A makeup kit is not just for makeup artists, it’s for anyone who uses makeup and loves it. These are the very basics you need to start a kit that you can work with and really love. This is series and today we start with eyes.
Brushes. Yes, your fingers are wonderful tools, but those crappy little sponge applicator’s are not. Sorry, I’ve tried, but they make a mess, tend to get overloaded with shadow to the point you’re more likely to put on too much and not be able to blend it off. Then, you either go out looking like a ten cent ho, or wiping if all off and feeling like a failure. Go to YouTube, find someone who shows you eyeshadow techniques you can relate to with colors you love. Watch the video over and over.
If you don’t wear a lot of shadow now, go for the neutral colors, the ones that look good on everyone. Darker skinned women are lucky. They can take a lot more color and the dark and deep shades I adore. However, if you have a darker complexion, African, or Mediterranean, you will have to be very careful to use colors that are darker than your skin tone, and highlights just barely lighter, or you can look ashy. Still better than me and my ability to put on super bright colors that are too much for my small face and frame. I love color. I just wear gloss those days.
I digress. Pick up some decent brushes. Decent does not mean spend a mint at the cosmetics counters in the mall. For your eyes, you need three brushes, all affordable. Revlon makes an eye shadow brush that even the pros love. It’s sturdy, soft and works. You can pack on shadow with it, or go with a very light touch and blend it ever so softly onto your lid, for a barely there look. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
You will also need a blending brush. Sephora and Ulta both have blending brushes made by their companies that are at a healthy price point and deliver. Just remember, blending is just that, blending away harsh lines. It should not be done so hard and so long that you blend the shadow off. Light strokes, and small circular motions. Look for a video later today.
Eye liner. I’m going to make this optional. Some people love eyeliner in stick form and that’s fine. You don’t need brush. I find gel liner easier to work with and more forgiving, but we all learned to use a pencil in school. If you go the pencil route, just keep a GOOD sharpener close by and make sure the consistency is so creamy you don’t have any skips. A skip is when the liner hits a line in your lid (which can start in your twenties) and skips over it. Then, you’re going back and that’s when you muck it up.
If you go the pencil route make sure you have Q-Tips handy to smudge it, blend it and play with it. It also fixes mistakes. If you get eyeliner in the wrong spot, wet the edge of a Q-tip with a non oily makeup remover and gently dot and twist over the area you blew it in. The eyeliner should come off easily, and some of your shadow may too come off, just re-apply in that small area and blend, blend, blend.
For your shadows? Pick two colors without sparkle, or shine. Matte is a great place to start. Sparkle comes later. Even if you THINK you know how to put it on, do this. A compact of two neutral colors should do the trick and they are all over the drugstores as well as the cosmetics counters. Tell the person EXACTLY what you are looking for. Don’t let them talk you into a symphony of yummy color. You can always get those later and once you know what you are doing, you won’t make as many mistakes. If you like the Cosmetic Counter Route, a good place to start is, Bobbi Brown. She is the queen of the gorgeous neutral and will offer you a wealth of choices.
One color should be a shade lighter than your skin and the other two to three shades deeper. That’s it. I know, a lot of people use three colors and that’s great, but mastering one color, just one, or two is going to make it much easier in the future. Even if you are a blending of fifty colors Goddess, just work with two for now. The light color goes all over your eyelid. Just the lid, up to the brow bone. Feel your eyelid. Just above the ball is a crease where the ball of the eye curves in to meet the nerves. That’s the crease. The ridge above that, is your brow bone. Right now, everything is going to happen below your brow bone.
The lighter color is just going to meet your brow bone and go all over the lid from the tear-duct area, to the outside of your eye. Look at your eye. Take a pencil and angle it from the outside of your eyeball, to the end of your brow. Any part of the lid that is within that area should be covered in the lighter color.
Easy, right? Look at your eye. You can go out like this. Really. You don’t have to add any other shadow. For many women, this is enough. Try it. Just one sweep of color and see how it feels for a day. It’s one day of your life.
Okay, you want more. See that crease? Take your brush and open your eye a little. The goal here is to get the color along the crease starting above your pupil, going to the imaginary line we spoke about that goes from the end of your eye, to you brow. No higher than the crease.
Do you have a dark sweep of color along the crease? Good. If not, wipe it off and start again. Put some good music on. Anyone can learn to do this. Yes, I said anyone. I’ve known people with prosthetic limbs who have mastered this, you can too.
Now, you can stop and blend, or take it a step further. Go along that imaginary line to the end of your eye. You made a V. See it? You can go to the bottom, or top of the eyeball with this. Make it dark, so you can really see it. That sideways V is going to open your eyes and make them stand out.
Got it? congrats!!! You’re not done. A big streak of dark color is no really flattering to most woman. Take that blending brush and with the most gentle of gentle strokes, blend the edges of the colors together. Again, there will be a link up on my YouTube channel later today.
Once it’s blended and there are no harsh lines, stand back and admire your work. Pretty? Eye catching without being risky? That’s the look we’re going for here.
I will talk about liner and mascara in the next installment. For now, do your other eye, slap on some mascara and attack the world. You’re eyes are lovely, without being too much for work. Trust me. Check it throughout the day. If you have oily lids you will need an eye primer and it may scooch around on you. Be prepared to touch up in the bathroom mirror. Not at the lunch table, not with a butter knife. PLEASE!!!
Take a picture of your work. You did great.
