Makeup for Girls with Glasses: Strong Pastels (Lime Crime Chinadoll Palette)

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Most times, girls with glasses think they should just skip eye makeup altogether. Well actually, you can get away with a heck of a lot more eye makeup in the daytime than girls without glasses.

I’m doing a demo with the “worst” type of glasses. Big, black, plastic frames that mask a lot of your face. And just for fun, I’m choosing strong colors that most people do not choose to wear in the day. Note that this is not the only way to do your eyes for glasses; it’s just ONE of the ways.

Before you begin, there are a few things you need to note when doing your eyes for glasses:

  1. Emphasize your lash line. The optical distortion from your lenses and the shadow your frames cast can really obscure your eyes, so make sure you darken your lash line if you want your eye makeup to be visible.
  2. You should go easy on your lashes. Don’t confuse this with emphasizing your lash line (above). There is limited space between your glass lens and your eye, and for some people, glomming on a lot of mascara is just going to end up feeling uncomfortable when your lash tips keep pushing against your glasses when you blink.  Use a mascara that builds volme and thickness, but not too much length. And FORGET false lashes. There’s no point.
I chose matte shades because the colors tend to show up a lot stronger than shimmery ones. You can always stick with shimmers for a softer look. You can get pigmented mattes from brands like Make Up For Ever, or Urban Decay. (MAC’s mattes aren’t all equally pigmented.) I used Lime Crime’s uber-strong Chinadoll palette for this look.
If you are on a budget, the 88 Matte/Original palette from Coastal Scents and BH Cosmetics, etc contain a range of similar shades as well. Just be prepared to spend more time building up the color and cleaning up fallout, as these tend to be a bit chalkier.
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Step 1: Pack a strong matte aquamarine green (Jade-o-Lade) on the outer half of the lids, and a pastel sky blue (Parasol) on the inner half.  You may need to gently blend where the colors meet, as these shadows go on intense, and you want them to fade into each other.

[If you have Mono-lids, make sure the shadows go up above the fold, until they reach the hollows of your eye socket. Otherwise, you won’t see any color.]

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Step 2: Apply black pencil along the upper lash line and waterline, and then use a flat angled brush to push a matte black shadow (Lotus Noir) over the black. This will make the line much more intense, and also set the liner and keep it in place for longer.

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Step 3: Just for a bit more color, I ran the pastel blue and teal along the lower lash line, UNDER the black.

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Step 4: Finish with black mascara. Wiggle in well at the base of the lashes, and then pull straight out instead of wiggling all the way to the top. This gives you more volume, without building up too much length, which is useful when you are wearing glasses.

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Step 5: On the cheeks, I applied a soft pastel pink blush (MAC Sunday Afternoon Pearlmatte Powder - this is limited edition so if you can’t get it, Well Dressed is real pretty too), and then applied a very clean, blue-based pastel pink on the lips (Lime Crime Great Pink Planet or MAC Saint Germain).

For darker skin tones, try MAC Pink Nouveau.

For those a little less brave with colors, use softer nude-pinks/peaches such as MAC’s Please Me (shown here) or Kinda Sexy Matte Lipstick.