Colour Theory

Colour Theory in makeup is when you have light, which is essentially colour, and you mix a variety of shades to create a colour combination. Sir Isaac Newton created the very first colour wheel in 1666. 

You start off with a colour wheel which contains primary, secondary and tertiary colours.

Primary colours - the primary (basic) colours are red, blue and yellow (these are pure colours)

Secondary colours - the secondary colours are purple, green and orange (these are a created by mixing a variety of primary colours)

Tertiary colours - the tertiary colours are red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet and red-violet (these are created by mixing a variety of primary and secondary colours) t

Colour Theory is made up of three combinations;

Lightness (light vs dark and black vs white)

Saturation (intense vs dull)

Hue

Lightness

The brightness/lightness of a colour can be achieved by adding black or white to a certain colour. For example, if you wanted a lighter shade of blue, you can add white to achieve this or for a darker shade, you can add black.

Saturation

The saturation is the intensity of the colour, a fully saturated purple is bright and intense whereas a lilac shade is more dull and would be de-saturated.

Hue

Hue is a basic colour (primary), there are infinite colour combinations you can make. Primary colours do not contain any black or white in them. To get different shades of colours, you can add shades, tints or tones to these primary colours.

Shade is when you add black or white to a primary colour

Tints are when you add white to a primary colour, and

Tones are when you add grey to a primary colour

Complimentary Colours

These colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel. When combined, they create a very strong contrasting shade that 'pops'.

In makeup, if you were trying to make someone's features stand out, you would use the opposite colour to achieve this. For example, if someone had blue eyes, to emphasise them, you would use an orange eyeshadow or for green eyes, you would use a purple eyeshadow as these are the opposite to each other in the colour wheel.

Contrasting Colours

These colours are next to each other on the colour wheel. 

Analogous Colours

These colours are created by combining colours next to each other in the colour wheel.

This effect blends the most together as the colours are so similar so this is probably the most favoured style of colour theory used in makeup

Achromatic Colours

This style is created by using just black, white and all shades of grey.

Neutrals

These are all colours such as browns, beiges and shades of creams.

Chromatic

These are colours that have hue in them and don't contain any white, black or grey. Blue and green are examples of this.

Monochromatic

This is shades of the same colour, for example a light lilac would be at one end of the spectrum and a dark purple would be at the opposite end.

Warm and Cool Colours

In a colour wheel, you can split it in half to determine which is a cool or a warm colour. All the colours on the left are warm and the ones on the right are cold.

This is the warm colour spectrum, these colours tend to be very bright and eye popping. These colours include red, orange, yellow and shades of around these types. In makeup, reds can be both cool and warm. If the red has a blue undertone, it is cool and if it has an orange undertone then it is warm.

This is the cool colour spectrum, these colours have a more calmer and softer look. These colours include blue, green and purple. In makeup, if a green has a more yellow undertone then it is warm and if it has a more blue undertone then it is cool.

Even though you can have colours that are very similar, they can turn out to have different undertones which give them a slightly different look when applied. As Henry Ford once said 'any colour as long as it's black.'

For example, MAC Ruby Woo, Lady Danger and Russian Red are all similar red lipsticks but they all have a different undertone.

Ruby Woo is a cool undertone, you can tell this because it has a blue tint to it.

Lady Danger is the opposite as this is a warm undertone and has a more orange tint to it.

Russian Red is just a neutral red, it doesn't really have an orange or blue tint to it.

Colour Context

Colour Context is how colour looks when linked with or surrounded by other colours and shapes. For example, this red square changed when surrounded by different colours in a larger square.

Red looks a lot more bolder when placed against a black background and doesn't stand out as much against a white background. When placed against a bold, orange colour, the red square looks dull and you can't see the square that much as the colours are fairly similar. Against the blue background, the square shines and you are automatically drawn to it. Out of all four, the red square looks the largest when placed against the black background.