A Sultry Smoky Saturday-Night Eye
Before and after photo of a sultry smoky eye. Photo: Ben Ritter
For the past few years, red lipstick has been the go-to evening accessory. Need to spice up your look? Shake up your makeup game? Just throw on a red lip! But we’re making a plea to bring back the eye—the sultry, smoky, outfit-making eye.
Here it’s paired with a pretty rose blush and nude matte lipstick to keep all the focus right up top. How to get the look, below.
Related: How To Look Like a Hollywood Starlet
Step 1
Use a brush to apply a small amount of corrector followed by concealer underneath the eye, to both correct any darkness and brighten up the area. Gently blend with your ring finger.
MAC Studio Finish Skin Corrector ($13)
Revlon Photoready Concealer ($10)
bareMinerals Correcting Concealer ($20)
Step 2
Use your fingers to blend a medium coverage foundation into the skin. Many women are darker on their chin and forehead and lighter on their cheeks and nose. Mixing two foundations—one that matches the lighter area and another that matches the darker skin—will create the right shade.
Clinique SuperBalanced Makeup ($23)
Givenchy Photo Perfexion Foundation($48)
Step 2
Define brows using a brow brush and a brow shadow that matches the natural color of your brows. Brush the brows up and over to define the shape of your brows.
Step 4
Sweep an ivory shadow on lids from the lashline to the crease. Layer a nude/mauve shadow to create depth from the lashline to the crease. Add a soft pink shimmer over the shadows, particularly in the inner corner of the eye, for a touch of sparkle creating a soft smoky eye.
Step 5
Use a black pencil liner to draw all the way across the upper and lower lashline from the outer to the inner corner.
Sonia Kashuk Eye Definer Pencil ($6)
NARS eyeliner pencil ($23)
Related: How To Get a Sophisticated Glow
Step 6
On the top lashline, apply black gel liner with an ultra-fine eyeliner brush in smooth long strokes, from the inner corner across the upper lash line making the liner wider as you go across. To create the wing, continue the line on the upper lid so it goes up and out past the outer corner of the eye, tapering to a soft point. Make sure the two sides match in length.
Sonia Kashuk Dramtically Defining Long Wear Gel Eyeliner ($9)
MAC Fluidline ($16)
Step 7
Layer black powder shadow over your eyeliner for a soft, smudged effect.
Step 8
Apply three coats of black volumizing mascara.
CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara ($6)
Le Volume de Chanel ($30)
Step 9
For a pretty flush, sweep a matte rose-colored blush on the apples of the cheeks and blend upwards.
Revlon Powder Blush ($9)
MAC Powder Blush ($22)
Step 10
Apply a matte lipstick in a pale mauve shade that’s a little bit lighter than your natural lip color.
NARS Pure Matte Lipstick ($26) NYX Matte Lipstick ($6)
