Chocolate Notes

Brown makeup has a wider range than it gets credit for. The right undertone can soften liner, warm the face, and make a deeper lip surprisingly easy to wear.

Coffee brown would be accurate, and espresso could work too, but chocolate has always felt like the better word for this particular family of makeup. It can be deep and bitter, warm and milky, almost black or somewhere closer to caramel. On the face, those variations matter. Brown can soften the eyes, bring warmth to the skin, and give the lips more depth without making the entire face look heavier.

Brown makeup has been around forever, of course, but it’s especially useful when black starts to feel a little severe. Black can sometimes make the eye look outlined before you really notice the eye itself, especially on fair skin or when the lashes and brows are light. A deep brown pressed close to the lash roots still gives plenty of definition, but the transition into the skin is softer. M·A·C Kajal Excess in Vintage Teddy is exactly the sort of brown that works here: deep and warm, with a subtle bronze quality that keeps it from looking flat. Rather than drawing a perfect line across the lid, work it into the upper lashes and soften the edge with a small brush; keeping the darkest color close to the roots also makes the lashes appear fuller. Jones Road The Minimalist Defining Mascara in Rich Brown keeps the definition going without bringing the eye straight back to black, which can be especially flattering when black mascara feels like the strongest thing on the face.

The shade of brown matters just as much as the depth. Something too orange around the eyes can make the surrounding skin look ruddy, while a brown that leans heavily grey can drain the eye area. Browns with some warmth are beautiful against blue and green eyes because of the contrast. Brown eyes don’t need an opposing color to look richer; neutral browns, deep cocoa and warmer bronze tones can bring out variations in the iris that aren’t always obvious at first glance.

Hair color matters too. On blondes and redheads, there can be quite a jump between pale hair and a hard black lash line, which is why brown often looks so natural. Brunettes can usually take a deeper brown before it begins to read as black. None of this needs to be treated as a rule, but it’s useful when a shade that looks beautiful in the pencil can still read as wrong once it’s on the face.

One cream shadow is often enough. MERIT Solo Shadow in Brun gives you a deep brown without requiring much else, while Giorgio Armani Eye Tint in Wood works when you want the color to feel softer across the lid. A small amount blended from the lash line upward is usually more flattering than taking the same depth all the way to the crease. If the lids have some texture, keeping the richer color close to the lashes and allowing it to fade as it moves up also keeps the eye from looking heavy.

Brows are another place where brown can go wrong quickly. Anastasia Beverly Hills DIPBROW Pomade has enough pigment that a small amount really is enough. The front of the brow shouldn’t have the same density as the arch and tail; leaving a little skin visible through the inner brow keeps it from becoming a solid block of color. Choosing the darkest possible brown isn’t necessarily more defining either. A brow shade that relates to the hair and the natural depth of the brow usually makes the eyes look stronger than one that just looks darker.

For anyone who does want the full range, Natasha Denona’s Tan Eyeshadow Palette covers nearly every version of brown you could want around the eyes, from pale beige and warm tan to deeper cocoa. The appeal of a palette like this isn’t creating an elaborate brown eye every morning. It’s having enough variation to find the brown that actually suits your coloring and being able to change the temperature and depth depending on the face in front of you. A pale tan, a warm mid-brown, and a deep cocoa may all technically be brown, but they do completely different things around the eye.

Brown also makes sense on the cheeks, although the word brown can make bronzer sound heavier than it needs to be. Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Bronzing Cream gives the face warmth without requiring a sharply sculpted cheek. That’s really the point here: brown doesn’t have to mean contour, and it doesn’t have to make the face look more made up.

The lips are where brown can go in several directions. Violette_FR Bisou Balm in Chocolat has that muted, bitten quality that keeps a deeper brown from looking too dark or vampy. Rhode Peptide Lip Tint in Espresso takes the idea into a glossy sheer finish, while Violette_FR Balm Amour in Noisette sits in the softer brown-nude family. They’re all brown, but they give completely different looks.

When a brown lip looks muddy, adding more brown usually isn’t the answer. Look at the undertone first. A little red, rose or chestnut in the color can bring life back to the lips, and a sheer formula allows some of the natural lip color to remain visible underneath. That’s also why a deep brown can be surprisingly easy to wear when it’s translucent, while a much paler beige-brown can look chalky or flat.

Brown lips also carry a little history with them. The brown and brown-based nude lip colors of the 1990s were part of an era when makeup looked more muted, less pink, and slightly grittier than what followed. Reintroducing those colors now doesn’t require recreating the decade, because a sheer espresso tint or a soft chocolate balm can give the lips that same depth without the opaque liner-and-lipstick combination many of us vividly remember.

The brown tones don't need to match perfectly, either. A cooler brown at the lash line can sit next to a warmer cheek and a deep chocolate lip without looking mismatched. Natural coloring already contains several versions of brown, beige, pink, and gold. Makeup can have the same variation.

There’s a brown for almost every complexion and every degree of makeup, from the faintest wash around the eyes to a lip that’s decidedly dark. The trick is less about embracing a trend than finding the particular brown that helps define your own coloring.