by Heidi Labron

Created on: March 17, 2009

If you want to achieve natural looking eye makeup, stay away from color! Years ago, everyone wore bright blue shadows and purple mascara, but these days, natural is in and the best way to get this look is to keep the blues and purples in paint cans and not on your face.

Neutrals will work for absolutely any skin color and age. The only thing you need to decide is how dark to go when choosing your shades. Look for eye shadow colors that are tan, begin, taupe or brown, and for a little glamour at night, choose a nice pale gold to add to the mix. If you have fair skin, you can add in a pale pink shadows, but keep everything in your palate light so that it doesn't look too stark against your fair skin. If you have medium skin tone, you can choose browns and taupes that have a bit of depth. And for dark skin tones, don't be afraid to try chocolate colors and deep beige.

After choosing the correct eyeshadow shades, you should think about mascara. Black will work best for most people, but to keep it natural, you might want to tone it down with a deep brown mascara for people with fair skin. Your lashes will still pop, but you won't look like you'll avoid the spidery look.

Eyeliner is still important, even when keeping a natural look to your makeup. Choose a neutral shade again from the taupe or chocolate family, and avoid liquid eyeliners as they can leave a line too harsh on the lid. You want your makeup to blend into the skin, not announce that it is there.

When applying a natural eye, start first with an all-over peach or beige shade on fair skin and taupe on darker skin. Sweep the shadow from lid to brow to make the eye really beautiful and you can even smudge a little under the bottom lashes if you like. Next, use a shadow in a shade slightly darker than the first and apply just along the crease of the eye. This will highlight your eye without making you look like you are wearing heavy makeup. Then, using a gel liner or pencil, apply a soft taupe line along the edge of the eye close to the lashes. If you can get some color down between the lashes, it will look more natural and give you a better line. You can smudge this liner if you like for a softer look, or keep it a bit sharper for a night look. Last, apply your mascara to the upper lashes only, taking care not to leave clumps on the lashes.

The whole look should take only a few minutes when using the right neutral colors. You'll save yourself a lot of time and energy and your face will look brighter and better without stark eye makeup. Let your natural eye color stand out and people will wonder why you look so youthful!

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