How to Apply Makeup on African American Women

Until recently, it was a challenge to find cosmetics to match the skin tone and coloring of African American women. There were rarely any brands that created products for this immense market which left these women with severely limited choices in makeup. However, this has changed in recent times and many well-known brands now have a great variety of cosmetics to cater to women of darker skin colors.

Here are some tips you can use to apply the perfect makeup for African American women.

The right makeup for the right skin undertones

The underlying tones of African American woman’s skin are very different from her Caucasian counterparts. It is very important to understand the skin tone when choosing your makeup colors because the underlying tones determine how the colors appear when they are applied.

In general, African American women should avoid makeup that has a generous hint of pink or peach. If your African American complexion has red undertones, you have ‘warm’ skin while yellow undertones mean that your skin is ‘cool’. Other than these two, African American complexion may also have blue undertones. Women with ‘warm’ skin can go for reds, magentas, mauve, orange, and yellow while those with yellow undertones look good with violet, aqua, brown, and amber. Blue undertones are best highlighted with red, teal, orange and shades of blue.

Choosing the right foundation

Choosing the right shade of foundation is critical to achieve a flawless look. Always try out the foundation before you buy it to ensure that it matches your skin tone perfectly. It is important for your natural rich skin color to be evident and not overwhelmed by the foundation. The wrong foundation shade can leave your skin looking ashy or chalky while the right one allows the natural richness of your skin to shine through.

You may want to achieve a different look each time you apply makeup. For a natural finish, pick up a sheer foundation which is usually available as a liquid. To cover up uneven skin tone or blemishes, opt for medium coverage foundation that is thicker. Matte finish foundation is perfect for oily skinned women who want to avoid the shiny, greasy look.

This keeps it on for longer and also prevents it from cracking around your eyes and mouth. Blend the foundation well until your facial tone matches your neck. Follow up the foundation with a dusting of loose or pressed powder in a neutral shade to smoothen it all out and to keep it looking fresh and natural.

Blush for the African American woman

A hint of blush adds a touch of color to dark complexion. Rich shades that go well with your lipstick for the day are the best choices. For day time makeup, you should typically use a light touch of blush but you can go bolder for evening looks. To achieve a dramatic look, use frosty colors and bronzers. Blush adds a touch of glow to dark skin that is quite difficult to achieve otherwise. It makes your face look lively and fresh.

It is important to choose the blush shade with care to avoid a harshly look. Pick a shade that enhances the skin’s undertones. Light skin tones go well with light bronze, pink or peach blush shades. Take special care with the blush application on lighter skin tones because it can easily appear too heavy. Women with medium skin tones can pick up light reds, oranges while dark skinned women look great with plums, fuchsias and deep reds. Bronze is a good color for any African American complexion. Avoid the bright pinks and pastels which will give your rich skin a pasty, chalky look.

One thing to keep in mind with blushes is that a bit of gold shimmer adds the perfect touch to dark skin. It gives you a stylish, elegant look without making you look overdressed. If you want your face to have a fresh look without sacrificing the sophisticated appearance, just add a touch of blush with a gold shimmer.

Apply the blush to the apples of your cheeks. Seasoned makeup experts also apply blush from the cheeks upwards across the side of the face right up to the hairline. If you are using a cream blush, lightly tap with a napkin to remove any excess blush.

Eye makeup for African American women

When applying your eye makeup, the deepest color is applied over the crease of the eye. A lighter shade or medium color goes over the eyelid and the highlighter, a lighter shade, is applied along the brow bone. A surprisingly good choice for the highlighter shade is toast or pale pink which enhances the eye shape in women with darker skin shades.

For the base colors you use over your eyes, those with mild, subtle undertones look best on African American complexions. If you have warm undertones to your skin, pick up orange, rust, honey or cinnamon shades for your eyes. Cooler complexions go best with blue and purple. Pink is also a good option, provided you are comfortable with the slightly brighter effect it bestows.

For the eye shadow, the darker the skin color, the brighter the colors you can flaunt. Adding a touch of shimmer with gold adds the perfect touch of glam to your eyes. To combine bright colors and shimmer, simply combine two complimentary colors, one of which is metallic, say purple and gold. This particular color combo makes for dramatic eye makeup that looks great both during daytime and in the evening. For subtle eye makeup, use earth tones like cocoa, toffee or gold. For a touch of color, you can pick up sapphire, light plum or olive green.

Smoky eye makeup

Many women prefer a more or less nude look for daily wear makeup and put on their smoky eyes for special occasions. For African American women, blue or purple is a good choice for a smoky eye look. Line your lower lashes with a stroke of black liner over the inner rims of the eyes. Next follow it up with purple shadow lined on lower lash line. The same color goes over your lids as well right to the crease of the eyes.

