Applying eyeshadow can be daunting, especially if you’re a beginner. With the wrong technique, an eyeshadow can ruin your whole look. Don’t worry though, you’ve got us. We’ll help you slay your eye looks this festive season! These are all the eyeshadow application tips for beginners and suggestions of eye makeup products that you need to know to get started!
Step-By-Step Guide To Apply Eyeshadow
Step-By-Step Eyeshadow Application Guide For Beginners
No need for you to scour through a number of tutorials on how to apply eyeshadow, for we’ve got everything right here for you! So follow these steps and learn to apply eyeshadow like a total pro!
Step 1: Learn The Jargon
Understanding all the basics makes decoding any eyeshadow application guide easier. Eyeshadow is applied to various parts of your eyes, so you need to know what lid, corner, crease and brow bone means.
Lid: Refers to your eyelid area. You usually place one base color all over your eyelids.
Crease: Is the part (crease) of your eye that folds when your eyes are open. A darker colour is used to blend into your crease.
Corner: This is the outer corner of your eyes, where you would usually concentrate the eyeshadow.
Inner corner: Your inner corner is your tear duct area, the part where your eye liner usually clumps. This is the area of your eyes you highlight with some shimmery shadow.
Brow Bone: Your brow bone is the bone under the arch of your brow. A matte, white or skin toned shadow is usually placed under your brow bone.
Also Read Best Eye Makeup Tips For Brown Eyes
Step 2: Know Your Brushes
Before we reach the section about ‘how to apply eyeshadow’, you first need to know all the different kinds of brushes! The brush you apply eyeshadow with determines the kind of look you’ll get. The very basic brushes you need to start with are a blending brush, a pencil brush, and a flat shader brush.
POPxo Recommends: Blending Brushes are used for blending your eyeshadow on your eyelid and crease. Buy these cult favorite blending brushes:
- Sigma E40 tapered blending brush (Rs 998) — great for overall blending of your eyeshadows,
- Sigma E38 diffused crease brush (Rs 998) used for blending shadows into your crease
- M.A.C Tapered Blending brush (Rs 2,800) — they are all great for a seamless wash of colour on your eyes!
- A Flat Shader Brush is used to pack on pigment on your lids. This Colorbar Brush (Rs 250) is an absolutely great budget buy! If you want to splurge, check out the Sigma E60 Large Shader Brush (Rs 952)
- A Pencil Brush is used to concentrate colour in your inner corner, crease and lower lashline. It gives a precise application of eyeshadow. We love the PAC Pencil Brush (Rs 335)
Step 3: Understand Your Eye Shape
You need to know your eye shape before you begin with the ever elusive question of ‘how to apply eyeshadow’. The most common eye shapes are round eyes, almond eyes, upturned eyes and hooded eyes. Eyeshadow is applied differently to flatter each of these eye shapes. Here is how you can determine yours:
Monolid eyes: Monolids are defined by the absence of a crease in your eyelids.
Round eyes: Your eyes are round if you have a visible crease in your eyelids and the irises are surrounded by just a bit of white, disconnecting them from the top and bottom lids.
Almond eyes: Almond eyes are characterised by a visible crease in the eyelid. Unlike round eyes, the irises touch both the bottom and top of the eyelid.
Downturned eyes: Downturned eyes are simply known by a discernible downturn at the corner of the eyes.
Upturned eyes: Upturned eyes are known by a slight upward flick at the outer corners of the eyes.
Hooded eyes: If the crease in your eyes is hidden underneath a flap of skin, then you have hooded eyes.
You can also take the help of the following image to check out your eye shape!
Image link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BThVxWEAMtb/?utm_source=ig_embed
Step 4: Observe Your Eye Colour
Now that you’ve understood the shape of your eyes, the next step is to observe the colour of your eyes, and then actively look for shades that complement and bring out that colour. Be it black, brown, green, blue, grey, honey, or hazle, there is a particular eyeshadow palette that will perfectly complement your eyes!
