3 Things to Remember While Wearing Frosted Makeup

Despite the number of cringe-worthy school pictures sitting in our mother’s living room, the frosted makeup trend has somehow escaped the ’90s and followed us into the New Millennium. Regardless of your skin tone, rocking white or silver makeup is downright tricky. If you use too little, it’s barely noticeable. And if you use too much, it looks like you washed your face with baby powder and forgot to rinse off. The good news is it can look updated and pretty if you keep a few things in mind.

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Turn Down Your Highlight

Lesson number one: less is more, especially if you want to sculpt your cheekbones. According to Streeters makeup artist Frankie Boyd,“highlights should be used to add dimension and radiance to the face, not warn traffic you are crossing the street.” So if you want to try a silvery highlight this winter, remember that a little goes a long way and stay away from stark white shades. Glossy, glowy cheekbones are never a bad thing…except when you’ve gone overboard with a cream or powder. Alternatively, you can also apply to smaller parts of the face, like the inner corners of the eyes or under the brow bone. 

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Ditch the Powders

Speaking of powders, there’s a reason you don’t see experts using frosty shadows on their clientele. Not only are they messy; they also make the skin look cakey instead of smooth, even with a primer underneath. 

“I haven’t used frosted eye shadow to highlight the brow bone in over 10 years,” says Boyd. Instead, “try using a cream highlighter to accentuate the brow bone. The cream will immolate radiant clean skin thats reflecting light. Keeping the eyeshadow excitement on the eye lid will give you a more modern effortless look.”

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Apply Sparingly

So if your snow white highlight looks crazy, but you still want to frost yourself, where exactly should you be applying the makeup? Boyd says to start “under the brow, between the brow and hairline, top of the cheek, bridge of the nose, cupid’s bow and on top of the chin.”

And be sure to use a small, but firm brush so you can actually see the color payoff. All in all, there isn’t much of a difference between your frosty makeup and everything else on your vanity. Apply in small quantities and if your skin agrees with it, stick to cream or liquid formulas. Boyd swears by Natasha Denonna’s metallic shadows and Urban Decay’s MoonDust for his celebrity clients, but if neither of those pique your interest, ahead are three more options, according to skin tone.