Lupita Ngony’o wore a stunning teal Gucci dress to the SAG Awards this year. This is a perfect example of how gorgeous bright colors can look on darker skin tones. She also pulls off matching teal eyeshadow without looking overdone or too matchy. If you have dark skin, you may find that you can easily pull off bold colors that might overwhelm other people’s complexions. The key is finding colors that complement your skintone and make you look healthy and radiant, rather than washing you out.
No matter how light or dark your features are, you are most likely either ‘cool’ or ‘warm’ toned, and will find these colors complement you accordingly. The easiest way to determine this is to pull your hair away from your face, take off any makeup or jewely, and drape colored cloth around your face to see which colors make you look healthy and radiant, and which colors make you look washed out, grey, or sickly. You may want to enlist a friend or family member to help. Try colors like silver (cool) vs. gold (warm). Or a bright orangey red (warm) vs. magenta or violet (cool). Try bright crisp white (cool) vs. ivory or offwhite (warm). With enough tries, you should get a feel for whether you are warm or cool toned based on which colors really brighten up your features. Here’s a guide to warm and cool colors that should help.
Once you determine whether you are warm or cool toned, try experimenting with bright, bold colors when shopping for tops, dresses, makeup, and statement jewelry. If you have dark skin, you may find your features really come alive and your skin looks radiant and glowing in bright, saturated tones of your best colors.
Keep an eye out for celebrities and models who share similar coloring to you and also look their best in these same colors. You can then do an image search for that person and see what they wore to different events. Celebrities have some of the best stylists and makeup artists working for them, especially for red carpet events. Take advantage of the work they’ve done to make this celebrity look their best, and try to replicate aspects of their look that you think works well for them.
If you’re lucky enough to have similar coloring to Lupita, you’ve got a treasure trove of gorgeous looks to be inspired by. Keep an eye on this beautiful woman because she is consistently knocking it out of the park!
