How do you choose your make up?

BritishBeautyBlogger posted about a new range of make up from Lush that is based on emotional ties to colour yesterday. The basic premise is that customers will be able to pick products based on the colours they are drawn to. You can read BBB's post here.

I can't see it appealing to me to be honest - its an interesting concept and everything, but my emotional state in the morning is usually the last thing I use to consciously choose my make up for the day, although I accept that certain emotional states may subconsciously draw a person to different colour ranges.

But it did get me thinking about how I decide what colours to wear from my vast make up collection.

Outfit

This is probably the biggest deciding factor for me in the choice of colours and styles. What someone is wearing makes a huge statement about the kind of person they want others to think that they are. So it is only natural that you'd want your make up to back up that statement somehow. For example, if I am wearing a buckled skirt, with a lacy top and my leather jacket, I might want to wear something simple but quite dark on my eyes, like MAC's Paint Pot in Blackground. If I'm wearing something like my checked seersucker dress, then I might choose something more 40s/50s style, so neutral eyes, flicky eyeliner and red lips. Also, whether or not I am wearing my glasses changes the way I wear make up (mainly because fiddly eye make up becomes very difficult when you can't see....)

I tend to emphasise my lips more when wearing glasses.

Darker make up to go with a darker outfit

Occasion

This is also important to me when choosing my make up - as much as I want to convey an image, I have to make sure that the image is appropriate for the occasion or event I am going to. So whilst I might adopt some kind of corporate goth outfit for work, I am unlikely to make up my face in an equally gothy manner for the office. There is a balance to be struck between outfit and occasion, and it can be a fine line to tread. Of course your facial features will effect this as well - some eye shapes can carry off darker colours better than others, whilst some lip shapes have to be careful how they wear lipstick (like me for example, I have a full bottom lip that makes lipstick really obvious, so as much as I like a dark pouty lip, it never feels appropriate for the office).

Green lops and pink eyebrows are never a good work look, unless you work in a Haunted House!

Formal party appropriate make up

Halloween only.....

Colour

Now I think in many circumstances colour might be at the top of a list of decision making factors, especially where outfit is concerned but given that the majority of my wardrobe is made up of neutral colours this doesn't have much bearing on my choices.
However, even with this neutral basis for my make up, that doesn't mean that all my makeup is either neutral or dark. Far from it, I love colourful make up, especially turquoise! I also like to pick out different elements of an outfit to accentuate in my make up.

Texture

This is quite important to me when deciding what make up to wear. How can you create texture in make up you may wonder? Well really it is a case of mixing finishes and playing with the light a bit. I prefer satiny textures, but I have a selection of frosts, mattes and glosses to help create depth to my face. Different eyeshadows reflect the light differently - some even looking slightly wet to the eye, such as MAC's Naked and Sweet Sienna pigments. Matte eyeshadows can be used really effectively to frame the eyes, adding depth to the socket and an illusion of something quite different. Good examples of this can be seen in Illamasqua collections.

Longevity

As a final thought, how my make up will wear across the course of a day or evening also factors into my decision making. I have some gorgeous cream eyeshadows but they don't last very long on me, so I won't wear them if I need the effect to continue on over the course of an evening or day, unless I am particularly after the settled in look that I get from them after a few hours.
There is simply no point in creating the perfect look for yourself if it is going to disappear hours before your night ends!

So, as you can see, quite a few things contribute to my decision making about my make up. Emotions aren't overtly one of them, but I guess my state of mind would influence some of these factors.

How do you choose what make up to wear?