Makeup for African American Skin Tones

For women of color, there is a wide variety of makeup for African American skin tones available, giving all women the chance to look beautiful.

Decades ago, cosmetics were mostly aimed at a fair-skinned market, leaving African American women with few resources. The foundations and powders that were available at the time often left women with darker skin with an unattractive, ashy undertone. However, in recent years, the cosmetics market has exploded with products geared toward women of all shades, no matter how dark or light the skin.

African American women have a wide range of skin colors, from very fair to very dark. Makeup that looks good on light skin may not complement dark skin well, and vice versa. Plus, for the most flattering looks, women should take note of their skin's undertones, whether they're warm or cool. A lot of makeup mistakes can be avoided if you know whether blue, silver and lavender are your colors, or if you should stick to peach, gold and bronze.

Depending on your particular complexion, you might look great in Beyonce's makeup colors or you might look better emulating Gabrielle Union.

Whether your skin is shaded like Jasmine Guy or Angela Bassett, you'll look radiant and beautiful if you first identify the undertones in your skin.

African American women who fall on the warm end of the spectrum will look fantastic in these colors:

• Peach
• Gold
• Bronze
• Orange red
• Brown

If you're more of a cool complexion, stick to:

• Blue
• Purple
• Silver
• Pink
• Blue red

If your skin is very dark and you've always shied away from deep lipstick colors, you don't have to. You can try a neutral look with a lip color that closely matches your skin and top it with a light coat of clear gloss. With such natural lips, you can put the makeup focus on your eyes. Women with cool complexions can wear silver or charcoal eye shadow, while warm women can sport bronze eye color and a couple of coats of deep black mascara for maximum impact.

You can easily find makeup just for women of color anywhere, including your local drugstore and department stores, as well as a slew of online merchants. When shopping for foundation, it's wise to test different shades on your face, if possible. This won't usually work in a drugstore, but you can try out various colors at department store makeup counters.

Some companies that carry makeup for African American skin tones include:

• Iman Cosmetics
• Fashion Fair
• Revlon
• Black Opal
• Max Factor
• Maybelline

Longtime brands like Max Factor, Revlon and Maybelline now offer women of all colors affordable cosmetics, while lines like Iman Cosmetics (created by famous top model Iman) were developed specifically for African Americans and women of various ethnicities. Even non-ethnic women can find cosmetics from these companies that will work on their skin, since lines geared toward ethnic women feature colors starting at the very light end of the spectrum.

African American women will benefit from following a few tips when shopping for cosmetics:

• If you're already familiar with a brand, you may not need to try on your favorite foundation shade each time you purchase, but realize that your skin tone may change between seasons. The foundation and powder that look great on you in the summer may be too dark in the winter.

• Branch out into cosmetic colors you thought you couldn't wear, such as green, pink or peach. There are some makeup shades that seem to complement any complexion such as Clinique Black Honey lipstick.

• You can mix and match between drugstore and department store brands, including cosmetic lines that you might not have tried before because you thought they only catered to one type of ethnicity. Many makeup brands now feature shades suitable for women of any color.

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