Add a blue shadow with shimmer to the center of the eye lids and blend well right up to the crease. Make the cat’s eye by extending the top line outward and up. Complete the look with a liberal application of mascara on both top and bottom lashes with emphasis on the outermost corners of your eyes. Some other good colors for the smoky eye look are purple, violet, blue, indigo, metallic navy blue, blue green. Choose iridescent shades to add just a touch of glimmer or go bold with a generous addition of shimmer and sparkle to the center of the eye lids.

Black and grey are also great choices for smoky eye makeup whether your skin is light cocoa or ebony. For mahogany skin complexions, add more grey to the mix to get the perfect smoky eye look. Fairer skin warrants the use of more black over grey for a dramatic effect.

Spring or summer eye makeup

Colorful bold eye makeup is trendy and perfect for summer and spring time. This look allows you to match your eye makeup to your bright clothes and gives you a fun and youthful look. When experimenting with this look, keep in mind that your eyes should perfectly complement your overall appearance while suiting your skin tone.

You can use a good variety of bright shades for this look including greens, purples and blues. To keep your eye makeup bright but still get a professional look for office wear, choose bright eye liner or line the eye with bright shadow instead of going for an all-over bright look.

Vivid purple eye makeup is a great choice for you if your skin has orange undertones. Yellow is an unusual color that instantly sets you apart from the crowd. This is a good color choice for women of color with red skin undertones, especially if your skin is mahogany or dark brown. The yellow shade highlights your eyes and gives you a perfect summer day look.

Blue brings out the richness of brown eyes to the maximum and is a great look for younger women who desire bright and trendy eye makeup. This color highlights your eyes and works well with smoky eyes too, especially when you use indigo, navy, gray-blue or deep blue shades.

Add a finishing touch to your eye makeup with liquid eye liner or an eyeliner pencil. Deep brown eyeliner sets off your eye makeup in the best possible way. Charcoal is a good choice for a more dramatic look but it needs to be applied with care and with the right color combination so that you avoid making your overall appearance too dark. The biggest advantage with African American skin color is that you can use shimmer and sparkle as well as bright colors without appearing overly made-up.

The right lip color for African American women

Choosing a lip color that accentuates your makeup without either disappearing or appearing bad is a challenge for women of color. The best option is to go for earth tones, dark burgundy, pale pinks and neutrals. Avoid going bright pink or light red.

If you prefer a more natural look, just dab on some lip gloss and leave it at that. Pick a gloss that is the same shade as your skin tone and you get a rich color that accentuates the pout. Skin tone lip gloss also keeps your makeup from becoming too colorful while giving your lips a perfect sheen.

For a cute, girly look, use gloss that is brighter. Shades like coral or peach add brightness to your face and give your lips some contrast against your rich skin color. These shades are perfect for women with warm undertones to their skin. Get a more feminine look with pink gloss which softens the lips and makes them stand out. Opt for the lighter shades of pink so that you add just a hint of color to your lips without making them stand out vividly in your face. Berry shades are a good choice when you want to add color in a subtle way.

If you prefer to color your lips with lipstick, ensure that you match the shade to your skin undertones. Light skinned African American women can carry off pale and deep pink, taupe, red and peach lipstick. Medium toned skin looks great with red, medium to deep pink, magenta, bronze and browns while dark skinned African American women can try deep red, magenta, bronze, fuchsia and rich brown. Add some definition to your lips using a lip liner that matches the lip gloss or lip stick shade. Take care to avoid a darker lip liner since this will leave a visible outline over your lips.

In general, it is best to keep your lipstick shades subtle so that they do not draw the attention away from the rest of your face, especially the eyes. However, if you do love bold lipstick colors, you can choose to highlight only your lips by keeping your eye makeup and facial makeup toned down to the barest minimum.

How to Apply Makeup on African American Women Practical

You will find that applying makeup on African American Women is exactly the same as applying makeup on other skin toned women. The only difference is the foundation color you would use. Then there are certain eye shadow colors that complement the darker skin tone which really accentuates their beautiful skin.

In this training I will demonstrate how to apply makeup on African American women.

The following items from our Makeup Kit will be used:

Complexion Primer
130 Concealer Brush
10 Color Concealer Palette
125 Foundation Brush
5 Color Liquid Foundation
Stainless Steel Mixing Palette and Spatula
126 Powder Brush
6 Color Pressed Powder Palette or HD Translucent Powder
212 Spoolie Brush
207 Angle Eyeliner Brush
Trio Brow Palette
221 All Over Eye Blender Brush
204 Crease Brush or 219 Precision Crease Brush
15 Color Eye Shadow Palette- Neutral, Theatrical
Black or Brown Eyeliner Pencil
Eyelash Curler
Mascara
127 Blush Brush
XL Face and Body Bronzer- Radiant Glow
10 Color Blush Palette- Bright or Neutral
Lip liner Pencil
316 Lip Brush
10 Color Lip Palette- Bright or Neutral
Natural Lip Gloss

Step 1: Squeeze a small amount of Complexion Primer into the palm of your hand and apply it all over your client’s face.

