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#EverythingMakeup: The Smokey Eye

Hey guys! Welcome back to another edition of #EverythingMakeup. This week we are tackling The Smokey Eye. This look is technically “easy” but the hesitation to try it is warranted as it is just as easy to end up looking like a raccoon. I highly recommend doing your eyes first prior to your foundation routine, as this look requires a lot of packing and blending which, unfortunately, involves a lot of fallout. (Fallout is when your eyeshadow becomes powdery and falls onto other parts of your face.)

First things first, we are going to prime the eyelid using a concealer. The one that you use to highlight your under eyes is perfect for this. The purpose of this is to correct the dullness and pigmentation on your lid space, and to give the eyeshadow something to stick on.

Priming with concealer.

Once we have blended the concealer with a beauty blender (preferably), we will move on to the base. Now, if you have done a smokey eye before, you know the common pitfall is that the eyeshadow sometimes becomes grey, and you don’t get the true pop of colour and intensity you want in this look. An eyeshadow base, preferably one that is the same colour as the eyeshadow, will ensure that you get the intense colour you are looking for. I have seen people use black gel liner as an eyeshadow base, which I do recommend, but I will be making my own base as I do not have the gel liner.

To make your own base, you need the very same concealer you used to prime and the eyeshadow you are going for, in my case this is dark brown. In a mixing pan (if you are fancy) or the back of the hand (like the rest of us) pour out a pea-sized amount of the concealer and with an eyeshadow brush, swirl it in the dark brown shade and drop the fallout on the concealer on the back of your hand and mix it together. Once you have mixed in the eyeshadow and gotten a dark brown “paste”, you can then apply this on your lid all the way to your crease. To find your crease area, blink with the base on your eyelid, the area that your lid smudges is the crease area.

Base application. The tape has been added on both sides to create a perfect line to distinguish where the eye look begins & ends.

Now that the base is on your lid, we are going to pack on the dark brown eyeshadow onto the base. Packing literally means taking the eyeshadow and “pressing it on” the lid area. It is important to note that there is zero blending happening at this point. Once you have packed on your eyeshadow on the base, you are ready to blend.

Packing on the eyeshadow.

For blending, I use a small fluffy brush and I dip it into a light brown eyeshadow and blend the crease area (see image below). I alternate between windshield wiper motions and circular motions.

Blending. The area where the brush is, i.e. the crease is where you want to focus the first blend.

This is really where you want to take your time because you want to create a gradient between your lid area and crease. Once you are done blending, take a clean big fluffy brush and blend from the blended crease area, up to your brow bone. I normally repeat all the steps from packing the eyeshadow to the blending to ensure that I get an intense smokey eye and I suggest you do too.

The first application using all the steps.

Once you have repeated the steps above, you can add black eyeliner for an extra oomph and smoke on your water line. I then go on and beat the rest of my face after adding eyeliner on my water line. When I get to the step where I “bake” my under eyes, I smoke my lower lash line as well. Please note that the setting powder is there to ensure that if there is any fallout during the smoking process, I can easily dust it away without ruining my foundation underneath.

This is how the smokey eye looks after reapplying the eyeshadow and blending as well as smoking my bottom lash line.

For the final touch, add some lashes and put some mascara on your lower lash line.

Up close and personal.

Here are some key takeaways for the smokey eye and eyeshadow looks in general:

  1. The quality of your eyeshadow will snitch on you big time. So take time (and some money) to find the formulas that work for you and don’t break your bank.
  2. Brushes, brushes, brushes. A good brush will take you far and last you a long time. I prefer to buy brushes separately as I find that brush sets often have brushes I will never use. For good and affordable brushes, try China Mall, you will not be disappointed.
  3. Trial & Error. Listen, it takes time to figure out and find methods that work for you but experience has always been a great teacher, therefore, try and try again sis.
  4. You can use these steps with any eyeshadow color if dark shades are a bit intimidating for you.
The Final Look.

Until next time!

Ciao, Witty 😘

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