How To Find Your Perfect Makeup Shades Using Color Theory

In the latest TikTok beauty hack, MUAs team up with artists to identify their perfect makeup shades using color theory – the study of how colors blend, match, and contrast, the most. often used in painting and art using a color wheel.

The trend started when the beauty influencer Miss Darcei tried a warm purple blush following a reviewer’s recommendation. Shortly after the video went viral, the artist Pierre Donahue Dued the Tutorial – Breaking Down Darcei’s skin tone and blush undertone on a color wheel as to why purple makeup undertones blend with dark skin tones to look pink, creating a color scheme particularly flattering.

“The shade of that blush was over here – a warm purple,” Donahue said, while noting the tone of the blush and Darcei’s complexion on a color wheel. “This is the key because if you have a beautiful brown complexion, it will bring you into the pink (color) area to get beautiful pink highlights like she did.”

He also noted that if a person with a darker brown complexion wore a purple blush that was too cold it would cause gray tones and if they wore one that was too red it could cause a “cartoon character” appearance.

Since he posted his explanation, #purpleblush garnered 10.2 million views on the app, with TikTokers taking its own stab at the blush combo. In most videos, users opt for Fenty Beauty’s Cheeks Out Freestyle cream blush in Drama Cla $ or NudeStixNudie Blush in Moddie Blu seems to achieve the perfect warm toned purple.

Speaking in a new TikTok, Donahue explained that all skin tone and makeup matches can be mapped using a color wheel. “Some of the terms about undertones and warm versus cold are actually misleading,” he said, explaining that all skin tones actually fall between orange and red undertones. “If you look at the color, it might actually dispel some myths.”

Additionally, he said that someone with dark skin and yellow or green undertones will want to try a cool-toned purple to achieve a blush pink undertone. Otherwise, a person with a lighter complexion and yellow undertones will want to try a magenta color to achieve a similar effect.

Trace your own shade of blush on Donahue’s color wheel below.