Beauty: Crack the colour code

For some people, selecting the right makeup shades is second nature, they instinctively know what suits their colouring best. But if you struggle to work out what is flattering, then colour-coding could be your new BFF.

Colour-coded cosmetics aren't usually adventurous options, but they're designed to take the risk out of your purchases, ensuring you come away with something that works with your natural skin tone and your eye and hair colouring.

It's no accident colour-coded cosmetics are often found in budget or mass-market ranges, where you can't always try out testers or ask a consultant for advice. The selection science is similar to that used in-store, even on luxury brands, where consultants mostly steer shoppers to palettes of tried and true safe shades.

Even brands that don't label their ranges as such, sell makeup matched to suit particular colourings, so once you crack the colour code you'll know what you're after.

Big brands like L'Oreal and Cover Girl specialise in colour guidance on their packaging. Revlon has its safe Beyond Natural collection and Clinique has recently introduced its subtle pink, berry and deep palettes. Bobbi Brown specialises in tailoring palettes to suit customers - you can even buy them empty and have your hand-picked colours inserted and refilled. M.A.C does edgier options.

You can also check out websites such as almay.com.au where you select your eye colouring and are matched up with makeup suggestions. And on covergirl.com you can input your colouring for advice and upload a photograph to give yourself a virtual makeover.

GET AN EYEFUL

Colour coding for eyes usually means selecting complementary colours, because simply matching your eyeshadow to your eye colour seldom works, unless you're off to an Abba appreciation evening.

Matching shadow tends to overwhelm natural eye colour rather than enhance it, but incorporating a toning shade, either a little lighter or darker than your natural eye colour, can play up the intensity of the iris.

* A blue-eyed woman is most often prescribed contrasting taupes, pinks and cool browns, rather than blue shadow. Grey blue is a good toning shade and for a highlight eyeliner colour navy or turquoise can work in moderation.

* Green-eyed women are often advised to use soft purple or plum shades, or to tone with olive or warm browns.

* Those with dark eyes can try strong colour contrasts or use plums and metallics. Golds and stone shades are your neutrals.

If your colouring doesn't fit into the usual blue, green, brown categories - say, your eyes are blue-green or hazel - you'll need to cherry-pick your choices. The flecks in your iris are a good clue to your best toning colours.

SKIN SELECTOR

Skin tone options for foundation and powders range from porcelain through shades of light, medium and dark and variations in between. For foundation it's really best to test rather than guess.

* Brown-skinned women should be mindful that international brands base their idea of dark on the needs of black-skinned women, so if you fit into warm, olive-skinned territory your safest self-select choice would likely be medium or medium-dark skin.

* Asian women suit yellow-based foundations, rather than anything too pink which can make the skin look ashy.

Choosing a foundation or a lip colour based on self-select colour coding is an imprecise science, given how much skin tones vary. Some brands advise choosing by hair colouring, but this a lottery: is a brunette very dark haired or mid-brown, fair or olive-skinned skin? Is a blonde porcelain pale or caramel complexioned? You're probably better matching lipstick against a celebrity model (the L'Oreal approach), but do choose based on whether their colouring is similar to yours, rather than whether you like their style.

As with clothes colours, knowing if you suit cool or warm tones helps in makeup selection. A few lucky women can have it both ways, but most will suit either makeup that is pale pink or warm peach, true red or berry toned, silver or gold, grey or brown, not both. Get to know what suits so you can adapt the trends, rather than just adopt them slavishly. If nude lipstick makes you look washed out, but you like the nude trend, then, depending on your complexion and natural lip tone, wear a soft rose, delicate peach or light mauve-brown shade instead.

Once you've got the basic rules of colour coding sorted for a good natural look, you can play up the intensity of the colours you try, knowing they're still within a family of shades that suit. Then you can choose something really eye-catching without it looking garish, taking paint-by-numbers into more artistic expression.