The best shadow color for your eyes

So, what about now? Why can you see someone wearing a deep purplish shadow and it's absolute perfection, but when you try a similar shade, you feel like a clown? And why can celebrities pull off looks that we just. can't?

Here's the truth: celebs don't look any better or worse in certain makeup than any other person who has similar eye and skin tones. That's the key. I've often heard makeup artists say, "Anyone can pull off red lipstick!" Well, yeah, technically that's true, but there are five billion shades of red lipstick and if you don't choose just the right one for your skin, you will look like a clown.

Choosing the right eyeshadow is all about two things: your skin tone and your eye color. Here are some quick tips to get you going in the right direction.

The paler your skin, the more washed out or even "goth" you will appear if you use very dark shades. To do a smokey or darker looking eye with pale skin, try charcoal, golden or even navy or purple shades to create the smokey effect, rather than black.

The more olive or the darker your skin tone, the stronger dark shades you can pull off. Blacks and dark shades won't overpower darker skin the way they can light skin.

Darker skin tends to look fresher and more glowy with peachy, golden and apricot shades, while very fair skin tends to look better with pink and bluebased shades.

If you have green, blue or hazel eyes, you have a few options. If you want to try matching makeup without looking outdated, try a darker shade of green or blue only on the top lid, and line with black or charcoal. Another choice that works well if you're in your teens or 20s is to use a pastel version of green or blue with lots of mascara.

The eyeshadow guideline that most makeup artists recommend currently is to find the opposite color of your eye color. For example, the opposite of green on the color wheel is red, and the opposite of blue is orange. Obviously, you don't want to wear red or orange eyeshadow (in most cases!) But you can find reddishbrown shadows for green eyes, or orangey tan or golden tones that make blue eyes pop.

If your eyes are brown, your options are wide open. You can stick with brownish shades, but you can also play with a lot of color. Burgundies look glamorous against dark eyes, as do golden and soft shimmery shadows. Light colors may also work, but keep this in mind if you've got darker skin and dark eyes, then light or pastel shadows may not work so well. Keep things mediumtodarker toned to balance out your tones.

Finally, there's not a person on earth that can't wear neutrals and neutral does not mean boring! There is so much variety in blacks, charcoals, metallics like silver and gold, browns. and they work on virtually everyone. Sometimes you just need to "play" with color a bit to find which ones make you glow, and which ones you just like better.

As a last tip don't think for a minute that more expensive equals better color. While there are expensive lines that rock like MAC, for example there are also cheaper lines that stay very true to color (meaning they look the same on your skin as they do in the pot.) One of my favorite shadow lines is Jane, which can be found at drugstores and large chainstores. Jane's eyeshadows go on just as dark or bright or strong as they look in the pot, which in my opinion is the most important thing about choosing a makeup line. Department stores and beauty supply stores are great, though, because of the opportunity they give you to play with shades and try them on your skin.

Just keep in mind that any person can wear any color it just may need to be tweaked a little (a bit lighter, a bit warmer, etc.) to give you your best face.