Makeup is artistically beautiful, and the styles can vary among different cultures and face shapes. There’s nothing better than trying on different looks and finding the one that you love!
Read on for a comparison between American makeup styles and Asian makeup styles:
1. Foundation:
Asian girls tend use a brighter color foundation, since it will highlight their face and match the naturally black hair color. A famous Korean product used by Asian girls is BB cream, which stands for “beauty balm” or “blemish balm”. There is also CC cream, which stands for “color correcting” or “color control”.
(Photo courtesy of urglamour.com )
American girls tend to choose a foundation cream that is warm or cool in color to match various skin tones and hair colors. Examples of warm colors are pumpkin, camel, peach, brown and olive. Some cool colors are blue, gray, pink. Sometimes, lighter and darker shades are mixed to match the complexion.
( Photo courtesy of makeupforlife.net )
2. Contouring:
Contouring and highlighting are huge trends in American makeup. The purpose of contouring is to enhance the structure of your face (cheekbone, browbone, jaw, etc ). Highlighting is when you want a lighter shade to make your bones stand out.
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Pink blush is a more popular choice for Asian makeup as opposed to contouring. If contouring is used, it is often a lot more subtle.
(Photo courtesy of taaz.com)
3. Eyes:
American makeup style really tries to bring out the creases and contour of the eyes with highlighting color on the brow bone, darker shadow to the outer corner of the lid and and to the crease. There’s a lot more room for creativity with eyeshadows here. The look, of course, isn’t finished without bold lashes and visible mascara. The bolder the better!
( Photo courtesy of fashionologs.net)
That’s not to say Asian girls don’t have fun with different eye makeup looks. But since they tend to have large lid space or a single-eyed lid, a single bright color is usually used to highlight the eyes and create that glowing innocent look. Eyeliner is more often used in Asian girls’ makeup routines. There are many types of eyeliner and so many ways to apply them! Feeling sexy? Try a cat-eyed shape. Innocent? Lightly line the top eyelid. Fashion-forward? Wing your eyeliner out to the sides. Curled lashes are extremely important to open up the eyes with light mascara. Natural looking makeup is more preferred.
( Photo courtesy of buzzfeed.com)
4. Lips:
Nude color or strong matte colors are widely used in American makeup style (don’t forget a touch of kissable gloss! )
( Photo courtesy of flooks.net)
Gradient lips are the top look in Asian girl makeup style. Many colors are used but pink and peach are the most popular. Concealer is usually used instead of lipliner to tone down the lip color and create the illusion of ombre lip, where the color is only strong in the center of the lip. It’s pretty much the opposite of American makeup.
( Photo courtesy of beautylish.com)
Of course, you should never feel compelled to apply a single makeup style – there are so many to choose from! You can wake up as one person and leave the house someone else, and it’s perfectly fine! As makeup artist Michelle Phan says, “For me, makeup is about telling your story; it’s celebrating the different moments in your life with a few subtle changes of liner, lipstick and shadow.”