As a beauty enthusiast, I can’t deny the kind of oomph eye makeup can add to your regular routine. But as a person who can never get her eyeliner to match, any kind of eye makeup (beyond mascara) has me intimidated. And if I’m being completely honest, I’m also really lazy. So if you ask me to spend 20 minutes blending my eyeshadow, I’m probably not going to do it. I spent a good part of 2019 trying to up my eye makeup skills, finding right eye makeup and learning easy shortcuts to acing a great eye make up look in just 5 minutes. I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way and I thought I’d share them with you today.
Before we get into tips and tricks, these are the only tools you’re going to need
A fluffy eyeshadow blending brush
This brush is the most versatile eye makeup tool you can purchase, so make sure you get a good one. I use it to set my eyelids with loose powder and to blend out eyeshadow. This brush makes it easy to blend any kind of colour and pigment you apply to your lashes.
PAC Eyeshadow Brush -104 (Rs 585)
A crease brush
This brush is essential if you plan to do a few complicated eye makeup looks that require you to define your crease. It concentrates the application and deposits more pigment.
PROARTE Crease Marking Blender Brush, Black (Rs 285)
A smudger brush
This brush is a small, dense brush and it’s used to smudge shadow or liner along your upper and lower lash line.
PROARTE Smudging Smokey Liner Brush (Rs 290)
An eyeshadow palette
Depending on the kind of look you want to recreate, I recommend investing in a good quality eyeshadow palette. Look for one that has a mix of mattes, shimmers and glitters.
SUGAR Cosmetics Blend The Rules Eyeshadow Palette – Fantasy (Rs 1,199), Maybelline New York Lemonade Craze Eye Shadow Palette (Rs 812), & Manish Malhotra 9 In 1 Eyeshadow Palette – Reverie
If you’re looking for high-quality, affordable makeup brushes, PAC and Pro-Arte are the brands I would recommend.
13 Of The Best Eye Makeup Tips
Don’t let eye makeup intimidate you anymore!
Pick the right tools
You don’t need a million brushes to do your eye makeup. Just the tools we mentioned above are good enough to get you started. A fluffy brush is your best friend, it does everything.
Do your eye makeup first
If you’re using dark eyeshadows, you will face a lot of fallout on your under-eye area. This can mess up your makeup. So it’s best to start with your eyeshadow and once it’s done, wipe your under-eye area with some micellar water and then do the rest of your makeup. This way, you can even fix the unblended edges.
Hold your brushes away from the tip
When you’re applying eyeshadow, you want to hold the brush away from the tip – it will make sure you don’t blend too hard. It will also help diffuse shadows better. May seem counter-intuitive to do this, but trust me this tip changed the way my eye makeup looked.
Eyeshadow primer is NOT essential
I know the beauty industry will make you feel like you need a million products to apply to your eyelid to make your eye makeup last longer. But I’m here to tell you that you can totally skip the eyeshadow primer.
Choose your colours based on your skin tone
I fall under the light-medium skin tone category BUT I have extremely dark under-eye bags. While I love a brown smokey eye, it just doesn’t work for me. Any kind of dark brown or black shadow makes my eyes look muddy and tired and it actually makes me look older. I’ve started applying rosy and coral eyeshadows to make my eyes look brighter. Monotone eye makeup is fresh, bubbly and very trendy.
Matte over shimmers
If you’re looking to create a casual, day time eye makeup look, my advice would be to use matte shadows. Unless it’s a day wedding of course, then you can go all out with shimmer shadows.
Amplify that pigment
Have some shimmer eyeshadows that don’t deliver any colour to your eyelids? I have an easy trick for you. Take the eyeshadow on your brush and mist it with a little setting spray or rose water. Now, apply this onto your eyelid and watch that pigment pop!
Concealer is your best friend
Concealer is that one multi-functional product in your kit that will mask dark circles, discolouration on your eyelids and any blemishes. To brighten up your eyes, use a concealer that is one shade lighter than your skin tone.
Master the monotone
Who says you need a million colours to slay an eye makeup look? A monotone eye makeup look requires barely 3 eyeshadows and takes you no longer than 5 mins to create. Easy, chic and fabulous. Here’s how you can create the look.
Step 1: Set your eyelids with a neutral-toned eyeshadow.
Step 2: Pick 2 eye shadows from the same colour family. I’ve used a pink and a mauve for this look. Using the tapered blending brush, apply the deeper colour to your crease. Blend using the fluffy brush.
Step 3: Use your fingers and roughly apply the brighter eyeshadow all over your eyelid (I used a rosy pink shadow here) and blend out any harsh edges with your fluffy blending brush.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 & 3 till you’re satisfied with the look.
Step 5: (Optional) Apply some shimmer to the inner corner of your eye. I prefer a matte eye makeup look so I skipped this step.
That’s it. That’s your monotone makeup look. You can choose from a wide variety of colours and create a new look every day.
Use a colour corrector
If you have very dark under eyes, your eye makeup will look best if you colour correct before concealing. The colour corrector will help neutralise any darkness and make the skin under your eyes appear the same colour as the rest of your face.
Don’t be afraid to experiment
When it comes to eye makeup, I’m a firm believer of experimenting – with colour, texture and even other products. I’ve used a few liquid lipsticks as eyeliner, even some liquid eyeshadows to create stand-out beauty looks and even convinced the rest of my team to do the same. Check it out!
Here are some liquid lipsticks that you can try
Wing it right
To make sure your wings match, draw a thin line of normal eyeliner first. Now, hold the tip of your eyeliner towards the end of your eyebrow and trace out the wing. Now look straight into the mirror and connect the wing to your eyeliner.
Make the most of your mascara
A lot of us use mascara every day, but how many of you actually use it right? Some of us just apply mascara to the tip of our eyelashes and often complaint that we’ve not found ‘the one’. Apply mascara from the base of your eyelids all the way to the tip. This way, you can thicken your lashes and lengthen them at the same time and completely skip having to apply false eyelashes.
Tip: Hold the mascara between your thumb and index finger, place the wand at the base of your eyelashes. Blink down on the brush and roll the mascara upwards. This way, you end up coating every lash from base to tip!
Use these tips before doing your makeup the next time and we bet you’re going to nail the look!
All Images: Writer’s own
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