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Essential Cosmetics Tips for Enhancing Your Natural Beauty and Personality

by Kolbjørn Borseth of Aromantic

Over the years we have researched and developed recipes and techniques for making natural cosmetics. These are harmless to the skin, unlike many commercial products, are cheap to make and do not harm the environment. People who come to our courses or learn from home using our education packs and starter kits have chosen an alternative to shop-bought, mass produced make-up products which are tailor-made to their own unique skin condition.

An obvious advantage of making your own cosmetics is also the opportunity it provides you to be creative; to experiment until you find the exact look and feel that you want your skin to have, whatever mood or occasion and whatever your skin-type, colour and physical attributes.

This article provides some tips and advice for how to combine colours in your home made cosmetics, so that you are able to control the exact look that you want to achieve. In this article I show how 4 different ‘looks’ or ‘moods’ can be created, these being spring, summer, autumn and winter. You can experiment with each of these and develop an almost infinite and subtle range of effects within each of these basic ‘moods’. You may identify yourself as being best suited to one of these looks or choose to change your make-up depending upon the occasion or your mood, for example by switching between spring and summer.

Choose as a basic colour two colours which suit you well. Mix these two in different ratios so you end up with several examples of the different tones you can make. Mix these with black to darken the tones or silky white or mother of pearl white or titanium dioxide to lighten the tones. This way you can create many different colours using the same basic colours without having to buy more than four of these. Mix small quantities at a time and test on the skin as it is not always possible to see from the powder how it will look on the skin.

Spring

Warm, light, clear, pastel, gold. Use silky white in colour mixtures to make them more pastel-like. Add a little warm yellow to make them warmer.
Best colours for Spring types: coral, salmon pink, light turquoise, royal blue, ivory, gold and bronze.
Worst colours: dark green, dark brown, grey and black.

Summer

Grey colours, often ruddy, purple and blue. Grey colours can be created by starting with the 'Winter' colours and then adding a touch of light grey (light grey = white + a touch of black).
Best colours for Summer types: Silver is good for summer types.
Worst colours: Strong colours and earthy colours make summer types 'disappear'.

Autumn

Warm, deep, intense, earthy, golden colours. Use a touch of silky black or dark brown to tone down colours. Mix with gold or orange-yellow to make colours warmer.
Best colours for Autumn types: bright yellow, warm orange, dark turquoise green, olive, copper, gold, bronze, orange-brown.
Worst colours: icy blue, blue-red, grey and silver.

Winter

Strong, clean, intense colours, silver, black, white, bright red tinged with blue, bright blue tinged with red.
Best colours for Winter types: Black, deep red, bright blue and silver, clear, icy pastel colours (mix with mother of pearl white).
Worst colours: earthy colours, olive green.

Colours for Lipstick, Rouge and Lip Pencils

Spring - Silky white, gold, bronze, salmon pink/coral, copper, sienna red, yellow ochre, light orange, silky black

Summer - All the whites, pearly pink, violet, purple, bordeaux red, lilac, bright red, both blacks, silver

Autumn - Silky white, gold, bronze, copper red, sienna red, brown, yellow ochre, orange, silky black

Winter - All the whites, bordeaux red, purple, pearly pink, lilac blue, bright red, both blacks, silver

Colours for Eye-Shadow, Eye Liner and Eye-Pencils

Spring - Silky white, sky blue, turquoise blue, turquoise green, pearly green, pigeon blue, gold, bronze, violet, silky black

Summer - All the whites, violet, lilac blue, duck egg blue, pearly green, sky blue, turquoise green, violet, silver, both blacks

Autumn - Silky white, bronze, copper, turquoise green, olive green, brown, gold, peacock blue, purple, silky black

Winter - All the whites, silver, pigeon blue, sky blue, purple, turquoise blue, peacock blue, violet, ultramarine blue, lilac blue, both blacks.