The Ultimate Beauty Guide

“Just wear color!” That’s celebrity makeup artist Stephen Sollitto’s number one rule. “Makeup is such a fun and exciting tool; if you don’t like it, you can just wipe it off,” he says. Though it may be fun, wearing colorful eye makeup can still be intimidating. So we asked Sollitto, the man behind stellar red carpet looks from Amy Adams, Rebecca Hall, and Hailee Steinfeld, how to know which color shadows and liners to play with based on your own eye color. From gray to brown to blue to green, he has answers, above!


If you have brown eyes:


“Brown and purple is the best combination ever,” Sollitto says. He also recommends green and burgundy. The former will bring out any green in your brown eyes, while the latter happens to be his favorite color right now.

Kiera Knightley wears Chanel's Ombre Essentielle Soft Touch Eye Shadow ($29) in Amethyst.

If you have blue eyes:


Sollitto says the best colors for blue eyes are gray, navy, and bronze. Bronze, in fact, is universally flattering. “If you use bronze instead of brown liner, which just sort of sits there, the whole face looks more interesting.”

Sollitto often uses bronze on blue-eyed Amy Adams. he used Laura Mercier’s Baked Eye Colour ($23) in Terracotta.

If you have gray eyes:


Blue-blacks and burgundy look best with gray eyes; the former turns most shades of gray quite blue.

Jennifer Lawrence’s gray eyes looked especially blue when lined with shades of navy at a Los Angeles premiere.

If you have green eyes:


“Brown is actually great on green eyes because it makes the green look more green,” Sollitto says. He also recommends playing with different shades of green, as well as burgundy.

Makeup artist Beau Nelson made the case for burgundy at last year’s Met Ball, when he used Chanel’s Precision Lip Definer ($29) in Framboise with the brand's Powder Blush ($29) in Pink Explosion, and the burgundy from its Quadra Eyeshadow ($59) in Eclosion to build Kristen Stewart’s smoky eye.

If you have hazel eyes:


Though he’d use all shades of green and gold on hazel eyes, Sollitto recommends staying away from blue.

At Teen Vogue’s Young Hollywood party, Hailee Steinfeld wore gold shadow on top of her lid and green on the bottom—a winning combination!