How to make a smokey eye? I get that question from time to time and there are several different smokey eyes to do. You can make different shapes, colors and use different products.
A classic smokey eye is black and in my opinion is easiest done with an eye shadow and there are lots of tips and tricks that suit everyone no matter what type of sweeping you want to do.
Here are 5 different smokey eyes that you can do!
Choice of products
When it comes to smoky eyes, you can make it easy for yourself and you can make it difficult for yourself - good products do this so much easier! You do not have to have luxury products to get a good smokey eye, but luxury and quality are not always the same.
Had I used a bad or too large make-up brush, skipped eyeshadow primer and used a bubbly eyeshadow, it would have been very difficult for me as well. Different smokey eyes are not that difficult as long as you have the right conditions :)
In addition to a good black eye shadow and eye shadow primer, I have to hit the makeup brushes:
Here you see these three brushes in order of magnitude! If you only have to choose one so it works with only the middle brush Tapered Crease for it you can both apply + soot with, but it will not be as easy.
Small brush under the eye - Nanshy Pencil Brush is perfect for small areas, it is a bit hard but rounded so you get good precision without a sharp line.
Intermediate brush for application on the eyelid - Nanshy Tapered Crease is rounded and soft but quite compact, which means that it can still press properly with pigment. A flat brush often gives a sharper edge and since you want a soft fade, we want to avoid sharp edges, so it is good to apply with a rounded. It is just the right size too, many have an oversized application brush which can make it difficult.
Larger & softer brush for fading - Nanshy blending brush is bigger and softer without being too big or too soft;) An oversized brush gives no precision and it is easy to erase too close to the brow and get a panda effect. A too fluffy brush does not move the pigments and you have to press a lot with the brush to make something happen. This blurs effectively even though you are light on the hand and are the right size for you to have control over what you do :)
Smokey eye #1 - Top of the eyes
The first variant is to just soot on the top of the eye and it suits you who want a more discreet sooting. It does not enlarge the eyes - but it lifts the gaze!
It is also a good beginner-sweeper if you are not used to seeing yourself in dark eyes, because immediately when you get dark during eyes, you feel more made up, but on the top you can usually put on quite properly and still feel comfortable.
All remaining variants are an extension of this, so you do these steps regardless of whether you make a more intense variant further down in the post :)
Apply eyeshadow primer and dab with your fingertip.
Many people think it is an unnecessary product but I promise the difference is huge! On the one hand, the shadow attaches directly so that you both get a pigment-rich result, but also avoid the shadow falling under the eyes.
In addition, the make-up lasts all day and evening - otherwise the sweeping is like three black lines on the eyelid when you blink for a few hours, and that's not fun.
2. Wrap a little powder in the globe line, but not on the entire eyelid.
This makes it easier to get a soft fade later, because the primer is creamy until you apply eye shadow, so the more you work with the brush, the more pigment it attaches - if you have not already fixed the primer with a powder!
Dab / press the eyeshadow on the entire eyelid, out to the outer edge where your lashes end.
Be sure to place the shadow firmly down at the lash roots. Apply firmly with shade. Rather have a little shadow on the brush and dip several times, if you have too much on the brush it will fall under the eyes.
4. How high should you cast the shadow? Do this: Relax your forehead and look straight into the mirror, then apply the shadow over the crease line fold so that it is visible over the skin fold even though you are looking straight ahead.
Because if you lay too far down, the fading ends up inside this fold when you look straight ahead, then it looks like a sharp edge and not like a soft sweep.
5. Place the blending brush right on the edge of the eyeshadow and sweep back and forth sideways (not upwards, you do not want the color closer to the eyebrows).
Thanks to the brush I first applied with is rounded and soft + that we put powder in the fade before we applied the black shadow, the fade was already quite soft before this step. But for a nice smokey eye, you want a very soft fade so I fade out a little extra.
If you tone out correctly (sideways and with a good brush), there is no risk that you tone too much! Blur until you are satisfied. The worst that can happen is that you have to add a little more shadow if you erase too much and it's not the whole world :)
Finish with a light eye shadow in the corner of the eye and under the brow for an invigorating effect.
7. Black mascara on the lashes. Then it's ready!
Here is the result!
