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The classic smoky eye

 

glo.minerals smoky eye how-to

 

The classic Smoky eye

smoky eyes - runway



Fact:

Smoky eyes are swarming the red carpet and fashion runways this year, seen on some of the most glamorous women in the world. We "regular girls" never tire of gawking at their beautiful dresses, fabulous hair, and perfect makeup, picturing how we would look with that haircut or those fabulous eyes (and legs!).

Another Fact:

Well, it's time to stop your day dreaming about a world-renowned makeup artist creating a sultry look for your red carpet or runway debut. We're here to challenge you to try applying your own smoky eye makeup. I'm going to teach you how to be your very own best makeup artist! Just follow these simple steps and read carefully over the helpful tips from glo skincare to help you create your own stunning smoky eye this holiday season. You'll blow your fellow holiday party-goers right out of their festive little sweaters!

 


Before you start:

Stop! Don't apply your foundation first! You always want to start with your eyes when doing a smoky eye, as eye makeup has a tendency to fall on the face. When you start with your eye makeup, you can really go to town! Have fun and clean the mess up later. Here's how you do it:
 

5 Easy Steps:

1. First, apply a light neutral color all over your lids, from your lashes up under your eye brows. You want to use a large eye makeup brush, preferably the glo.minerals eye base brush.
 

2. Next, with a medium-dark color and the glo.minerals base brush, go over your lid from the eye lashes up right under the crease of your eye. Make sure to blend both colors really well. 

3. Now, for the smoky part! With your dark, smoky color and a crease-specific brush (glo.minerals mini crease brush), starting at the outer edge of your eye, work the brush back and forth in the crease, like a windshield wiper motion – but, only go ¾ of the way over your eye. It's always best to apply in layers. So, start out with a light hand and layer color to desired level of 'sultriness'. 

4. With a dark eye pencil, line the entire upper lash line from outer edge to inner corner. Using the glo.minerals smudge brush, go over the pencil line with a similar or slightly lighter eye shadow color than the pencil to create a softer line. Apply the same eye shadow with the smudge brush under your lower lash line from the outside edge to the inside corner – blend well. 

5. Finish with two coats of Volumizing Mascara.

 smoky eye do

Insider tip: When using loose shimmer shadows to create this look, make sure to tap off your brush before applying the color. This will ensure that you don't add too much and allow you to build the color.
halle berry

Use the smudge brush and eye shadow to create a softer line as seen here on Halle Berry. If you’re using a Gel eyeliner or pencil to line the eyes you can set the color with an eyeshadow of the same color or a lighter shade. This will also soften the line and give the eyes a more sultry look.

katherine heigl

Is this look too much? We think not. That is the beauty behind creating a gorgeous smoky eye, it doesn’t always have to be done in black. Blues, pastels, purples, bronze and earth tones all do the job quite nicely. When you choose a brighter hue, consider a more subtle smoky eye as seen here on Katherine. Less is always more. Make sure to apply the color along the upper and lower lashline and blend into the crease using a sweeping motion with your brush.

Additional Steps:

Now that you've accomplished your sultry, smoky eyes, it's time to tackle the rest of your face. A smoky eye is obviously going to draw all of the attention to your eyes, which is exactly what you want. 

1. Let's keep the rest of your face sheer with a glo.minerals Sheer Tint. You may apply this with your fingers, but we prefer the glo.minerals foundation brush to keep it sheer and even. The glo.minerals Sheer Tint will give you ample coverage without feeling or looking heavy, and present a flawless finish. 
 

2. One must-have for any look, but especially great after you've darkened your eye area, is the glo.minerals Brightener Highlight Concealer Just apply a small dab under both eyes and blend into the nose area and under the eye. This will create a beautiful contrast and help open the eyes up a little more. 
 

3. Use a subtle blush like glo.minerals sweet or sheer petal or the sunkiss Bronze to warm up your cheek area. Don't be afraid to use both a bronzer and blush, but go easy! 
 

4. Just for fun, brush the glo.minerals Shimmer Brick in gleam across both cheeks for a shimmery finish. 
 

5. The big finale is a lip gloss in a light pink, like glo.minerals Liquid Lips in pink ginger, or Gloss in blushing. Another option would be a subtle sparkle like glo.minerals Gloss in star struck. Blush and lip colors will depend on your skin tone and your personal preference. Just have fun and make your number one goal to feel comfortable with your new red carpet look!
 

Sultry Eye Options:

For an even more dramatic eye, apply glo.minerals Liquid Eyeliner (instead of using a pencil) right along the top lash line, making it slightly thicker at the outside end of the eye. Proceed with smudging the line with eye shadow and applying to lower lash line with the smudge brush, just like when you would use the pencil for lining. You may also want to (carefully) line the inner rim of the eye with the glo.minerals Precision Eye Pencil in black.

For anyone wishing to go the extra beauty mile, you can add a few individual false lashes on the outside corners of each eye and finish with two generous coats of Volumizing Mascara in black.

 


What not to do:

This smoky eye thing may take some practice, but here are a few tips on what not to do that will be helpful for you. 
 

smoky eye don't

1. To avoid the raccoon look, make sure that you only apply eye shadow onto the eyelid and blend into the crease of eye so that the color is slightly above the crease. Do not apply a dark color into the corner of eye and high above the crease. Instead use a lighter shade and blend with the darker color for a more polished look.

2. Avoid heavy thick eyeliner around the entire eye. Instead line the eyes so that the outer part of the eye is thickest and becomes more tapered as you get closer to the inner corner of eye.


smoky eye

Remember, even Hollywood makeup artists have messed this up (check out Hayden and Sharon), so don't be discouraged! Start with a light application of the darker colors. You can always add more layers of color to get your desired level of "smokiness".

Just keep practicing and also remember, a smoky eye doesn't always have to be black or gray. It can be brown, blue, maroon, green or many other colors – it’s completely up to you. Have fun and knock 'em dead, beautiful!