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The smokey eye makeup mistake we've all been making


This extract has been taken from Making It Up: Makeup Minus the Rules, by Nicole Thompson.

It has been the go-to eye makeup at weddings and formals for the best part of the last 30 years. But for all these years of popularity, there has been a huge misconception when it comes to this artistry staple. Smoky eye is a description of the shape, not the colour!

Mind blown, right? Probably not, but all the same, this look has the capacity to be recreated in so many different forms, and you have the power in your shadow palate right now.

Smoky eye is a description of the shape, not the colour! Photo:Steven Popovich
Smoky eye is a description of the shape, not the colour! Photo:Steven Popovich

Yes, the dark grey tones still have a place in the smoky eye spectrum, but don’t be afraid to spin that colour wheel and see where it ends up.

I have done more smokey eyes than I have had glasses of bubbles, and let me tell you, that is a lot.

This has become my go-to technique, but the color and where you take it is entirely up to you. So go forth you crazy cats – explore and experiment!

Step 1: Use primer. I love the smoothing effect and how it actually intensifies the colour you add on top while ensuring it doesn’t budge for 24 hours. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step 1: Use primer. I love the smoothing effect and how it actually intensifies the colour you add on top while ensuring it doesn’t budge for 24 hours. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 1

Primer, yes! Me again! (By the end of this book I am going to need a new word for primer – undercoat anyone?)

So you could skip this step, but then your smokey eye may be at risk of looking like the bottom of an ashtray in an hour or two. It really does make a huge difference.

Here I have used my favourite MAC Prep + Prime 24-hour Extend Eye Base. I love the smoothing effect and how it actually intensifies the colour you add on top while ensuring it doesn’t budge for 24 hours. (I was part of the testing panel for this product which is why it’s close to my heart. Also why I am so confident in the results!)

Step2: Prime under the eyes. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step2: Prime under the eyes. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 2

Whichever primer you pick, don’t forget to prime under the eyes. Even if you aren’t taking colour under the eyes at all, the primer will help to stop the concealer from moving or, worse still, falling victim to my old nemesis, panda eyes, thanks to your mascara smudging.

Step 3: Grab your thick, crayon-like eye pencil, and create a generous line all the way around your eyes. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step 3: Grab your thick, crayon-like eye pencil, and create a generous line all the way around your eyes. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 3

Grab your thick, crayon-like eye pencil, and create a generous line all the way around your eyes. Don’t be wuss. Forget about precision and be plentiful in your application of this product, remembering you will be blending it in once you are done.

Step 4: Use a small fluffy brush to move and blend the liner as you go. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step 4: Use a small fluffy brush to move and blend the liner as you go. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 4

Use a small fluffy brush to move and blend the liner as you go. For me, the under-eye area is not an afterthought; it’s not the part you hurry when you realise you have just spent 35 minutes blending your crease.

Often I will start a ‘classic’ smokey eye by adding the colour underneath – this is the part of the eye you actually see first.

TIP! I never really understood the idea of prepping the lids with a super- light shadow before you pile on a dark smoky eye. I won’t say don’t do it, as it’s your choice, but really think about what is going to make your job easier. I like to get straight to the goods. If I want dark, I prep with dark, If I want light, I prep with light – whether it be a pencil or cream shadow. If I want it all, I prep clear. I do not have the time it takes in all those sped-up

YouTube blending montages to build up that colour and painstakingly take a white eye all the way to charcoal.

Step 5: Use a fluffy brush to buff all the way around your eyes in a windscreen-wiper, circular motion. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step 5: Use a fluffy brush to buff all the way around your eyes in a windscreen-wiper, circular motion. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 5

Use a fluffy brush to buff all the way around your eyes in a windscreen-wiper, circular motion.

Step 6: Add. Blend. Repeat. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step 6: Add. Blend. Repeat. Photo: Steven Popovich
STEP 6

Add. Blend. Repeat. Concentrate the strongest amount of colour along the top and bottom lashlines, then hugging the outer corners. This will extend and shape, creating an illusion of bigger eyes.

Step 7: Set the shape with your eye shadow. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step 7: Set the shape with your eye shadow. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 7

Set the shape with your eye shadow. First apply the cool toned shimmer eye shadow over the whole eyelids and blend it outwards. For beneath the eye, do the same, except I want you to start from the center working outwards.

TIP! To get the most out of your shimmery shadow don’t forget to spritz your brush with Fix+ to grab the colour and have it glide on with an opaque and smooth finish.

Take your pressed matte powder (I’m using a warm-toned dark-brown here) and work it into the outer corners before softly dragging along the lash line. Photo: Steven Popovich
Take your pressed matte powder (I’m using a warm-toned dark-brown here) and work it into the outer corners before softly dragging along the lash line. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 8

I like to play with opposing tones of colour and texture to build a multidimensional eye. I love using shimmer with cool tones through the centre to enlarge the eye.

Then take your pressed matte powder (I’m using a warm-toned dark-brown here) and work it into the outer corners before softly dragging along the lash line. This will strengthen the shape and really push that 3D effect.

You can get creative with colours and textures and easily use the same chocolate-brown pencil base and then switch up the coloured shadows you set with. I hate to break the illusion, but smokey eyes are pretty much the same shape, different colours.

Step 9: Open and close eyes while giving them one last blend to tie it all together. Photo: Steven Popovich
Step 9: Open and close eyes while giving them one last blend to tie it all together. Photo: Steven Popovich

STEP 9

One last blend. Open and close eyes while giving them one last blend to tie it all together.

TIP! To do eyes first or not to do eyes first? That is the question! Truth be told, there is no right or wrong here. They both have their advantages.

I prefer spending a moment getting my skin polished and perfected as it makes me feel so much more confident, I find the same thing with my clients – once our skin looks good, we feel good.

Having your foundation done first also means you have something to blend your eye makeup into, so it can look more finessed as a completed look. Doing your eyes first means you can go in balls to the wall with your eye makeup, and then clean up any remnants of your work after.

Products Used In Step By Step
MAC Prep + Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base, Tom Ford High Definition Eye Liner in Ebony, Tom Ford Smokey Eye Brush 14, MAC 217 Brush, MAC Extra Dimension Eye Shadow in Fathoms Deep, MAC Eye Shadow in I’m Into It

Making It Up, New Holland Publishers RRP $49.99 available from all good book retailers or online www.newhollandpublishers.com

Making It Up, New Holland Publishers RRP $49.99 available from all good book retailers or online www.newhollandpublishers.com. Photo: Steven Popovich
Making It Up, New Holland Publishers RRP $49.99 available from all good book retailers or online www.newhollandpublishers.com. Photo: Steven Popovich

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