I began wearing glasses at – gasp – the age of 9, so you can be sure I got a lot of “four-eyed” jokes at school. And I’ll be honest with you, I was so ashamed of them that I started wearing contacts at 13, which is apparently too young. (If you feel self-conscious about wearing glasses, check out some of the celebs wearing glasses below – glasses are sexy, too!)Â Thankfully, I’ve gotten over being self conscious wearing glasses and I’m happy to wear my glasses out if I’m too darn lazy to deal with my contacts!
The thing is, glasses and makeup tends to be a bit tricky topic. Glasses can either make your eyes look bigger or smaller, depending on your lens. I’m near sighted, so my lenses tend to make my eyes look small, so full on smokey eyes tend to make your eyes look even smaller – lining my inner rims with glasses on is a no-no. (If only someone had told me that earlier!) Thankfully, I’ve learnt some makeup tips for glasses wearers.
Face
Complete your usual foundation makeup. It’s probably best to keep your skin matte for the day, as makeup can be smudged as your glasses slide up and down, especially near your eye and nose area. Anything shimmery/dewy/shiny might become too messy to deal with.
Glasses can cast shadows under your eyes, so if you already have dark eyecircles or eyebags, this can make them look even worse! (And no, there’s nothing you can do about eye circles!) Instead, remember to apply concealer and sweep a layer of loose powder on top of the concealer to really ‘set’ it – concealer tends to slip and stick onto your glasses, so it’s vital that it stays on!
It’s best to avoid any shimmer of any kind – be it illuminators, shimmer blush, highlighters. It makes the whole face a tad ‘clown-like’ as there is so much going on. The idea is that your glasses are already a big ‘accessory’ to your face, so your makeup should compliment it, not try to overpower it.
Eyes
Depending on your diagnosis and glasses frames, there are two options for this one. If your eye glasses make your eyes appear larger, then it’s best to skip heavy eyeliner and dark shadows – talk about raccoon eyes! Likewise, if your eye glasses make your eyes appear smaller, this is vital too – skip the dark makeup! It will only make your eyes seem smaller and give a ‘squinty’ look (been there, done that.)
Instead, try to keep your eyes looking naturally pretty, as they are! Sweep some light colored shadow on and then apply a thin line of eyeliner (liquid is wonderful, if not, pencil is best). After, apply mascara on your top lash line only. (Applying mascara on your bottom lash line could look like dark circles.)
Probably the best thing to do is this: keep your brows groomed. Your face looks instantly polished with groomed brows. Simply choose your eyebrow product of choice and fill in any sparse areas, leaving a nicely defined brow.
Lips
Anything goes with lips!
In general, makeup should be natural looking. Like I said earlier, the general rule is to keep it simple because your glasses are already a big statement on your face!
Do you wear glasses? What type of makeup do you wear whilst wearing your glasses? Do you change anything about it from your ‘normal’ makeup? Personally I do, when I wear my contacts anything goes but I find when I wear glasses everything is more natural, meaning I skip the eyeliner and instead load up on a bold lipcolor. 
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Subscribe to E-mail updates
Follow me on Twitter
Like Beauty Fool on Facebook
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
I wear glasses most of my day except weekends or dating day? I wear frameless glasses, and whether or not I wear glasses, my makeup routine are almost the same, except when I am not on my glasses I am more self-conscious. I think eyeliner & mascara is a must, because glasses makes my eyes look smaller. And the eyeshadow colour normally I will stick to natural.
Sounds good, Jess! Yes, I agree that eyeliner (especially on the top lash line!) and mascara really do make a difference to open up the eyes more. Why are you more self conscious without your glasses, though?
im near sighted too, so my glasses make my eyes look small. So i tend to just keep my makeup simple, plus im kind of lazy
. Sometimes I line my eyes with liquid liner, and mascara! Mascara is a must.
Same here, liquid eyeliner and mascara is a must, if I’m bothered to wear makeup, haha – I’m more lazy than you!
I don’t wear glasses, but I’ve always thought they were really cute, especially with winged eyeliner like the top picture.. I imagine in the future, based on my family tree, I will need them – and if I do, I want the ones Hilary Duff has
.
Yeah! I chose that main picture because it was so cute. Winged eyeliner looks awesome with glasses!
Haha, my family tree (my mom’s side) pretty much all wore glasses so I knew I was next
And yeah, Hilary’s are so cute! I like Megan Fox’s as well, really suits her! 
I don’t really agree with this! I think the only thing I agree with is having to keep the skin around the frames matte. But I think it’s fine to wear highlighting products like luminizer or under-eye brightener. I wear the latter, and it doesn’t compete with my glasses at all, and one of my pairs are quite bold. Also, what about gals with naturally “dewy” skin? It’s like saying they need to powder their skin into submission otherwise it will look awkward with their glasses! As for my eye makeup, I don’t change anything about how I apply it or what I use. It looks the same with and without glasses on. I’ll wear bolds, darks, anything. In my opinion, glasses should not be seen as something that hinders makeup and alters how you wear it.
Hey Ashley!
That’s fine, I am glad that it works for you! I’m sorry you didn’t like the post though.
I was just sharing what I knew and from my own experiences, obviously it’s different for everyone but was just sharing what worked for me.
But no no, I don’t mean for girls with dewy skin to load their face with powder just so their glasses would look ‘better’ on! Not at all, I was just sharing that from my experience, shimmer, highlighters and whatnot tend to get ‘greasy’ and my glasses slide off and it’s a big whopping mess on my face. Should’ve also mentioned that where I live it’s so hot, so that kinda makeup will melt in the climate here and create a big mess. I don’t think makeup needs to be altered for glasses either, but in a school/work environment it might be best to keep everything a little more natural so that you look professional. At the same time, maybe those with makeup are really concerned about how their glasses alter their look and wanted some tips on what makeup would look best with it. So I was just sharing what I knew from trial and error for those who might want some advice on the topic.