Did you understand what I mean by the importance of making the fade across the globe line? Many people think it's scary to do so high up because when you half - close your eyes it looks like you lay very high - but you do not walk around and half - close your eyes later;) But if the fading ends up inside the globe line fold, the make-up looks hard because it becomes a sharp edge between the black on the eyelid and the skin tone under the brow.
Smokey eye #2 - Top & bottom
The former variant raises the gaze, but if you also want to enlarge the gaze + have a little more gunpowder in the soot, you can also put the eye shadow under the eye!
On this makeup, I have started from my own eye shape, which is also one of the easier ways to make a smokey eye. So that in the far corner of the eye I just tie together the shadow on the top and bottom so that the shape is still rounded like your own eye.
Here I have used Nanshy Pencil Brush which as I said is a bit rounded but small and harder. Perfect under the eye!
Here is the result with soot both above and below the eyes!
Look #3 - Cat eyes
An elongated shape on the soot gives both larger eyes and an incredible lift when the eyes become more feline in shape. Very nice!
In the outer corner, soot the shadow obliquely upwards. I usually aim approximately at the end of the eyebrow, but it depends a bit on how your eyebrows look as well, but the point is not to pull so far that you approach the temple. Not that it's wrong, but that's not the look we're looking for in this post :)
When you have placed the shadow diagonally upwards, you tie it together with the shading in the globe line.
This is the result then!
I want to emphasize that I have tattooed my waterline in the eye light, so if you want that effect you can supplement with a light eyeliner, e.g. glo Eye Pencil (Peach)
Look #4 - Intense look
Now we have come to my personal favorite - the intense sweeping!
A carbon black and really, really intense smokey eye does not have to mean more eye shadow, but what makes the most difference is to put a black eyeliner along the waterline:
Here I use the Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen in the shade Black Noir which is really carbon black. I paint both along the waterline, down under the lower lashes and as an eyeliner on the eyelid. It is waterproof and fits very well.
Tip! Draw a line with the pen along the waterline, allow to dry (the pen is creamy but dries quickly) and then paint again along the waterline. Then it sits like a rock late!
And here is the result! Meow!
Look #5 - Glitter
Now I have shown the four simplest forms of a sweep, but I can not help but also talk a little about how to pimp a sweep, it's great fun!
One of my favorite ways is to dab light yellow eye shadow in the corner of the eye instead of the light one. But you can add color in a lot of ways, e.g. a colored eyeliner along the waterline instead of a black, colored mascara on the lower lashes, or dab colored eye shadow basically anywhere on the makeup.
But the easiest and unbelievable effective way is to add glitter! I went all in with glitter on this variant to show you, but you can dab a little in the corner of your eye only if you want. Or glitter in the eyebrows, I love that too! ♥
Pixi Liquid Fairy Lights is a liquid glitter in a sleeve with applicator, kind of like a lip gloss fixed with liquid glitter. The shade Crystalline is light with transparent gel and it is super easy to dab on a finished make-up! Great on top of light eye shadows too!
And here is the result of the last smokey eye look for today!
PRODUCT LIST:
All products are available for purchase in my webshop creativemakeup.se:
Eyeshadow primer – Pixi Eye Bright Primer
Black eye shadow – Paese Kashmir Eyeshadow (602)
Light eye shadow – Paese Kashmir Eyeshadow (667)
Black eyeliner – Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen (Black Noir)
Light eyeliner along the waterline - glo Precision Eye Pencil (Peach) (have not used it in the post because I have tattooed light, but you can supplement with this for the same effect)
Glitter – Pixi Liquid Fairy Lights (Crystalline)
Black mascara – Magnetic Lash Mascara
Makeup brush under the eye - Nanshy Pencil Brush
Makeup brush for application - Nanshy Tapered Crease Brush
Makeup brush for fading - Nanshy Blending Brush
Inspiration
I love smoky eyes and as I said, it is possible to make thousands of different variations!
Here is a selection of my different smokey eyes make-up:
Links to all these different smokey eyes:
If you want to see the entire product list (base, lips, eyebrows, etc.) and more pictures of the glittery variant, you can read my post Smokey eyes with glitter - step by step which I published last week.
Hope you liked the post on all the different smokey eyes and that the tips were helpful! :)
Hug ♥
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