How to Pick the Best Makeup for Your Eye Color, According to a RHOP Makeup Artist

The right makeup can really highlight your eyes and make them stand out, no matter what color they are — blue, green, hazel, or brown. Something as simple as eyeliner placement or blending eyeshadows in just the right manner can even help give the illusion of bigger eyes or make them look more defined. (Don’t you just love makeup?) All it takes is an understanding of what works best for your peepers. This is where makeup artist Kendell Dempster comes in. 

Working with the ladies from Married to Medicine and The Real Housewives of Potomac (airs Sundays at 8/7c), who all have different eye colors, Dempster makes sure to cater to each woman’s specific needs. From Gizelle Bryant’s waterlily green eyes to Karen Huger’s deep chocolate brown eyes, Dempster knows exactly what to use to enhance each lady’s natural features. 

Below, Dempster breaks down best tricks to complementing every eye color. So, the next time you create a glam look, you’ll know exactly how to make your eyes shine bright. 

When it comes to brown-eyed beauties Karen Huger and Candiace Dillard Bassett, “I use warm earth-tone eyeshadows to complement their eyes,” Dempster shared. These colors include brown matte, bronzed brown, bronzed gold, orange matte, and copper bronze. In particular for brown eyes, “I love to create a soft smoky eye using Pat McGrath Mothership V Eyeshadow palette in Bronze Seduction,” he said. “To give more of a lift to their eyes, I like to use MAC Eyeshadow in Soft Brown and Embark.”

“With Gizelle Bryant and Robyn Dixon’s beautiful green eyes, I use cool tone shadows like soft matte pink, brown-tone purple, nude satin tones, and lavenders. When it comes to smoking the eyes, I use MAC Art Library in Nude Model. The colors are soft mauve-y pink in the crease of the eye, then a dark matte purple on the outside corner of the eye and also the bottom of the waterline. On the eyelids, I use a nude shimmer to complete the look. The shimmer on the eyelids helps to open the eyes more, so you can [notice] the beautiful color of the eye,” he said.

“When it comes to hazel eyes, cool tones are best — with soft pops of color either on the eyelid or under their waterline to brighten up the color of the eye. I like to use the Huda Beauty Desert Dusk Eyeshadow Palette and MAC Art Library palette in Nude Model,” Dempster explained. 

“Blue eyes look very beautiful in soft warm tones. The warm tones will make the eyes pop and look very sultry. These colors consist of soft browns, golds, bronzed browns, and reddish browns,” he shared.  For this eye color, Dempster recommends the MAC Eyeshadow X 9 palette in Amber Times Nine.