I want to show you the way I do a smokey eye, and a few extra tips along the way about eyebrows and mascara. Try to bear with me, as this post required a lot of pictures.
Oh, and I'm not sponsored, even though it sounds like it. I just really love eyeslipsface products, so I use a lot of them. :)
These are the four makeup brushes I use to do my eye makeup every day.
The far left is a Sonia Kashuk brush I've had forever, which is good for applying mass amounts of color. The second to the left is e.l.f. essential defining eye brush, my all-time favorite brush. The third is the e.l.f. Studio line small angled brush, and the fourth is the e.l.f. Studio line contour brush.
No, I'm not exaggerating. I use four makeup brushes just for my eyelids. There is no other way to achieve these precise looks, so if you've been attempting it with just one brush (or God forbid, that little spongey applicator that came with the pallet), you've found your first problem.
I'm going to show you Smokey by NYX and Sex Bomb by NYX. I got them for about $8 each and you can find them pretty much anywhere.
I use these two pallets together, because I like two or three of the colors from each. You don't need both, you can do this look with either one of these pallets, but I use both, so that's what I show here.
STEP 1: Start with your absolute lightest color (for this I used the one that's almost white). Your lightest color always goes first, and it's always under your eyebrow (to create a highlight) and around the inner corners of your eyes. Pull the light color down under your eye, by your bottom lashes, to make them stand out a little too.
STEP 2: Next is your second-lightest color. Cover the lid with this color.
STEP 3: The next darkest color makes a vague triangle around the outer edge and crease. (I prefer purple to blue, but if I had blue eyes, I'd probably choose blue.) If you have small eyelids, skip this step and move straight to step 4.
 |
STEP 4: This is the part where you start to feel like the Goth from high school. Trust me (and yourself). You have to apply too much to start with, but I promise it will be OK. We'll be blending soon.
I use the Sex Bomb pallet for this, as I prefer the matte black color to the sparkly black in the Smokey pallet, but it's really whatever you like best. (Any pallet can follow this process, just go from lightest to darkest!)
Your darkest color goes in the crease and makes a triangle at the outer corner. Absolutely none of this color goes in the inner corner! Keep this color away from the light inner corner you already created, or you will look sunken in and dead. Anywhere you put the white, back in Step 1, this color does not go there.
STEP 5: Blend like crazy. You will lose a lot of the color during this process, which is why we put on too much to start with. You are going for smokey, not Cat Woman.
(OK, maybe a little bit of Cat Woman.)
After you blend, add a little of the cream color wherever your dark color ended up and you didn't want it. (Tip: by now my tissue is filthy... this process is messy. I usually don't do my foundation until after my eye makeup, but I didn't want to scare you guys!)
STEP 6: Eyeliner - I use e.l.f. eye brightening eyeliner ($1) for the bottom lid and e.l.f. liquid eyeliner ($1) for the top.
STEP 7: Eyebrows and mascara
The picture below was taken to show you why I fill in my eyebrows. I have a lot of "how do you do your eyebrows?" comments, and I have to say, I don't do anything special. I pluck them every single day before I do my makeup, and I fill them in with e.l.f. eyebrow kit in Dark. My eyebrows are naturally black, but as I get older they are less full, and I find it makes a big difference to fill them in. (Try to ignore the eyebrow hair on the left which is currently on strike.)
As you know, my favorite mascara changes by the minute. (You already know I LOVE the 3D fiber lashes, but I don't use them every day.) For every day mascara I use Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express: Cat Eyes.
I have two tubes of this because when I buy a new one, I hold onto the old one as long as I can stand it (and extend its life with this trick). The new one gives me the dramatic affect I'm ultimately going for, but the older one gives me the volume to build on. If the first coat of mascara is too new, it's too wet, and will just clump all ugly-like. First coat: older tube of mascara, second coat: new tube of mascara. Don't forget to curl your eyelashes before the mascara! If you do it after it makes the clumping much worse.
(If you find this look doesn't work well on you, try the alternate smokey eye,
which you can find here.)
That's all I have for you. Thanks for reading!
Leave a comment, pretty please!
And if you can share this post, that would be pretty sweet of you as well. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment