Smokey Eye Tutorial

Welcome to my first instalment of Friday Fabrications!

This is where you will find tutorials for anything I can think of doing!

I’m going to start with a make up tutorial, the smokey eye look. I will warn you, this will be very picture (and word) heavy.

This is a look that I have honestly never been able to create successfully until about a year ago. No matter how hard I tried and how many tutorials I looked at, I just seemed to mess it up completely when doing it myself. So this tutorial is hopefully going to help anyone else who’s had trouble with the smokey eye look and give you a few hints and tips to make it easy to do in a relatively short time!

Of course the first thing you need to do is clean your face of any old make up and give it a good wash. If you have primer (which I dont *slaps hands*) then you should also apply that as it helps to give a more even skin colour and keeps the make up on longer.

Then you should apply the bottom layer of make up, I like to call it the skin layer as it is there to make your skin look nicer. You should first use some cover up over any spots of blemishes and blend it in followed by some nice foundation. I use Match Perfection and Clear Complexion by  Rimmel as they’re fairly cheap but still work brilliantly. I also always choose the lightest colours as i’m quite pale and I find any darker really makes my face stand out. In my opinion you should always go at least one shade lighter than your skin colour to avoid orange skin, because lets face it, orange is really not a good look, even if you are from Essex.

Now that you’ve made your face look like it is free from any sort of blemish you should apply the blusher. I just have some cheap tesco blusher and personally I dont think you need to splash out on blusher at all. With things like mascara and foundation I would always recommend a good brand, but blusher is a lot more forgiving and so if, like me, you need to save money you should save your pennies on the blusher. You do, however, need to buy a good brush. Ok so this brush was also cheap (compared to leading brands at least), but it is big and fluffy and perfect for the job!

There are two ways I usually do my blusher. The first is using the whole brush and using it on the cheek in a circular motion, creating a nice rosy look I usually use day to day. The other is to squeeze the brush and sweep from the cheek towards the top of the ear. This I feel is better for a more sophisticated look and I use it for the evenings. I used this sophisticated look in this tutorial as I was actually getting ready to go out with my work friends.

Next is the eye shadow. Again I don’t think it’s massively important to have an expensive eye shadow, although I do prefer them as they’re usually easier to blend. If you can afford it easily I’d recommend the extra money, but if not then it wont make a massive difference. I’m again using the tesco barbara day make-up (the silver pot) and also a colour palette from marks and spencers. I love colour palettes, especially the ones with just 3 or 4 complimenting colours. They are just so useful and usually contain colours that will blend together really well.

First you just need to put a layer of the lightest colour you want to wear. I tend to use my fingers when applying, but that’s just my personal preference as i just never  seem to get on with the brushes. I decided to use a white colour this time. You can put as much of this on as you want, some people like it all the way up to the eye brows but I personally find this a bit…hooker-esq. I prefer to do mine about half way, so that the make up just comes up on to the bone. I also like to put a spot of the lighter colour right on the inside corner of my eye as it brightens and lifts making you look more awake.

Then you need to take the middle colour (I used the silver pot here) and start at 3/4 of the way in, sweeping to the outside of the eye. Now you just need to blend them together so that there are no definite lines where your make-up changes colour. Most of the time when blending I end up adding more eyeshadow on as well just to make sure it is thick enough (as it was not in this photo)

Before blending

Next is the darkest colour. I use the tiniest spot and dab it right on the outside of my eye before smudging it a little inwards. I find this works perfectly for me, making the black not too heavy and nicely blended. For some reason I find this one never needs as much blending as the other two personally.

eye shadow finished

Next is the eyeliner. I prefer liquid to pencil but do switch between both. I usually use collection 2000 as it’s cheap, however although their normal liquid eye liner goes on really smoothly, I find it often smudges off on the corners during the night so in this tutorial I used their waterproof version which has a bit more sticking power. However I wouldn’t really recommend this one either as it is not so easy to put on, no where near as smooth to apply as the normal, bog standard eye liner they have and made my lines a little messy in this tutorial. Next time I think I might splash out on a better brand.

To apply eye liner I steady my hand by resting it on my face and either leaning on a windowsill, or holding my elbow with my other hand. Keep your eyes open (yes both of them!) as you need to see where you’re going. I then start from the inside eye, usually just about where you started the middle eye shadow, and slowly (with little strokes) move towards the outer eye.

When I get to the corner I usually do a little flick. This flick definitely doesn’t need to be big at all and just follows the corner of your eye up. If you can’t see the direction your flick needs to go then I would aim to meet the outer tip of your eyebrow, but just don’t draw all the way there. You should know if you’ve done it right by closing your eye, if the flick is in a more or less straight line from the rest of the eyeliner then it is correct.

You can tell it is a little messy, this shouldn’t happen with a smoother eyeliner.

Next is the eye lashes! Again I’m using Rimmel, they are definitely one of my favourite brands as they’re cheap but have good quality products. I actually have three mascara’s but tend to only use these two. The one on the left is lash excellerator or something, i’ve used it so much all the writings come off the packaging! I tend to use this day to day for the long lash effect and love it! The other is Scandaleyes which I honestly only bought because it was on special offer and cheaper than all the other mascaras at the time. However I absolutely love this one too, the brush is a bit big and took a bit of getting used to (i got it all over myself the first time i used it!) but now I love how thick it makes my lashes look! I also have a waterproof mascara (Rimmel : Sexy Curves) for those times where you just know you’re going to be emotional.

I also always always always use an eyelash curler when doing mascara. Without them you can’t really tell how long my eyelashes are, but with them curled it not only creates the illusion of length, but also again helps with your eyes looking bright and open. I find that with my curler I don’t really need to use false eye lashes as I get the same (but more natural looking) effect.

When Applying mascara I tend to sweep the brush side to side rather than from root to tip. I just find it gives a far more even coating and helps against getting it all over your face.

Et Viola! Smokey eye complete! You can add some lipstick now if you like, but I find it’s best to go for the more natural colour as your eyes are already quiet heavy and it would otherwise just look too much. To me it’s the same as the legs/boobs rule. You can’t have both out, just one or the other. Although, like with the legs/boobs rule, I have broken it on occasion.

Of course you can always experiment with other colours too! When we went iceskating the other week I used a dark blue instead of a black in the corners and a black sparkly eyeliner.

I have also done it in various shades of purples and again in browns (which is my favourite as it looks the best with my eye colour)

‘Till next time!

December 14, 2012 | Categories: Do It Yourself | Tags: beauty, blending, blue, blusher, brush, christmas make up, clear complexion, clothing, eye shadow, eyeliner, eyeshadow, foundation, make up, make up brush, make up tutorial, mascara, orange skin, product review, product test, rimmel london, silver, silver make up, skin layer, smokey eye, smokey eye make up, smokey eye tutorial, sparkly, style, tutorial, white | Leave a comment