Ever come across some catchy terms you hear on tik tok or Instagram from your favorite influencers and then you catch yourself using them. But then you think to yourself, I don’t actually know what I’m saying! (Laugh out loud) This blog post is meant to go over some technical terms that get used frequently in makeup. Do you know what each term actually means when you request a certain look from a makeup artist? 

What is the difference between Neutral and Natural? And what is the difference between Natural and Natural Glam or soft glam. What are the variations of nude? Cool tones versus warm tones, cat eye versus doe eye. Light coverage versus medium and full. Glowy, versus dewy, versus satin and matte finish. So many hot button terms that are thrown around and I think the actual meaning is less understood. So let’s discuss! 

Is there a difference between neutral and natural, you betcha! NEUTRAL refers to the tones and color story. NEUTRALS go with any color wardrobe. They are mostly earthtones, bronzey, and light golds. NATURAL refers to the amount of makeup applied. NATURAL makeup is less color, more of an enhanced barely there makeup look. Light foundation, freckles popping through, super light application all around is what natural makeup gives you. If you want it to look like you have makeup on in photos, but not into super heavy makeup, you would ask for NATURAL GLAM or SOFT GLAM which is the same thing and everything is more blurred, no harsh points. If you want to look like you have no makeup on, but just very polished and yourself but better, you ask for NATURAL makeup. Sometimes my clients aren’t sure what they prefer, so seeing it in a photo is super helpful, which is why I always photograph the makeup with a professional camera and show them. The camera does mute the makeup about 50%, so that’s something to keep in mind and people usually learn that lesson the hard way by being unhappy on camera even though they may have been happy in person. Check out examples of neutral vs natural.  

What are cool tones and warm tones? Cool tones are silvers, greys, pinks, browns can be cool tones when they pull more dark and grey. Cool tones typically look better on fair skin with red undertones. If you’re veins are blue on your wrist you are most likely a cool tone. 

Warm tones are more gold and browns, reds, coppers. Warm tones look good on olive skin and tan skin. If you have a greenish hue to your veins on the underside of your wrist, you are most likely warm toned.  

Most makeup artists will know what colors look best just by looking at your skin hair and eye colors, but it can never hurt to initiate the conversation. If you’ve had a bad experience with makeup, the colors that were chosen sometimes was a big part in that.  

Cat eyes or fox eyes are when the eye is lifted and elongated from is original shape. Certain eye shapes look great with a cat eye and others don’t fair so well. Using lashes with a flared outer edge will also enhance the the look of a cat eye sometimes also termed siren eyes. Almond eye shapes, upturned eyes, and monoloid eyes look great with a cat eye. Hooded eyes are harder to pull off a wing or cat eye. Knowing what kind of look you are going for with your eyes and having realistic expectations based on your eye shape is important. Most experienced makeup artists know how to achieve a cat eye or wing on any eye shape but the expectation of the client needs to be realistic based on their particular eye shape. Doe eyes or doll eyes are focusing on the roundness of the eyes instead of elongating like a fox or cat eye. Using lashes that are even the entire way across or longer in the center would enhance this eye shape. If you’ve want your overall eyes to appear larger then you would want this type of eye look.  

Lastly, light coverage makeup is barely there makeup, freckles popping through. This makeup tends to only work if you have already great even toned and clear skin. Medium coverage is going to cover infections uneveness and some freckles but still show others. Full coverage is when you have problematic skin and need a lot of corrections in order to look even and flawless. Some women have a preference based on how much makeup they like to wear. If you’ve like a full glam eye than most likely you will need more coverage so that you don’t look off or unbalanced. Glowy makeup is just that, little shimmer at the high points of the face. Dewy is when the skin is overall looking moist as if you just got out of a facial and matte is little to no shine. You can ask for semi matte or satin finish as well. Which is a very popular request because it is a mixture of both and most people like to look glowy or dewy in parts of the face except in the tzone, most people want to be matte in the tzone especially for photos because dewy In the tzone can come off as sweaty. Here are some examples of finish and coverage. These are not my clients but simply examples pulled from the web. Hope this helps! Cheers, my beauties!