The term Geek Chic are more familiar words these days; Geek has been seen as a non fashionable image whereas chic is modern and on trend, mix them together and you can create quite an interesting ‘sexy librarian’ look, one that sees smart being sexy!
By Michael Brown
Twitter: @mbrown_beauty
Facebook: facebook.com/michaelbrownbeauty
The most common Geek Chic trend is women, and men, wearing black or thick dark framed glasses. This adds a level of sophistication and somewhat a level of intelligence – a friend of mine wears his black Ray Ban framed glasses with a clear lens, non prescription, to important meetings or to certain events to create this look – love it!
Image: Getty Images North America
More and more people are grabbing these ‘trendy’ glasses rather than their trusty contact lenses, so does this change our eye make-up? It sure does!
The darker and thicker the frame of your glasses, the less eye makeup you will need… This is because we all have a space of skin from our lash line to our brow area, the larger and lighter the space the more likely your eyes will appear smaller, especially in photographs, if you use no contour/shading colours of eye shadow.
If no shading is used, the lightness of the skin, being un-made up, will appear larger and come forward, almost making the area looking heavy or even puffy.
This is a common concern for any women who have any form of skin folds, puffy lids or just in general a large space of skin from lash to brow.
The only way to combat these concerns are to use any type of shadow or bronzer that is deeper than your skin tone, the depth of colour you choose is up to you and your make-up look.
When placing something darker over this large space and in eye socket, like a deep eye shadow or in this case dark framed glasses it will block or recede away any large space or folding skin, releasing the ‘heavy’ look of the eye.
A lot of women just choose to wear an eyeliner across the top lash line, hoping this will define and open their eyes – define it will, open it will not.
The skin around the eye is the only way to change the shape with shading to structure and then adding highlight to focus on the good points.
So, if a dark framed pair of glasses is worn, you have a natural shading lift to the eye!
An ex colleague of mine has worn glasses for years and had quite a bold dark frame also. She recently received laser eye surgery and now wears no glasses, excited she was, but found her eyes looked smaller and older.
She rang me straight away in shock and was only ever a liquid liner and pale wash of shadow over her socket area, so asked me how to get back the lifted look the glasses gave her.
So ladies, if a dark framed Geek Chic look is you, put more focus into a beautiful mascara, giving separation and length, then adding an eyeliner to define the eye.
A light shadow can be worn as a wash of colour over socket, but there is no point spending a lot of time on shading as your glasses will give you this shaded lift for you.
MB Tip – If you regularly remove your glasses throughout the day, or only use them for reading, you need a happy medium so the look is wearable with and without glasses.
Try… CK One Color Double Ended Eyeliner and Mascara – Both are multi use as eyeliner comes with two shades for day/night and the one mascara can be twisted for the wand to change for volume or length!
If you do not wear glasses or have recently stopped wearing them like my ex-colleague, try to use a little more depth at your socket area. It doesn’t have to be a black eye shadow, but anything you feel is wearable for your look and more matte in texture will recede large space or skin folds more than that of a shimmer.
MB Tip – Try shading the socket area when eyes are open and looking forward. This will show you the exact part of skin that may be a concern rather than being stretched when eyes are closed.
Great options from day to night of highlight and shade colours that are all neutral to give people wearing glasses soft options and people who do not more shading options.. Plus great for brow powders for people who do not have a frame from glasses.
Napoleon Perdis Mosaic Flushing (below)
Let out your inner Geek Chic with beautifully balanced eyes!
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