I promised this easy eye makeup tutorial before the holidays, and I’m slipping it in under the wire!
I took this video footage with my eye shadow application process MONTHS ago, and just got around to editing it.
True confessions: I DETEST VIDEO.
There. I said it.
I hate being on video, I hate the set-up process, I hate the editing process, and I hate watching myself on video. (I actually hate taking the time to watch ANY video, which is why I try to keep mine short and sweet.)
But I can’t effectively tell you how to apply eye shadow without video footage, so this, dear peeps, is what I do for you!
Okay, let’s get started. And if you’re like me and have no patience to see a video through, I will list the steps below along with links to the products I used in the video.
10 Step Eye Makeup Tutorial
Step one: apply eye makeup primer. In the interest of time, I didn’t show this in the video, and some days I’m lazy and skip it. But I highly recommend using eye shadow primer. It evens out the skin tone on your eyelids and it causes the eye shadow to adhere better and stay on longer.
Step two: apply a medium-color eye shadow in the crease using an angled brush, apply like a windshield wiper. Avoid getting eye shadow outside of the eyelid (on your cheek). Blend with a clean fluffy blending brush. Blending is the key to this process.
Step three: apply a lighter shade eye shadow on the eyelid; blend if desired.
Step four: apply a darker shade eye shadow in the corner of the eye lid. Blend, blend, blend, blend. There should be no obvious line of demarcation between colors.
Step five: take a small eye liner brush and apply darkest color eye shadow into the upper lash line (or you can use your favorite eye liner, but be sure to blend it in so it’s not a harsh line.)
Step six (optional): apply the dark color shadow into the lash-line on the outer half of the lower lid, if desired, as eye liner. Be careful to keep this light and blend so you don’t look like Rocky Raccoon.
Step seven (also optional): apply the lightest color shadow with the eye liner brush into the lash-lines on the inner side of the lower and upper lids. This helps brighten up the eye area.
Step eight: take a tissue or cotton ball and carefully wipe away any eye shadow fallout from your cheeks, and make sure the eye shadow has not escaped the boundaries of the eye lid.
Step nine (not shown in video): apply concealer under the eye and on the inner nose area – wherever there is darkness.
Step ten (not shown but crucial!!!): apply two-three coats mascara. My all time favorite is Lancome Hypnose Drama. I swear by it.
Your eyes are done!
Brushes and blending are truly the keys to making this process work. If you don’t have a good set of makeup brushes that you love, order this E.l.f. 12 Piece brush set. It’s only $12 on Amazon.com, and it is a great starter set. I have added on other more expensive brushes as I need/want them, but if you’re starting out with makeup brushes, E.l.f. makes a decent set.
Here is the video so you can see this process in action. Below the video I will link to the products I use and recommend.
Where to Buy:
2. MAC Eyeshadows:
- Brule (medium for crease/brow bone) applied with Estée Lauder Contour Shadow Brush
- Guilty Morsel (light for lid) applied with E.l.f. eye shadow brush
- Plumage (dark for outer corners) applied with Laura Mercier Eye Crease Brush (you could really use this for the crease as well as the corners)
3. Laura Mercier Smudge Brush (to apply eye shadow as liner, or to blend pencil eye liner)
4. Sonia Kashuk’s Dramatically Defining Long Wear Gel Liner (if you want a more defined eye for evening; apply with the Laura Mercier Smudge Brush)
5. Laura Mercier Secret Concealer (I use #2)
6. Lancome Hypnose Drama mascara (I use black)
7. E.l.f. Essential Blending Eye Brush (for blending between each step)
Enjoy!
Great tutorial! I’m cosmetically challenged so every little ‘easy’ tip I can get helps! Thanks!
I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!! THANK YOU!!! Seriously, thank you for taking the time to do this as it was incredibly helpful. Trust me, I have looked up tutorials on You Tube and that are super long and not this helpful! Blending is the piece of the puzzle that I have been missing! I do have one quick question. Using shadow as liner, does that stay well? I’ve done that before and I feel like it fades so quickly. I hate using liner too, because, even though I have decent enough fine motor skills, it still looks like a three-year-old drew on my eyes with a marker!
Eye liner is its own tutorial. 🙂 I do usually use pencil and then go over it with shadow if I want to soften it or get a different color. The key with liner is to get it right into the roots of your eye lashes. You can’t have a space between the liner and the eye lashes or it looks amateur. And then there’s the blending again.
Great tutorial!
If you were to add a pop of color into the mix, where on your eye would you apply that?
It depends on the look you’re going for. When I went to the eye makeup counter, I wanted green. She had a light green on the lids, the taupe on the brow bones, and a dark green in the outer corners. They were out of the dark green she was wearing, so she sold me the one I have which is more like navy blue. If I were to change it up, I would probably change up the darkest color on the outer corners. I have another palette I use a lot, doing the same thing, with lavender on the lids, a neutral purply gray on the brow bones and deep purple on the outer corners. I have used that palette for years and I always go back to it.
So cute! This is the first time I’ve seen you on video so I just had to watch LOL.
PS — You’re not the only one. I typically hate watching videos, with the only exception being makeup tutorials, for which I’m a total junkie. 😛
Love this. I want to see more videos of you! 🙂
I love your blog. My teenagers appreciate having a mom that looks up to date without the “trying too hard” look. As far as eye shadow goes, it seems I always have trouble with the particles that fall under my eye when I apply the shadow. I usually try to use a fluffy brush to dust it off. There have been times, especially when doing a darker evening eye, that I thought the dust made my under eye look dark. Any recommendations?
YES! Actually when the makeup lady was doing my makeup for the Dr. Oz show, she used those foam wedges to remove the eye shadow from under my eyes! I thought that was brilliant. The brush might blend the particles into your foundation, but the foam wedge seemed to actually remove it. Another idea… wait till AFTER you do your eye shadow to apply foundation. Then you can really clean your face off after the eye shadow spillage.