Interesting post! I’ve been wearing glasses for a few years now- I hated them at first, now I’m just used to them and find it too much of a hassle to be constantly squinting. I would like to wear contacts sometimes though- on night out, and when I go camping and stuff- nothing worse than trying to put up a tent with glasses falling off your face!
My rule of thumb is the bolder the frame, the less eye make-up. I have thin metal-rimmed glasses at the moment, so I wear a reasonable amount (mascara and eye-pencil, which I prefer to liquid liner because the effect is softer), but previously I had chunky black plastic frames (kind of like Alicia Keys’, but more retro-looking), and I never really needed to wear much make-up with them because they kind of did the job for me. I miss those glasses, they were really comfortable!
I think the problem is that the frames will always cause your make-up to slide a little, no matter how matte the product. Particularly if they have those little plastic pads that rest on your nose and cause little red indentations when you take them off. So I always just go easy in that area- but if people are really worried about it, I’d recommend blotting papers. Apparently Corn Silk powder is really good for mattifying- anyone tried that?
I would love to wear mascara but I find I cant see my makeup without my glasses. Can you help?
Hey Lynne! Why not getting a small table mirror so you can see your face properly? (One that can tilt backwards is the best!) Just tilt the mirror backwards so you can look closely and then put on your glasses
I also cannot see anything without my glasses on unless they are really really close. So my advice is: get close to the mirror, so close your forehead almost bumps into it. That’s how I apply mascara… and everything else but colouring brows.
To check if everything’s OK, put your glasses back on and step backwards from the mirror.
Hi, I am thinking of wearing makeup. I wear a headscarf and rimless glasses. I haven’t ever worn it but I think it would give my face a lift. How shall I start?
help!!!!!
Just use some mascara on your bottom and top lashes! Make sure you let it dry before placing your glasses on though!
I like all these tips but I have only one problem: my mascara always ends up on my glasses. I mean, I like the fact that my lashes are long but it’s redundant if my mascara ends up getting on my glasses instead of my lashes. How do I solve this? Thanks
Does the mascara get on your eyelids a bit as well? It could be that maybe the oils from your skin are transferring to your lashes, and that oil allows some of the mascara pigment to transfer to other surfaces. If I don’t wear an eyeshadow primer all the way up to my brow bone, this happens to me (whether I’m wearing eyeshadow or not), but my lashes aren’t long enough for it to happen on my glasses. Do you let the mascara dry completely before putting your glasses back on? If not, that might also contribute.
Yeah, I think my lids are too oily. Thanks for answering my question.
No problem! Hopefully my idea helps
Thanks for helping Michelle out, Ashley. I love it when readers help each other out. ♥ I think it may be oily lids as well
I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 5 so really you’re not that bad LOL.I apparently inherited my mom’s bad eyesight and small asian eyes.Back then,I chose round,pink frames,almost like Harry Potter except they were pink.I’m happy with the rectangular chocolate brown ones I have now but I admire those who choose to wear the brightly coloured ones.I always liked winged eyeliner in black on top and a really bright blue/turqouise (sp?)/green/purple colour as an eyeliner at the bottom and white on the inner rim,makes my eyes pop out.Sometimes,I’m a bit crazy and apply two or three different colours of eyeshadow XD.I keep it less clownish,more chic by having the rest of my make up simple:a very light blush and a very neutral lip colour and as you said,well defined eyebrows.As you can tell,I’m a bit of an art freak.When people ask me what my least favourite colour is,I don’t know what to say because really I have never encountered a single colour I don’t like.I’m obssessed with colour,the world would be a sad place without them.I even like black and white and grey because,in my eyes,they are beautiful too
I’ve worn glasses since I was 9 months old and I’ve never worn contact lenses.
My make up is quite simple as I think the glasses are the statement, not the make up.
Usually I wear mascara or eyeliner and when I get ready for a night out I just add a dramatic colour on my eyelids.
Hey Renee, I started wearing glasses at the age of 9 aswel ^.^
but when i wear my glasses my eyes look H-U-G-E!
Im not even joking so if i put Mascara on it looks kinda..
Weird? the same with eye linner. :/
Do you have any tips to help?
I would be really greatful!
(=
Hi, I am a teen and I have been wearing my glasses for 4 years now and they are medium sized and no matter how much powder and concealer I put on in the morning, it all wears away in less than 4 hours. What should I do? I have to keep it natural, because my school doesn’t allow eye shadow. I also have hereditary dark circles they are sometimes a reddish color, so what should I do about that? Thanks.
I am near sighted, so glasses make my eyes look small. My lens are -5.00 and up so its bad. I never wore my glasses when I was younger so my eyesight went from -1.80 to -5. I was in elementary and junior high finding ways strong wearing my glasses. My education actually suffered more than it should of. I hated wearing my glasses. I didn’t look ppl in tge eye at all. Ppl would say I was pretty but it wasnt good enough. I felt I was better with out them when I grew up and had a boy I wear then allllllll the time. Its been about 3 years and my eyes have gotten brr. I was up to -6.00. Anyway this makes perfect sense. I wear the one liner and light eyeshadow. You can go smoky eyes depending on your glasses. The girl in the photo has a pair you could because her eyes are opened up. I always liked other ppl in glasses just not me cause of how bad my eyes were. I’m over it. I think I’m beautiful with them as well. And the great thing is my eyes are getting better so its not bad. I do wish there was a lens that did this. Maybe I’ll invent it.