Step 2: Take your 10 Color Concealer Palette and apply the appropriate color over any areas that need coverage such as dark circles, pigmentation or uneven skin tone. Make sure that you apply cover stick over your client’s eyes as well. This will help the rest of her makeup stick to it.If you want to even out her skin tone, then it is best to use a concealer color that is 1-2 shades lighter than her normal skin tone.

Step 3: Take 3 similar foundation colors and apply it onto her cheekbones directly underneath each other. The Color that disappears on her skin is the correct one to use.

Step 4: Squeeze the correct color of foundation onto your Stainless Steel Mixing Palette and mix it with your 125 Foundation Brush before applying it to your client’s skin.

Step 5: Begin at the one side of your client’s face and work your way to the other side. Make sure that you apply the foundation in downwards stroking movements. If her neck color is hugely different than the color of her face, then you need to apply the same shade of foundation onto her neck as well.

Step 6: Take a foundation sponge and blend the foundation from her hairline, working downwards towards her jaw line.

Step 7 -Take your 6 Color Pressed Powder Palette and dip your 126 Powder Brush into a color that is similar to your client’s skin tone. Shake off the excess powder by gently dusting the powder brush on the top of your hand. Begin by pressing the powder onto your client’s face, working from her hairline downwards to her jaw line. Concentrate especially on the eyelids and the lips. The main purpose of the powder is to ensure that the eye shadow and lipstick stays on for longer.

Step 8: Wipe your powder brush with a clean tissue to remove any excess powder from it.

Step 9: Take your powder brush and remove any excess powder from your client’s face by gently working in downwards stroking movements.

Step 10: Take your Spoolie Brush and comb the client’s eyebrows neatly.

Step 11: Choose a pencil/brow powder/eye shadow appropriate to the color of your client’s hair.

Step 12: Take the 207 Angle Eyeliner Brush and dip it softly into the trio brow palette or the correct eye shadow color. Apply the brow powder/eye shadow in the direction of hair growth to ensure a natural look. Never “draw” the color onto your client’s eyebrows as this will only create an artificial appearance.When using a pencil, make sure that you use feathering strokes to fill in the areas that needs filling and go gently on the areas which do not need a whole lot of filling in.

Step 13: Take a highlighting color like white, champagne, gold or beige. Apply this color with your 221 All Over Eye Blender Brush, starting just underneath your client’s eyebrows and work downwards to her eyelids.

Step 14: Take your 204 Crease Brush and apply a light shimmering pink eye shadow color onto her eyelids eyes. Other good colors to use are mauve, bronze, black, dark grey, shimmering grey, dark navy, dark chocolate and rich velvet.

Step 15: Wipe the brush with a clean tissue.

Step 16: Take the same brush and apply a dark bright purple eye shadow color on your client’s eyelids but on the outside corners.

Step 17: Apply a dark charcoal eye shadow color over this color.

Step 18: Use your 207 Angle Eyeliner Brush and line your client’s eyes with the silver gel eyeliner.

Step 19: Take your 229 Detailing Brush and apply a black or dark navy eye shadow over the eyeliner.

Step 20: Take your Eyelash Curler, ask your client to open her eyes and look straight ahead. Place the open eyelash curler on her upper eyelash and squeeze gently for about 10 - 20 seconds.

Step 21: Take your Mascara and lightly dab the lash liner brush against the rim of the mascara. This ensures that there is just the right amount of mascara on your brush. Ask your client to keep her eyes closed. Use your other hand and gently lift her eyelid up. Put the mascara brush at the base of the upper eyelid and make zigzag movements till the end of the eyelashes. This movement will prevent her eyelashes from clumping and will give them a fuller look. Repeat this process 2-3 times until you get the desired look.

Step 22: Apply mascara also onto her lower lashes. If she does not have a lot of lashes here, then it is best to apply the mascara perpendicular to her eyes and start by running it lightly along her eyelashes. If she has thick eyelashes at the bottom, then you can apply the mascara the same way as you would with the top eyelashes.

Step 23: Take your 127 Blush Brush and apply a bronzer or any warm-toned blush onto your client’s cheeks. Step 24: Line your client’s lips in a color that is similar to the lipstick color that you are going to apply.

Step 25 - Take the lip liner and begin to line her lips on the upper lip, taking the line outwards to the corners of her mouth. Do the same at her lower lip.

Step 26: Take your powder sponge and lightly dip it into your HD Translucent Powder. The powder acts as a holding base for the lipstick, ensuring that it stays on longer.

Step 27: Finally, take your 316 Lipstick Brush and wipe it over your chosen lipstick color. Apply it all over your client’s lips, starting from the upper lip and doing the same on her lower lip. Good colors to use are earth-tones, burgundy and some shades of pink.