Hands down, smoky eye makeup has to be one of the most popular eye makeup styles...the requests on line, the number of you-tube tutorials, every beauty and fashion magazine, you name it,...offers a breakdown of how to achieve this über sexy look....

A gorgeous smoky eye is also a tricky, more technical eye makeup style to pull off... well... the look is smoky but polished AND it often can look messy and trashy.

If you feel like you have to left thumbs...

Here you are, a step by step with diagrams...for a fool proof, high precision, well blended, professional looking application.

There are so many methods, products and tools professionals use to create this look....and the look ranges from 'soft smoky' which can be a great daytime professional look, to all out black 'smoky' and include rimming the inner eye lid in black eyeliner..

The method that I am showing you uses makeup materials that most of us have in our limited makeup supply; powder eye shadows, eyeliner pencils and basic makeup brushes.

Recommended palette of colors deep and earthy; plums, violets, grays, blues, greens, browns ...your coloring will dictate your preference...
AND the drama level of the effect, soft smoky or dramatic smoky, will be in how dark or light the colors chosen are (that will increase or decrease the CONTRAST against your skin tone). 

Placement is important BUT blending is the KEY to the trick of smoky eye makeup SO learn the zones of placement and blend the layers of color well.

Here we go...

The Diagram:  Dramatic Smoky Eye Makeup

The 'Step By Step':

Step 1 Even out skin tone of face with foundation, and concealer...for the face, less is always more in application of foundation, so as light weight as possible and apply concealer only as needed, to meet objective of an even skin tone.

The eye area must have a good base, dusted with translucent powder before beginning Step 2 (that is the key to an easier, smoother, and longer lasting application of eye makeup).

Step 2  Choose three eye shadow colors of the same color family (a light shade, medium, and dark shade) and a coordinating dark pencil.

Think of smoky eye makeup application in terms of color darkest at the lash area, getting lighter as you move towards the brow,  each layer WELL blended and disappearing into the next. 

Each layer must deal with a zone:

STARTING AT THE LASH LINE:

• 1.  Start with a soft ('smudgable'), sharp, dark eye pencil, black for THE SMOKIEST drama and an already dark palette of colors, PLACED TIGHTLY along the lash line.  
  A great technique that will avoid any gaps between liner and upper lashes, are short angled strokes between the lashes (at the root), from outer corner to inner corner. Once you've got those gaps, move the pencil a little more freely horizontally along the lash line.

NEXT, TO SOFTEN AND SMUDGE THE EYE LINER, take a small, firm hair, eye shadow brush (there are actual makeup brushes called eye 'smudge' brush) and blend the eye liner along the lash line horizontally and out a little past the outer corner (you can also use your ring finger gently... I prefer a brush because it is more precise).

OR try this pencil and 'smudger' in one Elizabeth Arden Smoky Eyes Powder Pencil, Smokey Black.

Next, take the pencil, and line under lower lash line, starting at the outer corner and moving toward the inner corner (For less extreme, softer version, stop at two thirds of the way and blend into corner in next step).

Now using a small 'smudge brush, smudge and soften and blend, moving back and forth horizontally, sweeping out a little past outer corner, and in to inner.

Standard but OPTIONAL: Lining the inner rims of the upper and lower lids which creates the blackest 'smoked out' look.

With some experimentation, you will easily be able to gage the drama level of the smoky eye makeup style you are looking for.

• 2. Apply the deepest eye shadow shade using a medium eye shadow brush.  Its zone is from the upper lid lash line, blending well into the smudged pencil, up to and well blended into the crease (the second color should merge into the first).  

Smashbox Blending Brush #3

Under the lower lash line, the deepest shade has a more narrow placement, using an small shadow brush or angled eyeliner brush, right under the lashes from outer corner to inner corner (you can stop a third of the way from the inner corner to soften the look). 

ENSURING YOUR SUCCESS WITH SMOKY EYE MAKEUP

Good tools are always critical to the success, polish and ultimate impact of a look.

If you are without all of the above brushes, here is a kit catering to the smoky eye makeup style, to consider. 

The Smokey Eye Kit

If you are looking for some great smoky eye makeup products with beautiful color palettes in duos and trios consider these; Vincent Longo Eye Shadow Trios, Dior Palette, Smashbox Eye Shadow Trio, NARS Eye Shadow Duo, Du Wop Gray Eyes, Stila Eye Shadow Trio...there are lots to choose from and these multi color palettes can take the guess work out of color combinations.

The eyeliners for smoky eye makeup need to be soft enough to smudge; MAC has some great KOHL Liners, Sephora Brand, Vincent Longo, Elizabeth Arden Smoky Eyes to name a few...

Try Smashbox, Benefit, Sephora brand...	at
Try Stila, NARS, Vincent Longo, Elizabeth Arden...	at

"Soft Smoky" Eye Makeup...Here is an example of the same smoky eye makeup technique using a lighter palette of colors. 
 

If you want a makeup style for day with a little more flare OR perhaps, a low key sexy night time look, this is a great application.

The difference between low key smoky eye makeup and dramatic effect smoky eye makeup really comes down to: 
1.  Adjusting the color palette to lighter shades and reducing the contrast between depth of tones
2. Reducing shimmer or frost to fairly matte colors.
3.  Minimizing the lining below the eye, and the thickness of line at the upper lash line. 

Learning the application technique of professional looking smoky eye makeup will be a very versatile makeup style that you can use for a wide range of occasions. 

 

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