Shortly after we celebrated my daughter’s second birthday, I came to the scary realization that it had been almost an entire year since my husband and I had been out on a date together, and when I finally worked up the courage to hire a sitter so we could go out and remember what it feels like to be adults, I decided to make regular date nights a priority. And you know what? It has made a HUGE difference in our lives.
The only trouble is that 2+ years at home with a child made me forget how to make myself look glamorous, but a couple of YouTube tutorials and a little online shopping went a long way, and today I’m sharing 8 tips to teach YOU how to get perfect smokey eyes.
Because looking beautiful shouldn’t be difficult…
1. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PRODUCTS
Whenever I sit down to try something new, I rarely have the right products on hand and typically have to improvise. This isn’t always a good thing, particularly when it comes to heavy eye makeup, so before you attempt the smokey eye look, make sure to stock up on the basics:
-Concealer
-Eyeliner
-3 shades of eye shadow (one that’s light, one that’s dark, and one that’s in between the 2)
-Eyelash curler
-2 different types of mascara
-Soft blending brush
2. PRIME YOUR EYES!
In theory, you should always apply a primer underneath your eyeshadow as it creates a smooth base, makes your eye make-up last longer, and helps eliminate that horrible, greasy line that crops up in the crease of your eyelids halfway through the day, but most people (myself included) don’t have the time to add another step to their make-up routine. And that’s fine – a little grease on the eyelids never hurt anyone, right? But since you need to do a lot of blending to get the perfect smokey eye, you really want to start with a smooth, clear base, so make sure you don’t scrimp on the primer.
3. PICK YOUR COLORS CAREFULLY
I always assumed smokey eyes meant nothing more than black eyeshadow, black eyeliner, and a lot of black mascara, but I was wrong. Again. As it turns out, there are certain color palettes you should avoid if you have small eyes and there are heaps of different color palettes you can choose from for different occasions. Who knew?!
4. APPLY HIGHLIGHTER
This is one of the (many) instances in life where a little goes a long way. Simply apply a dab of highlighter from the middle of your brow bone to the end of your eyebrows, and above and below your tear duct to make your eyes pop.
5. LEARN THE RIGHT TECHNIQUE
My husband has a “no photos or videos on the blog” rule, so today I’m going to share Jaclyn Hill’s awesome tutorial on smokey cat eyes instead. Make sure to watch it to the end – she does an amazing job!
6. USE 2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF MASCARA
Jaclyn applied fake lashes in her tutorial, which look fabulous and really make her eyes pop, but if you don’t have falsies on hand (or you haven’t perfected the technique yet), this tutorial by cTheMakeupArtist will teach you how to make your lashes look just as thick and awesome by using make-up products from a drug store:
7. APPLY THE REST OF YOUR FACE LAST
I don’t know about you, but whenever I apply eyeshadow, it always ends up on my cheeks. Of course, this isn’t such a big deal when I’m using my usual palette of light browns as I can easily brush it off, or blend it into my skin with a little extra foundation, but when I’m working with dark shadows, I always end up looking like someone socked me in the eye. But after I started watching make-up tutorials online, I realized that if I applied my eye make-up BEFORE my foundation, contour, powder, and blush, I wouldn’t look as clown-like as I usually do. Genius, right?!
8. FINISH YOUR LOOK WITH NUDE LIPS
My college roommate once told me that the best way to make your eyes pop when you’re wearing dark shadows is to apply a couple of (very) small dots of foundation on your lips, apply some Vaseline (or shimmery lip gloss) over top, and pump your lips together. I tried her trick the other day, and I was amazed that it actually looked good! So much for all of those expensive lipsticks I’ve collected over the years, right?!
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