For many women, the hardest part of any morning is choosing the right jewellery to accompany an outfit. Although most of us know how to throw together our clothing into a respectable look, the art of matching earrings requires a little more thought and expertise. There’s much more to it than simply grabbing the most sparkly earrings you can find and hoping they’ll work! By keeping a few basic rules in mind, however, you can always leave the house looking stylish and well put-together.

Consider the Event

Where you’re going has a major impact on which earrings are right for the occasion. You would not, for example, wear your flashiest zebra-print hoops to a fancy dinner party.

If it’s a formal event, your earrings should be understated and classically elegant. Drop or small hoop earrings are perfect for when you need to look a little glamorous without being obvious about it.

If you are dressing for a day at the office, keep things as minimal as possible to keep up an air of professionalism: Studs are the best choice.

If you’re going on a date or hanging out with some friends, you can let yourself get a little more creative and daring with your jewelry. Informal settings are the perfect place to air out your huge feathers, garish hoops or anything else that was too fun to pass up at the store.

Coordinate with Your Outfit

No matter what you’re dressing for, earrings can either make or break your outfit. Clashing colors, like wearing black earrings with a brown top, become immediately apparent and will distract others from the rest of your look. To prevent this, examine your clothing and pick out one of the minor colors in any patterns you have.

So, if your shirt or dress is blue, green or white, you might choose to wear green earrings to highlight that shade. If your clothing is solid, pick a complementary color to harmonize with it. Directly matching the most prominent color in your clothing can make you look like a Barbie doll, so try to avoid taking the easy way out.

Flatter Your Face

Believe it or not, different styles of earrings can dramatically alter your face’s appearance. In some cases, this can be a bad thing. Women with longer faces, for instance, can look “stretched out” with dangling earrings. However, those same earrings are perfect for a woman with a round face. Finding the right style of earrings to shape your face may be the single most important factor when buying jewelry.

Keep It Tasteful

Finally, remember that just because someone is selling a pair of earrings doesn’t mean anyone should ever wear them. Unless your preferred style is to be a little cheap-looking, avoid bright plastics, clip-ons and overly-elaborate earrings. They are rarely attractive on anyone and are more suited to pre-teens than grown women.

If you spend most of your time wearing earrings that are too young for you, don’t be surprised when people automatically assume you’re immature. You can, of course, find and wear clever, unique or funny earrings, but you may have to look a little harder to find anything worthwhile.

There are millions of styles of earrings out there, and each one has the potential to make you look fabulous. The tricky part is figuring out when to employ a certain pair, and what to match them with. You may face the occasional misstep, but by following these simple guidelines you will find that your morning routine becomes a whole lot easier, and you may even receive a few extra compliments from passers-by!