How to make red eyeshadow work?

Without looking like you're working for the Walking Dead or down with Ebola? I'm planning on getting some shades from Mac, and one of the ones I was looking at was Cranberry. I was in CVS today and got Belle Rouge from Milani, which is a reddish/pinkish/cranberrish shade. I tried to make it work, but I feel like I look like I'm about to keel over and die. I I was just messing around with it, so no other makeup in the following photos.





It also doesn't help that the lighting is a bit strong since it is coming more straight on so it is washing me out.

But anyways, be honest. 

It looks fine to me! However, in my opinion, with red/reddish-purple/burgundy shadows, more is more. I really pack the color on my lid, either over the entire lid, or the outer half and I never bring it down under my eyes to avoid the dreaded "I have pink-eye and then got punched" look which isn't really my style. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> But having a very strong color on top makes it clear that you are wearing red shadow, and not just have an eye infection, or something. :lol:

Anyways, that is my advice, but i don't know if it great advice, so take it with a grain of salt. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I think it looks fine, it's very faint. I've never tried red eyeshadow, but I have some coming my way soon! I'll have to see what people recommend. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I follow @@Shalott's approach: Pack that stuff on, and put it on the lid only! I like to use a brown in the crease and a brown liner when I wear reds. This is actually one of my favorite color combinations to wear.

Your pic looks fine to me /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

As a lid color, I feel like blending red shades out or using them lightly is more likely to make the eyelids look inflamed (I think red/berry is fine blended out if it's an accent color). I agree with @@Shalott that more is more - I feel that red looks better when it looks intentional (ie brighter, more pigmented). Placement of the shade and potentially matching it with other colors is important, too, I think.

I've been loving red shadow lately!  And I agree with the earlier comments, own it, go super red and avoid the lower lid.  My favorite thing to do recently is to do a red lid with a gold highlight above, kind of a sunburst look  :sunshine:

ETA : I'm curious, what lip color do you like to wear with red eye shadow?  I'm a fan of a red lip, but not with red eye makeup, it seems a bit too GoT Melisandre!

I love red eyeshadow! I either do a dark brown all over my lid and add the red in the crease for a pop of color or I pack it on and then put black in the crease and smoke it out. However, I do more goth/punky looks so I don't know how well it would work in a more professional or natural sense.

Also kid you not from Scaredy Cat cosmetics is a really good red and NYX Sex bomb.

That color looks really nice on you, @@Dalila!  I have to admit when I saw the title of the post "How to make red eyeshadow work?," my initial thought was "Don't wear it!"  My daughter recently experimented with red eyeshadow and I thought she had pinkeye (lol)!  However, you pull it off very nicely and you have opened my eyes to entirely new color possibilities!  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Thanks for posting!

As a general rule of thumb, if the red (or any other sickly color) is too close to your eye without anything breaking it up, it will bring out the red in your eyes and make you look rather sickly.

So to avoid that you want to

a) pack it on with darker shadow in the crease (plum, burgundy, brown, black, etc) in the shape of an outer V 

B) break up the color by transitioning into it from your lashes with a smudged out liner or a liner of some sort (to make the whites of your eyes look "whiter")

c) do a dark smokey eye and gradually go red

d) pack it on AND use liner

I used Google Images to search for red eyeshadow looks (http://tiny.cc/ywxmmx). Interesting ideas there!