Celebrity Beauty Tips & Tricks

How To: Match Your Makeup With Your Outfit

July 18, 2008

Young stars Hayden Panettiere and Kristen Bell wowed everyone at the 2008 ESPY Award earlier this Wednesday. Their secret other than their good looks? Matching makeup to their outfits accordingly.


I know different people have different takes on this but personally, I think if you do it right, your makeup and outfit can complement each other and bring out your features more. Below are a couple of tips on how to do this the right way:

* Do it subtly. Pick one color from your outfit as the theme for your makeup and do not go overboard. In the example above, Hayden opted to play up the orange in her dress with warm, coral makeup while Kristen wore purple-rimmed eyes to complement her purple dress.

* Choose a color that is similar but not completely identical to the one on your outfit. Using an identical shade can look too matchy-matchy and dated.

Any thoughts?

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24 Comments

  • Reply Selina July 18, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    I think Hayden is wearing *too* much makeup. She always tends to overdo it with her eyes and foundation. She looks a little greasy Paris Hilton-ish here, and the dress ads to it. She’s young, and naturally pretty, so she doesn’t need that much of anything.

    Kristen bell looks fresh, as always 🙂

  • Reply ..ChR!St!E.. July 18, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    great tip. i pretty much do this too. but i tend to try and pick colors as close to my outfit as possible. but now im open to at least the same color family for makeup choices. =)

  • Reply Noelle July 18, 2008 at 6:34 pm

    is it just me or does Kristen Bell’s face look a bit red? Hayden did it better for me between the two. The coral color looks gorgeous on her! Wish I had cheek-bones like her 🙁 As for matching outfits with makeup, which I do most of the time, but I think it’s fun to choose different colors that compliment each other.. like turquoise and deep mustard yellow 😀

  • Reply tiff July 18, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    OMG PHYLLIS YOUR ADVICE ON THIS IS FREAKEN -PERFECT-. wow, i never realized!!!! thank you so much! i have always wanted to match my makeup with my outfits without making it tacky… but now i know how to do it right ;)! lol this is great.

  • Reply kazi July 18, 2008 at 7:40 pm

    hey phylis..i have to agree with selina on this one..hayden's skin looks really "glittery" especially her cheeks.other than that she looks good.i like the matching your makeup with your outfit idea though..i have tried it on many occasions before and the results have been good AND bad in some cases hehe.ah well i guess u have to make mistakes & try to learn from them.
    thankyou for introducing bb cream to me.i love it!i have been a silent reader for god knows how long but decided to leave u a comment because ur blog is amazing!i love looking at the tutorials and the product reviews.whenever i get my pay i go out and buy the things u recommend on your blog and so far they have all been good!thanks and keep on updating.
    XXxx
    sunita

  • Reply lola July 18, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    I subscribed .. I just recently found out about your site and i love it.. I just broke up with my 2 and a half year boyfriend and If I win, it sure will make me feel a lil better 🙂 Thank you for having such a nice site and informing us with all these good stuff! thank you sister!

    I subscribed in a diferent email but if i win you can just tell me and ill email you from the email i subscribed with :))

  • Reply Hello July 19, 2008 at 12:13 am

    great post… i also thought that similar colors with outfit would look good, but my sister says no >.> so usually i just use neutral browns with every outfit.. i like Kristen Bell's makeup/outfit combo more than Hadyen's but hers is still nice.

  • Reply Kat Charcos July 19, 2008 at 3:27 am

    Oh hey,

    I think that doing it SUBTLY is a very important tip. If hayden overdid the orange, well…she’d probably look like an orange (and i meant the fruit) =)

    Love your articles, they make sense!

  • Reply Sheila July 19, 2008 at 4:00 am

    Hi Phyllis

    I love reading your blog… the posts are always so informative and fun to read 🙂 I think that both stars look lovely, and I will experiment with matching my eye makeup to my clothes (I think I will try blue). I think Hayden is a bit shimmery on her face though.

