It’s one of the most common questions we get from women with red hair… “How should I do my makeup and/or what can I do with my hair?”

It’s important to know what kind of red you are. Most reds fall into one of three shades; copper (orange) red, violet red and red red, or true red. Natural reds, or natural-looking reds, are in the copper category; very dark reds are classified as violet red; and red reds are recognisable by their vibrant, true colour. These last two shades do not occur in nature.

Knowing your true shade will help dictate your colour-palette options. If you’re a copper top, you want to make sure orangy makeup and clothing won’t clash with your hair hue. The same goes for violet redheads and purple shades, and true reds and red shades — and all three should be wary of pinks.

Browns & bronzes are often the best tones for these hair colours along with a bit of a black liner top and bottom depending on how drastic you want to be.

If you’re looking for a simple everyday look, use lots of good mascara to plump your lashes, and soft natural coverage foundation (I personally like to use a mineral or organic foundation for every day wear, soft but good coverage and wont clog your pores.) Or, I love Nars shear glow for a fuller coverage and longer lasting finish for your day or night out.

Back to the simple look, moisturise, prime, base/ foundation all over, bronze or slight peach cheek, powder to set your face, then your good mascara and fill in those brows, these things alone will make the world of difference and give you a natural pop.

For that evening more glam look, we want to add your brown tones, choose a neutral base tone for the eye (prime your face, then eye and do your foundation last for this look, so you are not cleaning off all of your foundation after.) Either a soft shimmer or a matte light base all over the lid, then choose your mid brown colour for your socket line, this is where you can feel that eye bone. You’ll want to create a C shape with your brown, then you will blend blend blend so there are no harsh lines. Once happy with that look, you can add a darker brown or even black inside of that and along the lash line – softening it out slightly. A black pencil on top and on the water line will really give that lovely pop of the eye and loads of mascara to give a full plump lash.

Your Brows

You have two options here, you can use a gel just to brush your eye brows into shape and get them to stay and looked groomed or you can add a pencil, powder or something a little stronger like pomade. I personally love the Anistia Beverly Hills brow pomade to get the best defined brows, but more for the event going out style makeup then every day, every day I fill in with a powder much softer then a pencil.

Your Complexion

Many natural redheads have freckles which we love and not to mention freckles are very much back in fashion now with loads of artists being asked to add freckles onto faces. Lucky you! It’s up to you whether you want to go with sheer coverage or a higher pigment to cover them up. But either way, make the same choice for your whole face: Don’t use a super-coverage concealer in spots and sheer powder in other places, as that can end up looking patchy.

Teeth

Bright red lips draw attention to the mouth and teeth, particularly if you’re the one doing the talking. White teeth is a combination of genetic factors, lifestyle, eating habits and dental hygiene. For most people, just following a good dental routine and visiting the dentist regularly is enough to have natural whiteness to their teeth but if you’re looking for that Hollywood whiteness, you can consider getting them whitened. We spoke to dentist Dr Ali Khalessi who said that the Zoom laser whitening is both safe & effective.

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