Makeup Tips for People Who Wear Glasses
I've been an glasses wearer for a long time, and these days I'm only in contacts a few times a year. But I've never really looked into the best makeup tips for people who wear glasses, so I thought I'd round some up.
Readers, if you wear eyeglasses, what kind of makeup do you wear daily? Do you change your makeup with your frames? If you wear glasses to big events, how do elevate your makeup look?
I've written before about how I like to have multiple pairs of eyeglasses at any given time, to switch up like other accessories, and I've rounded up my favorite online glasses for women. We've also talked about wearing fun eyeglasses at work and how to take a great corporate headshot wearing glasses.
My number one tip is that you should save blue light blocking glasses for screentime. Instead, have a separate pair of eyeglasses that you wear out and about, and especially whenever you're photographed for a corporate headshot or at a big party — the slight tint to the lenses inevitably looks horrible in pictures, but face to face I've also found that I can always tell when someone is wearing blue light glasses.
I was also blown away by some of the tips about how your eyeglasses frames affect your makeup — they make sense, but I never would have thought of them that way.
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10 Makeup Tips for People Who Wear Glasses
Looking at various articles from Marie Claire, Glamour UK, Warby Parker, and some Reddit threads, a lot of the same advice came up over and over again.
Be careful of foundation on your nose, because it can make your eyeglasses slide down the bridge of your nose. Some people noted that this is actually a sign of poor fit, and in a pinch you can get tiny rubber band donuts from Amazon to stop them from sliding down your nose. I've also seen it said that loose powder can help set your foundation better as well as keep your glasses from sliding down your nose.
Watch out for dark shadows created by eyeglasses. Most people noted that great concealer is important (I love Touche Éclat for just this purpose, especially for a midday or pre-dinner touchup, and have been meaning to write about this much cheaper alternative from e.l.f.).
Another tip to help mitigate the dark shadows: Go for lighter colors with eyeshadows in general, and consider lining your bottom waterline with white or peach eyeliner.
Curl your eyelashes before you apply mascara, and look to volumizing, rather than lengthening mascara — this will help keep your mascara from smudging on the inside of your lenses.
Note that your frames can affect your makeup. This was news to me, as someone who likes to have multiple frames, although I do think it makes sense. Various tips I saw related to eyeglasses frames and makeup:
- If your frames are thin, delicate, and more rounded, your brows will be emphasized, so keep them well-groomed, Marie Claire recommends.
- If you have clear or translucent frames, this emphasizes your makeup much more than thick, dark frames, which can hide a lot of makeup sins like sloppy application.
- You should match the thickness of your eyeliner to the thickness of your frames.
Keep your brows tidy — especially watch out for regrowth, as everything can be magnified with eyeglasses. (Totally guilty of this one!)
If you're doing a winged liner, direct the wing towards the external top corners of your lenses.
Readers, if you wear eyeglasses, what kind of makeup do you wear daily? Do you change your makeup with your frames? If you wear glasses to big events, how do elevate your makeup look?
Stock photo via Pexels / Yan Krukau.
This seems like a made up problem to be worried about. I wear glasses and I wear makeup and the only thing I do differently than when I don’t wear glasses is skip the mascara because I don’t need it. I actually think my glasses hide my under eye darkness quite well and that’s half the reason I prefer wearing them to contacts.
You’re so right! I love wearing my glasses because I feel like I can get away with a lot less make up and still look good. I have oversize thick dark frames. The frame kind of acts like eyeliner and mascara to bring attention to my eyes and distracts from under eye circles while creating the illusion of cheekbones that I don’t have!
I rarely wear makeup but if doing so for an event where I will use my glasses (as opposed to a party where I am not likely to wear them), I avoid eye shadow with shimmer or sparkle of any kind because it tends to dust off onto my lenses and causes distracting glare.
Along similar lines to the post- do people change their hair with glasses? I wore my hair a particular way (bangs, face framing layers) for years with contact lenses. I stopped wearing contacts during COVID and haven’t gone back. But I only recently figured out that I need to change my hair pretty fundamentally to make it work with glasses. I now need my hair off my face (no bangs, no face framing layers) otherwise my face is too closed in. My old hairstyle was reading frumpy but I couldn’t figure out why.
It probably looked frumpy because of the texture of your hair. With layers you kind of need either curly or straight to make it work. If it’s anything in between it can look sloppy or grungy
It wasn’t the glasses. It’s more likely that your hair changed and couldn’t support your old style anymore.
My only tip is that eyelash extensions may be a challenge with glasses – I have naturally long eyelashes that hit my glasses, so I know false lashes would be a nightmare.
Yes, literally the only issue I’ve ever noticed with wearing makeup and glasses is I get mascara on them.
I curl them straight up.
I have separate office glasses that are only for computer and reading. These are LIFE CHANGING. I have another pair of progressives for driving.
I wear glasses and makeup. I wear progressives so the bottom part is particularly magnifying my undereye area.
I prefer Bobbi Brown corrector to a sheer highlighter/concealer like Touche Eclat. I’m pale and don’t need concealer on top of the corrector, but the corrector does what it says it does, which is correct dark coloring, and the texture of it means it really stays put.
I don’t do anything else special for glasses-wearing, but I did notice when I used Latisse, my lashes got so long they touched the inside of my glasses lenses! No more Latisse for me for many reasons, so a good mascara on my natural lashes will have to do for me.
I’m very far-sighted, so my glasses magnify my eyes. I can’t wear eyeliner with my glasses because the magnification makes it look cartoonish.
Same!
And also, because I’m so blind up close, I can’t really apply any makeup anyway. I can manage mascara by feel, and smear on a buildable sheer eyeshadow, but that’s about it. Anything else, and I’m always in for an unpleasant surprise when I put m y glasses back on to see what I did.