Tutorial: Wearable Smokey Eye

Hi Beauties,

I hope you're having a fab week so far?

I'm literally counting down to the weekend, well truthfully I've done so since Monday.  This is going to be a proper movie weekend as two of my favourite movies are being released:  Hangover 3 and 3D Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  As you can imagine I'm going to do minimum blogging this weekend, but I really wanted to get this tutorial up, it's one of my favourite looks all year round.

This is one of my go to looks, I adore purple shades and it works particularly well if you're dark-haired with brown eyes, and you can create a wearable smokey eye with colours other than black or grey.  It's also really easy, if you're not very good with make-up applications I assure you that you'll get the hang of it quickly:

Optional Step: 

 

Start with an eyeshadow base, I love this one from Essence, I find that if you do wear a good quality foundation like the Gosh X-Ceptional wear, that you don't particularly need a primer or base, I normally do this if I want my look to last the whole day.  Just spread a dollop of this all over your eyelid, it dries quickly and also helps create a crease-free look.

Take a highlighting colour, I don't know what the name is of this as NYX haven't listed the names on their palette, normally 2 - 3 shades lighter than your skintone is the perfect highlighting colour.  Dab a bit at the arch (or highest area of your eyebrow), this helps to define and lift your brow bone.

The colour I've chosen is 'irresistible purr-ple' which is such a gorgeous and flirty colour, take the deep shade and pat it onto your lower eyelid area.  I use a patting motion instead of sweeping, which helps intensify the shade of the eyeshadow, and also minimises any fallout.  Take the eyeshadow only up to your crease line, when you look directly into the mirror you are suppose to just see the purple line sticking out very slightly.

Take a big fluffy blending brush, and in a downward movement blend, I'm not using a transition colour here, lightly use small circular movements from left to right and blend it in lightly.  The reason you're holding your brush in a downward motion, is so that your eyeshadow colour doesn't drag or smudge out (like I mentioned before you don't want your colour too high up from your crease line, if you hold it upwards you'll drag the colour up and out and go far above this line), instead when you hold your brush downward you're merely blending.  As a test try it out, you'll notice a massive difference.  Be careful not to overblend, blending is merely creating a soft line, if you do struggle use a transition colour, that is a shade that is 1 - 2 shades darker than your skin tone, which you lightly buff over the area you're trying to blend in and it helps create a smooth soft line.

Using a lighter colour of your choice (white also works well), dab into the inner corner of your eye, this creates the illusion of bigger eyes.

 Optional Step:

 

By now you should have a really lovely and wearable eye, if you're not used to wearing make-up I'd maybe suggest that you skip this step and instead try it for a night out.  Of course I'm used to wearing loads more, so this is a wearable day look for me ;)

 

With a tapered brush, dip into the dark charcoal eyeshadow of the NYX palette, and create a horizontal v-shape, rub off excess eyeshadow and lightly blend with the tapered brush, then in a downward motion blend all the colours with the big blending brush. 

Using this Essence liquid eyeliner, which is my absolute favourite!  I much prefer a tapered felt liner than a brush, but everyone likes different application methods so you may have to try various ones to see which you are most comfortable with.  The easiest way to draw a winged eyeliner, is get a smaller mirror (free standing), rest your arm on something (a table for example), then draw a line at the outer corner of the eye.  Don't worry if you messed it up a bit, you can either draw over it and manipulate it the way you want, or if you made a big oopsie take a q-tip or earbud, dip in a teeny bit of water and rub off.  Once you've drawn your little line which acts as the base for the liner, in small strokes extend from the outside to the inside.  To make your eyes appear bigger and give it a lovely shape, make sure your liner is thicker on the outside and tapers into a very thin line to the inner corner of your eye. 

 

If you're not familiar with liquid eyeliners, it'll take some practise to get used to it and figure a style that you like.

 

Alternatively:  For a more wearable look or for any novices out there, use a normal black kohl or eyeliner on the top lid then lightly use the back of the liner to smudge the line, creating a softer but still dramatic enough look that gets you noticed.

 

PS:  I didn't wear any eyeliner on the bottom and I rarely do, I find that it makes my eyes appear very small, plus my eyes go red very quickly, and that seems to aggravate it a bit. 

For a wearable look I don't pack on mascara, however, the Gosh Boost Your Lashes is very buildable and you can create very dramatic eyelashes if you want to.  I didn't curl my eyelashes with a curler, I used one coat mascara, whilst still wet I applied the Essence fibres, then packed on two more coats of mascara.  Don't forget to do the top of your lashes with your first coat, especially if you need volume, it really helps loads to do a quick sweep at the top of your lashes then the "underside" - LoL is that event he right word?

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that some of my tips and tricks have helped you.  Let me know if there is any tutorials you'd like to see?

 

Hope you have a fab Friday tomorrow!