Makeup for Glasses Wearers: Balancing Eyes, Brows and Keeping Lenses Smudge-Free

Makeup for glasses wearers follows its own rules, and as a makeup artist in Medellín I'm reminded of it almost every week: a client arrives in her frames and I know right away the whole look needs rethinking. Lenses change the apparent size of your eyes, cast shadows on the under-eye, flatten your colours, and on top of that, in this city's humidity, any greasy product ends up printed on the glass. Looking flawless in glasses is entirely doable; you just have to treat the frame as part of the face, not an accessory that hides it.

The first job is balancing eye shadow with the frame. Glasses already bring structure and colour to the upper half of the face, so if you also load the lids with dark smoke, the eyes look heavy and small behind the lens. I prefer well-blended mid tones, with the intensity kept along the lash line rather than across the whole socket. If the frame is thick or a strong colour, I tone the shadow down even more; if it's thin or rimless, I give myself more room. The rule is simple: frame and eye shouldn't compete.

With near-sighted lenses (for short-sighted people) the eyes look smaller behind the glass, because that prescription shrinks whatever sits behind it. Here my job is to open and lighten the gaze. I use a light satin shade in the inner corner and centre of the lid, line the upper waterline in brown instead of black, and curl the lashes well with a good mascara. No heavy liner on the lower waterline, since it closes an eye that already reads smaller. The idea is to give back the size the lens takes away.

With far-sighted or reading lenses it's the opposite: they magnify the eye, so everything you paint is enlarged, mistakes included. Any shadow fallout, a clumpy mascara or a shaky line shows up twice as much behind the glass. With these prescriptions I dial the intensity down, take real care of the under-eye and the blending, and pick mascaras that separate without clumping. I'd rather have a fine, neat line than a thick one, and I always set the shadow so nothing drops under the eye, because a magnifying lens makes those tiny specks look enormous.

The eternal drama for glasses wearers in Medellín is the smudge on the lens: that greasy cloud where the frame touches the skin. The cause is almost always unset product on the bridge of the nose and the high cheekbones. My routine: mattifying primer on the T-zone only, a thin layer of foundation, well-blended concealer and, non-negotiable, loose powder on the nose bridge and under the eyes. In this humid heat I don't take chances: for a long event I use water-resistant formulas on the contact points and finish with setting spray.

Brows deserve their own attention once there's a frame, because they end up framed by it and any asymmetry jumps out. I try to make the brow follow the top line of the glasses without clashing with it; if the frame sits high, I brush them flatter, and if it sits low, I give them a touch more arch so they can breathe. I fill them with fine hair-like strokes and set them with clear gel, because a messy brow under the lens looks unkempt. In the chair I always check the brows with the client wearing her glasses, never without them.

Highlight and concealer are my best allies against the shadows the frame casts. Every pair of glasses, however light, drops a shadow onto the under-eye and sometimes leaves a mark from the temples on the side of the face. I work a concealer a shade lighter under the eye, blended outward, and add a touch of highlighter in the inner corner and along the brow bone to lift the area the glass darkens. Just go easy on highlighter on the high cheekbone where the frame rests, so you don't invite the lens to smudge.

After years doing makeup on glasses wearers for weddings, graduations and corporate events in El Poblado, my takeaway is that the secret is to work with the glasses both on and off, comparing the two versions. A lip with colour, tidy brows and an open but clean gaze make the frame read like a style choice rather than something to hide. If you have an important event and want a look built around your frames and Medellín's climate, I'll gladly design it with you so you feel confident all night.