When you get dressed up to go out it’s always great to do something different with your make up too and nothing beats the classic smokey eye. To avoid looking like you just did a few rounds in the ring, here’s the best tips to get the smokey eye look:
You’ll need a highlighter colour. Start with that and apply to your brow bone so that you are literally high-lighting that top section just underneath your eyebrow, from one end to the other.
No, not you, turn back around, the eyeshadow! Make up artists recommend building colour gradient not fading it, so you started with the lightest colour and then you are going to build on that as you work from the top down until you get the darkest shade. The next shade you choose will be a medium dark and you apply this underneath the highlighter colour down to the crease of your eye. Blend by using a windscreen wiper motion but don’t overlap your highlighter colour. Make sure you blend in the crease before moving to your darkest shade which you will apply, using the same blending motion, to the eye lid down to the lash line. Blend well.
If you want to go for a really dramatic smokey eye look, before you apply the dark eyeshadow you can cover your eyelid with a black eyeliner. Obviously make sure it is a soft one to avoid injury! Then apply the eyeshadow over the top. The important thing here is to blend well because it is the blending that creates the smokey effect.
Brushes are the key to getting the smokey effect on point. If your brushes are too stiff you won’t be able to blend. Generally you only need 3 for this to work. A large soft brush for your lighter base colours and for most of the crease and socket blending, a smaller, tapered blending brush that will enable you to add definition to the deepest part of the crease and then a flat brush for applying the eyelid colour. You can use this too to smudge pencil liner and give stronger definition to the crease.
It is obviously a good idea to experiment a bit before going out but also experiment with different colours and find what you like. Smokey eye started out with black and dark grey but greens and even colours like mulberry and deep magenta can look really amazing if done well. The absolute key to getting the smokey eye effect is blending – you can’t do enough of it! Why not search for, ‘smokey eyes’ on Pinterest for some inspiration.
Have fun!