Step 5: Choose The Right Shades For Your Eye Colour
The most important step of eyeshadow application for beginners is about choosing your eyeshadow based on the colour of your eyes.Brown and black eyes are the easiest to use eyeshadows with.
Almost any shade you pick will look great! If you have blue eyes, pick earthy tones like coral, pink, purple. Green eyes are highlighted best with earthy browns, reds and orange hues. Hazel eyes look great with neutral browns and bluish hues.
POPxo Recommends:
- These Freshlook lenses in the shade Hazel (Rs 900). They look amazing on Indian skin tones.
- This Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette (Rs 3,221) it’s a cult favorite eyeshadow palette that has a mix of warm cranberry brown hues that work well with a diversity of skin tones.
- This Morphe 35W Palette (Rs 1,368) — it’s perfect if you want just one palette. It has 35 matte and shimmer shadows in every colour you’d ever need to create natural or sultry and even smokey eye looks!
Step 6: Ready Your Eyes
Now that you’ve acquainted yourself with all the basics, the next step is to prep your eyes for eyeshadow. Our eyeshadow application guide begins with first cleaning the area around your eyes, and then putting on copious amount of eye cream and moisturiser.
Also Read Best Mascara For Brides
Step 7: Don’t Skip The Primer
Applying a primer on your lids will not only extend the wear time of your eyeshadows but also bring out the colours and pigments in the shadows. It will give you a brighter, smoother formula to work with.
POPxo Recommends: Milani Eyeshadow Primer (Rs 870) it’s an absolute must-have.
Step 8: Start At The Eyelid
Start your eyeshadow by starting on the eyelid using a flat eyeshadow brush. Use a sweeping, patting motion to evenly apply the colour across the lid. We suggest you start with the lighter shades in your palette as they would make the eyelid look more prominent.
Step 9: Follow With Crease
Now that you’re done with your lids, start with crease. Now, pick a darker shade to define the shape of your eyes. You can go for darker shades like blacks, browns, deep greys, plum, dark purple, etc.
Start at the outer corner of your eye and blend it through the lid using a fluffy blending brush. Do this in a to and fro motion. Highlight the brow bone in either frosty or shimmery shades.
Step 10: Be Patient, And Don’t Skip The Blending
You need to be patient and blend blend blend! This is the most important step in any eyeshadow look, this will give you those youtube tutorial inspired eye looks. The more you blend, the more seamless your eyeshadow will look. Also read best gel eyeliners
Apply Eyeshadow First Or Eyeshadow Last?
Much like applying concealer, there are no set rules to whether you need to apply your eyeshadow before the rest of your makeup or after. You can go both ways, really. It depends on your personal preference.
If you like to do your eye makeup last, just place some loose powder under your eyes (bake your under eye area, basically) to catch any fallout. You can use a fluffy brush and dust off the excess.
POPxo Recommends: A good setting powder is a must-have if you want crease-free skin. Buy this L.A Girl HD Pro Setting Powder (Rs 1000) and this Wet n Wild Tapered Brush (Rs 599) was designed to sweep off that excess powder from your eyes!
Some Quick Eyeshadow Application Tips To Perfect That Look!
Now that we’ve taught you about all the basics you need to know, here are some few eyeshadow application techniques that you can have up your sleeve to perfect that eyeshadow look!
- Use a pencil brush to define your crease, and then blend it with the rest of the makeup using a fluffy blush.
- You can use cream-based eyeshadow to form a base for your powder eyeshadow to nicely settle in.
- Follow your crease line to create a eyeshadow look that will suit your eye shape best.
- Reserve bright colours for the centre of your lower lash line, this will give you more room to blend.
- If you want a richer pigment out of your eyeshadow, then simply spritz some water on your brush before applying it on your lid!
- Now that you’ve got your basics right, all those festive makeup tutorials will be easier than you think!
Psst: Check out this page on Instagram for some serious eye-inspo!
This story was updated in March 2019.