Brought to you by Style Studio
Here are my top 10 ten beauty tips every redhead should know – whether you’re blessed with this rare, natural hair colour or have coloured your hair over to the fiery side.
This is the third part in my series on the top beauty tips you need to know whether you’re blonde, brunette or redhead, and the things should consider once you change your hair colour.
You can catch my top ten beauty tips for blondes here and my top ten tips for brunettes here. Now redheads, it’s your turn.
Less than 2% of the world’s population have red hair but that doesn’t stop the rest of us from colouring our hair to achieve this beautiful colour as well. I even went red for a while recently and I fell in love with this hue. But after changing my hair from blonde to red, I really struggled with my make-up and wardrobe. The same shades just didn’t suit me.
Beauty for redheads can be confusing. When I searched online I found this article that said redheads should only wear yellow based foundations, only wear neutral eye make-up and never wear a red lipstick. How boring – and I completely disagree.
So below are my top 10 beauty tips every redhead should know based on my experience and my fellow redhead friends.
Redheads + red lipstick
If you also found that articles that said you can’t wear red lipstick, I’m telling you you can, and you will look amazing. It all depends on your shade of red, but most warm orange reds look great on redheads. If you’re more of a burgundy red, a cooler blue-toned red lipstick will suit you better.
Good foundations
Choose your foundation based on your skin tone not your hair colour. Not all redheads should wear a yellow based foundation and it really depends on matching your personal skin tone. Match your foundation to your chest and neck rather than your hair colour. And if you have freckles, don’t feel like you have to cover them up. Go for a sheer foundation that lets your freckles peek through.
Play up your eyes
The article also said to only wear neutral eyeshadows and this is fine for day, but redheads shouldn’t be afraid to wear bright shades too. Jewel tones look amazing on redheads, especially emerald green, to really play up their hair colour. Red and green are opposite on the colour wheel spectrum, so this contrast is fantastic for redheads.
Plum love
Another eyeshadow every redhead should have in their collection is a beautiful rich plum. Rather than contrasting, this tonal shade blends well on all redheads.
All about your brows
For redheads, getting your brows right can be tricky. I found that the best way to match your natural eyebrow colour is to find a matte eye shadow to fill in your brows. For dyed redheads, a blonde eyebrow pencil can be a good match. Remember your brows don’t need to match exactly. Try brows one to two shades darker if you have light red hair, and one to two shades lighter for your brows if you have very dark red hair.
Peachy keen
If there’s a blush that every redhead should own, it’s a warm peachy colour. It’s universally flattering on all redheads and it gives that perfect flush for the everyday.
Maintaining red hair
Whether your hair is naturally red or dyed, it’s the hardest colour to maintain. Red hair dye is the quickest to fade and even natural redheads need to take extra care of their hair. The first investment you should make for your red hair is a hat to protect yourself when you’re outside. Next, you should do colour treatments to protect your hair while you’re at home. Schwarzkopf’s new Extra Care Colour Protect and Shine treatment is a quick fix you can add to your weekly beauty routine.
Red refresh
Giving your hair a quick colour boost every week at home can be done in under three minutes. The Schwarzkopf Colour Refresh Mousse is an amazing way to just add extra shine to your red hair. It’s so quick and easy to use, and this mousse is now my favourite colour product no matter what, for brunettes, blondes and redheads.
Switch it up
Play around with your red hair shade with some semi permanent colour. Schwarzkopf Live colours are a great way to add shine and brighten up dull or faded reds. Did you know that redheads don’t go grey? They turn to rose gold then white. These semi permanent colours are an even more fun way to play when your hair colour is changing.
How to find the perfect coral for redheads
Coral is a universally flattering colour for redheads, but you have to know which shade to choose. Not all corals are the same. You don’t want to match your hair, but you do want to contrast with it. So if your red hair is more orange, go for a pinky coral. This shade is great as a bright lip or a way to chose a more neutral shade to wear every day.
They say blondes have all the fun, but I think redheads might have the upper hand on this. I loved being a redhead and I’m pretty sure I’ll see myself going back to red again in the future.
Wondering if red hair could suit you? I’ve got a tool that could help. Click here to check out the Style Studio Colour Match tool. It’s super quick and easy, and it helps you work out exactly the hair colour that would suit you. It’s a great guide if you are just thinking about changing your hair or want to find the right tone for you.
Click here to find out your colour match now.
Let me know in the comments below if you have red hair and what beauty tips you always follow. And let me know your colour match result – would you suit red hair? If so what shade?
As a 40 something natural redhead, there were SO many ‘rules’ about what we could or rather couldn’t wear. We weren’t allowed to wear red, pink, blue, black, white etc etc. The only colours we were ‘told’ we should wear was green, green and more green, mixed in with orange, yellow, brown and navy. It was awful and everyone had an opinion about what looked good on you. To the point were I started dying my hair brown as I wanted to wear all the gorgeous colours my friends wore and even resorted to getting my colours done professionally and it last all of 5 minutes when she announced that I was an Autumn and looked disapprovingly at my all black outfit and stated I should never ever wear black under any circumstances! Fast forward a few decades and I have a vastly better understanding of what looks good on me. The ‘rules’ that were so rigid have been binned and I happily wear most colours now bar orange (unless it’s a muted burnt orange but more red than orange), yellow (despite this colour being trotted out as one of my goto colours, yellow makes me look like I’m jaundiced! I look ready for the grave! The only yellow I can wear is a rich ochre, even mustard makes me look ill) and nearly all greens (I was put in green constantly as a child so I absolutely hate it now though occasionally I’ll wear a jewel toned emerald or teal. Bottle green and its ilk just make me look bleurgh). Gold is another colour that is meant to be one of my goto colours and I can wear small amounts of gold jewellery but too much gold or to deep a gold and I look super brassy! Some of the best colours on me are a delicate rose/peachy pink (think vintage shell pink), a muted/earthy red with a hint of pink/violet, teal and rosewood.
I agree with most of your make up suggestions. A warm purple eyeshadow looks fab as well as an earthy pink/terracotta. You need to be very careful with peachy blushes as it can look a bit ‘samey’ and also a lot of redheads have cool skin (especially in the ‘celtic’ areas and the peach can be too warm for our pale cool or neutral undertone) a fresh light pink looks very good as long as you use it sparingly so you just have a veil of colour on your cheeks. It’s the lipsticks that I sort of disagree with you on. If the red/orange lipstick is too far into the orange spectrum, the orange may end up overpowering the paler cool/neutral undertone redheads. A brick red, burgundy red may be a better option. The ones I wear mostly are the soft delicate pinks for daytime use, rosewood, brick reds and sienna or a deep red for nighttime use.
Hi Christina,
thank you for your article. I am now a new read hair and just loves it!
Which shade from the colour refresh were you using?
The red hair shade you had on the picture looks very close from mine and I just don’t want to look to orange or too red. I’ve picked jessica chastain’s kind of colour.
Thanks,
Caroline.
This post is for 100% for me as I am a redhead)))) Who says red lipsticks not for us? NO NO NO!!!))
Yay for redheads, Stacy! And I was so shocked when I read that advice – red lipstick forever!! xx
colour fade is the biggest issue with my red hair, will have to try that mousse
you’ll love it! It’s such a quick fix xx
Love these tips! You look great as a redhead too!
Thanks so much, Rach!