Foolproof Smokey Eyes

If, like me, you’re new to the whole smokey eyes phenomenon, the path to accomplishing perfectly blended-out dark eyeshadow can initially look a little bit scary. Creasy eyeshadow that’s barely there anymore by the end of a busy day, harsh lines, black eyeshadow blended up until the eyebrows, panda eyes; trust me, we’ve all been there. To me, eyeshadow is the most tricky part of my makeup application. In order to avoid making a complete fool of myself, I came up with a nice lil’ routine that seems to work for me.

Let’s start with the basics. A good, foolproof base might just be the important step of your eye makeup (together with blending, but I’ll come back on that later). Like with foundation, a good base can make or break your makeup. An eye primer balances out the oil on your eyelids and creates a smooth, flawless base for your eyeshadow. It also makes it last longer and prevents the eyeshadow from creasing. There are tons of eyelid primers available, ranging from clear to shimmery. You can also use a cream eyeshadow to improve the intensity of the colour eyeshadow you’re going to be using. My primer of choice is the Nars Pro-Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base. Clear, super easy and quick to apply and it really does its job at making your makeup last all day and prevents creasing.

If you’re just starting to experiment with eyeshadow, I recommend a natural looking colour which is really easy to blend. The Chanel Illusion d’Ombre eyeshadows are amazing; creamy eyeshadows which go on quite sheer, but the colour intensity can be built up really easily so it’s quite foolproof. My shade of choice is Ebloui, the most amazing shimmery purpley-brownish colour, which fits almost all eye colours. I like to apply this using my ring finger, then blending it out using my favourite MAC 224 blending brush. The bristles of this brush aren’t as densely packed as the MAC 217 brush, which means that it’s really easy to blend any harsh lines out; you just can’t go wrong wit hit. Make sure your blending brush is clean, because it makes blending eyeshadow just so much easier.

To make your eyes pop just a little more, you can apply a little bit of the eyeshadow onder the eyes. The Chanel eyeshadow comes with the cutest brush, which makes undereye application so much easier. You can also use any angled brush you’ve got laying around, like the Chanel Cream Eyeshadow brush. Even though it says it’s for cream eyeshadow, I really like using this for gel liner application as well.

So there you have it; eyeshadow application made easier than ever. For me, at least. I’m finally starting to learn the importance of blending and I’m no longer a stranger to using an eye primer. After teaching myself how to define my eyes using only one eyeshadow colour, I think it’s time to start creating looks using multiple different ones. I’ll report back on ya later…