  • Reply ume~ July 19, 2008 at 4:54 am

    Hayden has looooads of lashes …they look so pretty

  • Reply CarolCat July 19, 2008 at 11:22 am

    I totally match my makeup and my outfit. I don’t make it so obvious though – like if I were to wear a blue shirt, I wouldn’t wear the same exact shade or make it very obvious.

    I agree with Selina – Hayden is absolutely gorgeous but I don’t really like the way she looks in this picture…maybe it was the flash of the cameras or something because she looks too glittery. I like the way she does her eye makeup usually but her skin doesn’t look so nice.

    I’m not sure about Kristen Bell’s eye shadow though…she looks cute but she matches too much and looks a little outdated.

  • Reply Karen July 19, 2008 at 11:51 am

    I like to match my outfit with makeup that is in the same color tones (Like cool to cool and warm to warm)… Love the 2 of them… they look so fresh and pretty all the time 😀

  • Reply Alyssa July 19, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    I’m a lurker at your blog for years! I wanted to thank you for such a wonderful blog, as well as, that I gave you an award on my blog.

  • Reply ~Miss Nelson July 19, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    I just recently discovered your blog and I have subscribed. I have been watching all kinds of youtube videos on how to achieve this without looking too over the top and I have to say, I am waiting anxiously to buy some more eyeshadow so that I can test it out. I think the summer will be a good time to do so because of all of the bright colors that I will be wearing.

  • Reply Lyss July 19, 2008 at 10:31 pm

    I love this idea of matching your makeup with your outfit. One of my favorites is the matching lips and shoes with a bold color such as red.

  • Reply The UfaKtor Inc. July 20, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Hi,
    Excellent tip. There are too many ladies whom do not try and do this and having makeup that is going against an outfit just clashes! You are right to point out that it complements without being to matching if the right colours are picked.Each time i dress i take into consideration what makeup colour will go with my outfit even on a day to day basis! Thanks for a lovely webiste and info 🙂

  • Reply Kolinshar July 20, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    This is a really great tip in my opinion. In addition to this, another idea is to choose a complimentary color to the outfit that you’re wearing. So all the warm colors stick together, and the cool colors together as well.

    If you really want to stand out, you can choose a color that is directly oppostite of the one you are wearing on the color wheel.

    For example, if you’re wearing green, wear red accessories and makeup that hints to the red tones.

    Same with blue-orange, and purple-yellow.

    Here’s the url for a color wheel:
    http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/AlexFerg/showcase07-08/rehakclassblog1/Pictures/ColorWheel1.jpg

  • Reply LOeLOe July 20, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    Wow! Hayden is so pretty! love her shimmery faces and glowing skin!

  • Reply Julie July 20, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    I love Hayden’s make-up. The glow she has matches the colours of her dress – very Summery and glowy! TROPICAL 🙂

    I SUCK at matching so I stick with what I know – neutrals, LOL.

    But the tips you have are great 🙂 I should print them out and keep em next to my mirror, haha.

  • Reply rantasarus July 21, 2008 at 10:12 am

    I think Hayden looks great. Her shiny sun-kissed skin matches her dress. Makeup and hair also perfect!

  • Reply Tracy July 21, 2008 at 10:23 am

    With Hayden the fact that she matches with her dress is subtly well done but in Kristen Bell’s case, her eyeshadow clearly is on board with her outfit. I love Hayden’s look! Overall brilliant.

  • Reply Hannah July 22, 2008 at 7:05 am

    i usually try not to match my makeup with my outfit! i didn’t think of doing it this way. thanks!

  • Reply tiffany July 23, 2008 at 7:57 pm

    kristen bell looks amazing ! loved her ever since vericona mars LOL

  • Reply IchigoBunnie July 24, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    i love these two girls =) always look so glowy, but i have to agree with selina, i feel like hayden is wearing a bit too much makeup this time. usually she doesn’t though, from what i’ve seen in her other photos, but she could lay off some of that blush imo. nevertheless, both of them still look amazing =)

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