The one look my friends always ask me to teach them is the smoky eye. They kind of sneak up to me and shyly ask, as if they are asking me to divulge a secret sex technique. It's amusing that the smoky eye has such a forbidden-fruit quality for some women. It's not only a great nighttime "come-hither" look -- with the right colours it's also a sophisticated daytime option.
Step 1: Determine the shade of the shadow you should use. More natural shades (like browns, taupes and greys) will look softer; non-skin tone shades (like greens, blues and plums) will look more apparent on the face. The choice is yours, but if you are a beginner, you might want to stick to medium-browns and taupes as you are learning.
Consider your skin tone -- if your skin is light, choose a lighter version of a shadow colour (like a lighter plum); the deeper your skin, the darker you need to go (like an aubergine). A swatch test on the back of your hand will help you decide the best shade for you.
Step 2: Choose texture: matte or shimmer. A light shimmer shadow is much easier to work with, as it will blend more subtly into the skin. Mattes look great, but require a little more skill.
Step 3: Use the flat end of a small, double-ended shadow brush to apply a base shadow all over the lid area. Your base shadow should be a neutral, matte shadow that will act as a primer or foundation before you apply the coloured shadow. It will help the colour shadow grab on and stay put, and it will also neutralize your eyelid's natural skin tone so the colour of the shadow on your lid will more closely match its colour in the pan.
Page 1 of 2
Excerpted from The Handbook of Style: Expert Fashion and Beauty Advice as told to Francine Maroukian and Sarah Woodruff. Copyright 2007 by Francine Maroukian. Excerpted with permission from Quirk Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.
Comment reported
Thank you for reporting this comment as inappropriate.
Back to Comments »