Berlin - Women who wear glasses don't have it easy when it comes to putting on make-up. Depending on whether a woman is farsighted or nearsighted, here eyes look either larger or smaller than they actually are through her spectacles.

Apart from that, both tinted and non-reflecting lenses soak up colour suddenly rendering the eyes paler than intended. The problem for some women is that they see only a blurred image when they look in the mirror without glasses, and contact lenses are not a viable solution for everyone.

These problems can easily be resolved, said Kerstin Kruschinski of a vision centre in Berlin.

"Opticians offer special make-up glasses whose lenses move like a flap either up or down or to the right or left," Kruschinski said. One eye is free to be made up while the other can still focus.

And the problem of eyes that appear to large or too small can be fixed with a few simple tricks, said Martin Ruppmann of the German association of cosmetic manufacturers in Berlin.

"Farsighted women must be careful that their eyes don't appear too large. Dark coloured eyeshadow and eyeliner ideally remedy this," Ruppmann said.

"Dark," however, doesn't mean black when it comes to eyeliner, said Horst Kirchberger, a make-up artist for celebrities.

"A lush brown, a dark green or a deep midnight blue have the same effect," he said. It's also important for farsighted women to put mascara only on the upper eyelashes so that the eye doesn't look even rounder. "Aside from that, the eyes can be made to look wider by emphasizing the outer corner of the eye."

Nearsighted women have exactly the opposite problem. As their eyes appear smaller when they wear glasses, they should use lighter, pastel colours for eyeshadow, Ruppmann said. White or beige eyeliner lighten the inner corner of the eye, making it appear bigger.

Mascara should be applied evenly to the upper and lower eyelashes to create the effect of a wreath, which makes the eye look bigger, said Kirchberger. A defined, contoured line under the eye should be avoided though.

"The eyelid, on the other hand, can be clearly defined," said Kirchberger. Emphasizing the fold of the eyelid can help as well as long as it's visible.

"When the visible part of the eyelid is lighter and the fold of the eyelid is a bit darker, the upper part of the eye comes out and at the same time its round form."

All women who wear glasses should dig deep into their make-up bags as all non-reflective lenses soak up colour. To ensure that a seductive appearance does not lose any of its expressiveness, a light-dark contrast should be more clearly defined.

The shadows that glasses create on the face can also be concealed, said Kirchberger. Recesses under the eyes usually occur with a change in skin colour and as a rule can be covered with a cream. Women who wear glasses should apply this cream in a fan shape a bit farther down so that a lighter surface is created casting a bit of light upward.

Finally, women who wear spectacles should be aware that glasses automatically draw attention to the eyebrows. Regular tweezing of full eyebrows or filling out eyebrows that are too thin with an eyebrow pencil in a colour that matches the hair is required to be successfully made up.

Women who wear contact lenses have it a bit easier. They can always see themselves clearly in the mirror and don't always have to struggle with the need to adjust their make-up for eyes that appear either too large or too small.

But they face the challenge of keeping the make-up off the lenses because even if just a small amount gets between the lens and the eye, tears start to flow and the make-up can run along with them.

To ensure that does not happen, contact lens wearers should use creamy or liquid make-ups instead of powders. They also should be especially careful when applying eyeliner to the lower edge of the eye as it can easily get under the lens and irritate the eye. (dpa)