Best Beginner’s Makeup Guide for Green Eyes

Green is one of the rarest eye colors, so when you’re starting to experiment with makeup, it can be pretty tough to find helpful step-by-step guides. If you’re a new makeup enthusiast and aren’t sure how to properly complement your eye color, keep reading to get a simple but comprehensive set of tips covering different products, application techniques, and even how to enhance your look with colored contacts.

Understanding Your Green Eyes

Did you know that there are more people living in Bangladesh than there are green-eyed people worldwide? Beyond their general rarity, green eyes also come in countless different shades, with undertones ranging from blue to yellow to gray to brown, which makes doing your makeup even tougher. If you want to try out a shade of green that’s easier to work with, you can get colored contacts that help you achieve that, but we also encourage you to have some fun and find what works best for your natural color for maximum confidence.

Step-by-Step Makeup Guide

1. Getting Your Skin Ready

If you already have a skincare routine that works for you, great! If not, we’ll keep it simple. Start by washing your face with a gentle cleanser that doesn’t leave any residue behind. Then, use a moisturizer that suits your skin type (dry, oily, etc.) and let that sink in for a few minutes. Once everything is absorbed, apply a dime-sized amount of primer in an even layer all over your face using your fingertips or a makeup sponge—this will give you a better canvas for the makeup you’re about to apply.

2. Choosing the Right Eyeshadow Colors

Green’s direct complementary color is red, but that doesn’t account for your unique undertones and can border on Christmas-y if you’re not careful. We recommend purples, golds, and browns that skew warmer or cooler depending on your eye color, as these beginner-friendly colors will create contrast without clashing. Palettes like ColourPop’s pretty please or r.e.m. beauty’s groovy baby are good places to start.

3. Applying Eyeshadow

You’ll want to begin with an even layer of a neutral base shade on your lids. From there, you can go in with darker shades in your creases and lighter shades along the brow bone and at the inner corners of your eyes. Remember that it doesn’t need to be fancy to look good! You can try out different styles once you’ve got these basics down.

4. Picking an Eyeliner

A crisp black eyeliner is still the go-to for a lot of makeup artists, and while black is a good neutral color that anyone can use, you can also have fun with colored liners that set off your eyes a little more. A dark brown or purple will look incredible with green eyes, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can try bolder graphic liners in bright pinks and blues.

Everybody has their own tips for applying eyeliner, so it may take some trial and error to find what comes easiest to you. For a basic wing, you can start at your inner corner and slowly work outward for the top line, then draw a bottom line from your outer corner angling slightly upwards to meet the first one.

5. Mascara Magic

Just like with eyeliner, black is often the default mascara color, but it doesn’t have to be. A brown mascara is a great alternative that will go with the rest of your makeup and allow your green eyes to shine. To get the most out of your mascara, curl your lashes beforehand and apply a second coat once the first one has dried.

6. Finishing Touches

There are lots of ways to do your brows, but the basic idea is to lightly fill in the overall shape with an eyebrow pencil. Filling your brows can help even out any patchiness and make your eye makeup look bolder.

As for blush and highlighter, you should look for shades that match or complement what you used in your eye makeup. For example, a warm blush and a gold-tinted highlighter will pair well with warmer shades of purple or brown eyeshadow.

It’s tempting to match your lipstick one-to-one with one of your other makeup colors, so finding the right lip color can be tricky if you aren’t using red or pink eyeshadow. We recommend picking your general shade based on the undertones present in your shadow and blush and narrowing your choices down from there. Once you’ve got it picked out and applied, you’re all ready to go!

Enhancement Using Colored Contact Lenses

Colored contact lenses aren’t just for shaking things up with a drastic change; you can also use them to subtly enhance your existing eye color in day-to-day life. Lenses like our New York Angeles Grey and Sono Green can give you a boost by adding dimension and creating a wider variety of shades within the iris.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve got a complete and thorough guide to doing your eye makeup, it’s your turn to play around with different colors and techniques to find your favorite looks. Do you have experience doing makeup that makes green eyes pop? Share your story with us in the comments!

You can find the lenses mentioned in this article and so much more by browsing the full Unicoeye collection.