I have dark brown hair and very fair skin. My grandparents were all Irish but I don't think I look Irish. My childhood freckles are long gone. I gave up long ago on bronzers and fake tans; it just didn't work for me at all. Every makeup artist in the world (okay, that might be an overstatement, every one I've ever met) wants to coat me in bronzers, which really irritates me. Why, after telling me how important it is to find the best match possible for foundation, do they try to make me look darker? Occasionally, I let them apply it and I never like it. Aside from my total unwillingness to try and turn myself into a bronze goddess, I'm a total trend whore when it comes to makeup and will give pretty much anything a try.
Lifestyle has as much to with color and style choices as coloring. I don't have many occasions to wear "evening" makeup. I go for a very polished, and definitely made up look when I'm at work; lipstick, eye shadow, the whole shooting match. I do wear dark colors because I have dark hair and occasionally I'll wear a bright lipstick but it's hard to keep it looking good during the day.  On weekends, the look is more casual, gloss instead of lipstick, just a little highlighter instead of eyeshadow,  but I still wear makeup.
I think it's important to figure out what you want to look like and remember that when you go to the makeup counter. It's easy to be seduced. Taupes and other neutrals are just not as exciting as all those beautiful vivid colors. It helps to have a very concrete idea of what you're looking for when you head to counter. Find a picture in a magazine of a look that you like with model that has similar coloring to you and take it with you.
If you're looking for ways to make stuff that you've already got work for you check out this link:
www.elkevonfreudenberg.com/100BeautyTips_ElkeVonFreudenberg.pdf
 
Elke Von Freudenberg is a professional makeup artist and this has lots of suggestions of how to make products work for you; things like how to make something darker, lighter, brighter, shinier, more matte, whatever.
Here's our own ever-growing list of makeup tips since we've all bought stuff that wasn't quite right:
www.thebeautybrains.com/vanilla/comments.php
 
 
Don't just toss a product because you don't think it's right for you. Play around with it and see if you can make it work. There are lots of other threads here with lots of advice about makeup that you should check out too. And when you figure out how to make something work for you, let us know! We're always looking for new things to try.

I'm a Heinz 57, Irish, French, German, and possibly Canadian Indian. I had very fair skin up through High School, but somewhere along the line my skin toned darkened to medium. I have dark brown hair and eyes. I think one trick to makeup looking right is by taking a good look at your coloring. If your eyes, hair and skin tone are close in tonal range, I think your better off with softer colors. If you have a lot of contrast with hair and skin, you can get away with bolder looks. Other wise, let mother nature guide you. If I use softer colors, I look washed out, so I stick with bolder looks. It doesn't mean I use lots of bold colors, I don't. I use neutral colors most of the time, but colors that have contrast. I'll use a shimmery champagne, pink, or flesh tones on my lids and brow bone area, a medium taupe in the crease, then a bolder color to line the eyes. If I use color, this is where I'll use it. It may be a dark brown, purple, blue or green. I also smudge black along the roots of my upper and lower lashes, then black mascara. My sister in law has softer coloring, and looks best in softer colors. Colors that contrast too much on her look harsh, where I can get away with them. This is my opinion. Others may strongly disagree with me.

I do dye my hair to color gray, but I keep it close to my natural color.

When I wear cosmetics, which isn't that often (so I'm not the best judge), I tend to go with the old "Color Me Beautiful" guidelines for a Winter, which look very good on me. I'm Italian with extremely dark hair and eyebrows, and olive skin.

I can wear nothing whatsoever with brown or bronze undertones without looking like a three-day corpse, which is a shame since I ADORE bronze-toned things and wasted a lot of money on them in my youth.

Cranberry, deep pinks, deep reds with bluish tones (no orange), jewel tones. They work best.

I also wear very little makeup when I do wear it. In my opinion, the bext makeup job is the one that looks as natural and un-madeup as possible. Once your eyelashes start clumping up and looking like dreadlocks, you've used too much mascara.

Eye makeup is the same way -- go subtle. Once people can see you wearing it, they can visualize you at the bathroom mirror putting it on. :-P