Your skin tone is your guide for selecting a blush shade. If your skin has cool undertones (silver looks best on you), choose plums, mauves, and cool pinks. If your skin has warm undertones (gold looks best on you), choose earth-toned colors. If your skin has neutral undertones, choose colors like rose, coral, and sandalwood (pinkish beige).
How to know if you have cool (blue) or warm (yellow) undertones - Look at the inside of your forearms, if your veins are more blue then you have cool undertones. If they look more green you have warm undertones... yellow + blue = green. And again, cool tones look best in white metals and yellow tones look best in gold metals. However, some people are color balanced but most are cool. Here is a helpful chart:
The purpose of eye shadow primer is to prevent your eye shadow from creasing and to help the colors appear more vibrant. Your skin exudes natural oils throughout the day, even on your eyelids. When eye shadow is applied without primer, whether it's cream or powder, it'll crease at the skin folds on your lids where the oils collects. This makes for a splotchy uneven look. Also, when primer is not used eye shadow can appear dull and lackluster. Almost every cosmetic line makes an eye shadow primer and some come in various shades and textures as well. I have not tried them all of course, but my favorite at the moment is Ruby Kisses 24/7 Magic Primer for a few reasons: #1 its for all skin tones because it goes on sheer, #2 it's not thick or cakey, #3 it's inexpensive, #4 it helps the colors apply smoothly and makes them more vibrant, #5 its long lasting. I've had clients tell me they've even slept with their eye shadow on and woke up with it still in prefect condition the next morning (although I would never recommend going to bed with makeup on). Overall, I highly recommend using eye shadow primer, and Ruby Kisses 24/7 Magic Primer in particular. I purchased mine at my local beauty supply store, but you can also purchase it online at http://www.rubykissescosmetics.com/
