair with lightly shadowed eyes) Is this still true?

Thanks in advance!

[Folie Decay]

It's true about the eyes OR lips thing. You should never have dark eyes and dark lips, else you end up looking either like a hooker or a transexual. You need to make either one or the other the main focus point for your face.

I think that because of the colour of the dress and the fact you wear glasses you should make your eyes the focus point.

You could try applying an eyeshadow that's about the same colour as your skin to your whole eyelid then dabbing a tiny bit of white eyeshadow to the inner corners of your eyes just to open them up abit (blend it in so it doesn't stand out a lot, that bit needs to be subtle) and then take your plum coloured eyeshadow and apply it to the outer corners of your eyelid with a brush (not one of those stick things). Drag the brush towards the inner corners of your eyelid. What you should try to do is get the plum colour really nice and dark in the outter corners and then fade it so that it stops at the half way point.
With me so far? I don't feel very good at explaining, heh.

You could just apply some mascara then, or if you wanted a more dramatic look you could try using black liquid eyeliner on the top lids and pencil liner on the bottom lids. The smokey look would be good.

Hope that helped.

[doglover92]

I think that the purple eyeshadow that you have would look really nice if you used it because like you said you don't want to look like a "purple yurple", just put it on until you hit the crease of the lid anymore then that will make everyone focus on your eyeshadow instead of the whole picture. You could also add a lavender eyeliner to your eyes to but not very thick.

For your lips a lighter shade of pink that is darker then your actual lip color but not standout dark.

For the question you asked about dramatic eyes and lips... it is partially true but I always do it and I am always told that it looks good, as long as the colors aren't overly dark or overly bright it should work.

If you want to find more ideas look through magazines such as... seventeen, vogue, people, teen magazines, etc. They all have excellent ideas, even prom maazines work to.

Hope this helps, if you want more ideas ask!