Smoky Eye Tutorial

Eyes are my favorite part of the face when applying makeup. Eye makeup is where you can be as creative as you want to be, by blending different shapes, colors, and finishes for a positively endless variety of looks. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a smoky eye. Like the classic eye, the smoky eye is commonly known by its usual color scheme of dark blacks and browns, but can actually be achieved using any color you’d like. Try colors like midnight blue or eggplant, or neutrals or metallics for a more subtle finish.

Just as in the classic eye, prime and powder your eyelids. Line your upper and lower lids and waterlines with a dark color (black pencil or powder works anytime), then quickly smudge and blend slightly outward. Feel free to really smoke it out!

Begin with the darkest of the eyeshadow colors you are going to use. Apply starting at the lashline and then slowly diffusing the color outward. You can pull off this look using only one color, if you’d like, or just highlighted and blended with a bit of white eyeshadow. Or you can take a lighter color and start applying to the lids, again diffusing outward, and blending with the darker color. Using either a still lighter eyeshadow (use colors all in the same family, i.e. eggplant, purple, and violet, or not—midnight blue, fuchsia, and peach for example) or a white highlighting eyeshadow, apply blending out from the lighter color you used.

If you like, you can blend well at this step, apply mascara, and be done with your makeup application, but there are a few more optional steps that add extra oomph to your look. Dip a small brush in a light color (metallics and pearlized finishes are great to use here, even if the rest of your look is matte) and apply to the inner corner of your eye and just below the arch of your brow. Add eyeliner—white in the inner waterlines to make your eyes appear larger; shades of brown for a natural defining look; brightly colored to add a dynamic splash of color; black goes with any look and is highly recommended with the smoky eye! Apply black eyeliner to your waterline (inner rims) as well.

When applying mascara, first clean any fallen powder out of your lashes with a clean spoolie, then apply mascara, sweeping the wand from the base of your lashes out, both the top side and bottom side of your upper lashes. It helps to look straight ahead or slightly downwards during this step. Then, ONCE YOUR MASCARA HAS DRIED, look up at the ceiling and apply to lower lashes. False lashes can be added either in a strip or individually.

Voila! A completed smoky eye. Feel free to try with your own color scheme!