Home Makeup Tips How To Not Look Pale with Dark Hair
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How To Not Look Pale with Dark Hair

by Sandy Taylor

Girls with dark hair and light color skin-tone know how difficult it is to not look pale. The contrast between dark hair and light skin tone simply makes their skin look lifeless. The good news is that there are ways to livening up your look with the right makeup tricks.

In order to provide you the best tips, I connected with talented makeup artists and asked them to provide for me their best tips on how to not look pale with dark hair.

Tips to Not Look Pale with Dark Hair:

Elyse Morency is a certified Makeup Artist with 7 years of hands-on experience in the industry. As someone who has worked with many different people with dark hair and a variety of skin tones, as well as personally having dark brown hair and naturally fair skin, she shares the following tips for maintaining warmth in the skin and avoiding looking washed out when you have dark hair.

Having dark hair can very quickly wash you out and leave you looking pale and flat. The three things you should be focusing on when you have dark hair to avoid looking pale are:

  1. Warming up your skin tone
  2. Adding shape back to the face
  3. Balancing out the darkness from the hair with makeup on the face

Warming Up Your Skin Tone

The first trick is to add some natural-looking warmth to the skin by applying a primer under your makeup which has a bronzing effect. The Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi™ Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops is a great option for this. The bronzing serum gives the skin a boost of colour which gives an added warmth under makeup, or even on its own.

Adding Shape Back to the Face

Secondly, you’ll want to add some shape back to the face to avoid looking flat. Using a bronzer or contour palette to sweep around the outer parameters of the face and redefine the facial features is crucial to avoid looking pale. Dark hair can often leave the skin tone looking flat so by adding some warmth and shape back into the face it can bring the face back
to life!

Balancing Out the Darkness From the Hair with Makeup on the Face

The third, and final step to avoid looking pale with dark hair, is to ensure you’re balancing out the dark hair by emphasizing and redefining the features on the face. Focusing on filling in your eyebrows, applying a warm-toned blush, and wearing lipstick which is at least one shade darker than your natural lip colour will help draw the attention back onto the
features and balance out the darkness of the hair. This will ultimately revive the face and avoid you appearing pale and washed out.

Additional Tips From a Green Beauty Expert

Maria Velve, a makeup artist and green beauty expert with 20 years of experience in beauty retail, spa management and film, suggests the following tips:

Use a Self-Tanner

Nothing makes a dark-haired woman look more pale than translucent porcelain skin. Now that warmer weather is here, it’s easy to give your skin a bit of color with a self-tanning cream.

Use a Bronzer

If using a self-tanner is not something you’d opt for, give your skin warmth with a powder or liquid bronzer. A liquid bronzer can be easily mixed with your foundation or moisturizer to warm up the skin. A powder bronzer can be used to give the forehead, nose and cheekbones a sun-kissed look. Apply a powder bronzer high up on the forehead along the hairline, down the bridge of the nose and high up on the cheekbones.

Make Sure Your Eyebrows Are on Point

Dark hair can make other features on the face look washed out. Brush and fill in your eyebrows to make them stand out. Dark-haired women should opt for an eye brow color that’s 1-2 shades lighter than their hair. Darker eyebrows can really help the eyes stand out. A coat or two of mascara will help with this as well.

Use a Bold Lip Color

Dark-haired women can afford to wear bolder makeup colors. A bold lip will help balance out darker hair shades and give color to the rest of the face. Reds and vibrant pinks are an excellent choice for balancing dark hair and giving a pop of color to the face.

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