Beauty / From Blue Lids To Glossy Lips: Wallet Approved Spring Beauty Trends For South Asian Skin Tones

From Blue Lids To Glossy Lips: Wallet Approved Spring Beauty Trends For South Asian Skin Tones

Beauty Apr 09, 2025

by Meena Khan | Features Editor - Beauty

Spring has returned with a soft rainbow of colour that infuses our beautiful brown skin tones with freshness and energy. In this blog, I explore how we can take four, popular, mainstream trends and infuse them with a touch of spice, so that they make us South Asian Beauties sizzle without burning down our bank accounts.

Blue Eyed Baby

This spring is all about infusing a touch of azure into our coffee gazes. The look is not the bright seventies version but a softer one that makes your pupils stand out. Blue is a trendy shade, and since spring is relatively short season, I recommend smudging a blue pencil along the upper and lower lash lines to keep the blue eye make-up looking modern and on budget.

Not all blues are created equal, some like navy are simply too dark for spring while a baby blue shade, although fun, is limited in that it suggests play and this might hinder a work look. The best blues for South Asian skin tones are intense and fun, rather than playful and light, because our brown skin tones, regardless of its pigment intensity, demands strength from colour.

For dark skin tones, the trick is to focus on a shade that is intense but not too dark, such that the blue is barely perceptible, by focusing on indigo, such as the aptly named Estée Lauder Double Wear Infinite Proof Eyeliner in Indigo. This fine-tipped, lasting liner glides across the delicate skin with minimal tugging and leaves a streak of azure that beautifies dark brown skin.

Sizzling Spring Trends for SA Beauties - on a Budget — From Blue Lids To Glossy Lips: Wallet Approved Spring Beauty Trends For South Asian Skin Tones. Photo Credit: www.esteelauder.ca

For lighter skin tones, Vasanti Cosmetics Kajal Waterline Eyeliner Pencil in Ice Blue is a stunning choice. Its water-based shade is bright, without being electric, and possesses a hint of shimmer which adds brightness to the eyes.

From Blue Lids To Glossy Lips: Wallet Approved Spring Beauty Trends For South Asian Skin Tones. Photo credit: www,vasanticosmetics.ca

For medium skin tones, Stila Stay All Day Smudge & Set Waterproof Gel Eyeliner in Electric Lapis is fantastic, because it is a deep blue that contrasts vividly against brown skin tones and its steeliness gives it an intensity that fits a work look perfectly.

Monotone Lids – Taking On Pastels And Winning

A spring without pastels is like a South Asian festival without deep fried treats… unimaginable. Traditional, saccharine pastels look ashen on brown skin tones because these shades contain too much white.

I do think that deep pastels look fantastic on all shades of brown skin and make the eyes look wide awake. By deep pastel, I mean shades like lilac and mint, that are mix of white and the main colour and said main colour is not overly diluted. What I like about having a pastel shade in my cosmetics collection is that its lightness contrasts nicely with my more intense make-up shades and it gives me the option to add playfulness to my looks all year round.

In the nineties, when I was a club kid, I worked lilac eye shadow like a queen. Now that I am slightly older, an electric lilac shade is not my first choice, but I am drawn to soft mint which is feminine and escapes the images of clouds and cotton candy that are intimately tied to pastel shades.

I like to apply the mint shadow eyeshadow on the entirety of my mobile lid and then add a soft taupe to define my crease and a thin back liquid liner to line my eyes. It is a wink to the late sixties without being overwhelmed by the era’s iconic look.

For medium brown beauties, I recommend the Chanel Ombre Essentielle Jade Facetté because it is a soft green, whose pigment stays true on the skin and the tiny hint of shimmer adds playfulness to the eye area. The powder formula is easy to tap onto the skin and if you apply think layers to build up intensity there is no fall out.

For light brown beauties, I recommend the Ilia Eye Stylus Shadow Stick in Seafoam Green Shimmer. It is a lighter shade of pastel green than Jade Facetté, so it will work nicely on a lighter skin tone whilst delivering spring freshness.

For dark brown beauties, who want the pastel look without the risk of entering into saccharine territory, MAC Dazzleshadow Eyeshadow Stick in Filthy Martini is a stunning option. It is a pearlescent, soft green shadow that lasts for 12 hours and delivers a soft, verdant finish to eyes that evokes a romantic springtime look.

Glossy Red Lips

Red lips are a staple for autumnal and winter beauty looks, but come spring, the matte and satin lipsticks look heavy for the season of flowers and fairies. However, spring’s shortness is a disincentive to spend lots of hard-earned money on a whole new red lip product.

To capture the spring red lip, apply a single swipe of your favourite red lipstick and then follow with a clear gloss to the centre of the lips, so that you have a pouty look without risk of smudging the colour onto your chin. Since my McGill days, I have always kept a trusty tube of MAC Lipglass Clear on my vanity because you need barely 1 milliliter of product to create a sumptuous look. I keep the tube tightly closed, and the product lasts for years. You can apply this product to a richly pigmented lip colour to transform the look, or wear it alone, and you always achieve a glossy mouth.

Romantic Cheeks

When I think of romantic cheeks, I immediately think of the cherubs painted by Raphael. The fleshiness and pinkness of the romantic cheek evokes spring and for us to achieve the same flush we need to shift towards berry and red shades that are applied with a light hand. I like to apply 1 droplet of a liquid blush at the centre of my cheek, and then using freshly washed fingers, I tap it out until the colour blends into the cheeks and I look like I have returned from a run. I love this type of blush because it fits seamlessly into my summer beauty looks, and one product works for two seasons.

For light-to-medium skin tones, I recommend the Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dewy Flush in Berry Flush. The shimmery mauve shade is a lightweight tinted liquid that delivers a touch of pigment, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid. The two skin care ingredients boost hydration and attracts moisture to the skin respectively, so the quality of the skin on the cheeks is plump and soft. The doe foot applicator permits you to control application because you can just dab the cheeks and the start to blend. The mauve shade is soft and romantic but geared towards deeper skin tones, allowing us brown beauties to reclaim the cherub cheek.

For deep skinned beauties, to achieve the same romantic cheek, Lancôme spokesmodel, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, demonstrates that a soft red cheek is an excellent option. Lancôme’s Idôle Tint collection of eye and cheek colours are convenient, because you can create a monochromatic look by using one product on the eyes and cheeks. For the flushed cheek look, the Earth Red shade contains a hint of brown, so the red is not jarring on the cheek, it just lifts the brownness of the skin.

Springing Forward

Spring is a short season, but its burst of romance and colour are enticing us to lighten our beauty looks. We should lighten them without lightening our wallet, after all spring is short and beauty products have become costlier. The keys to a successful spring beauty transition are to use what you have with a few tweaks; purchase products that either have multiple uses and/or can be used for multiple seasons; and if a look is particularly trendy add a lighter interpretation into your beauty looks, so you can participate in the trend without breaking the bank.

Meena Khan | Features Editor - Beauty

Author

Meena (@meenalaregina) always loved the idea of exploring the non-conventional idea of beauty. Having grown up as a pimply chubby teenager, she wanted to see the change in the world that best reflected your uniqueness as well. Her well-received collection of blogs where she tries on various beauty p...

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