Smokey eyes must be one of my most requested looks when doing bridal make-up but the classic smokey eye doesn’t suit everyone, sometimes it can be too heavy for small or deep set eyes. There are a few different ways to adjust a smokey eye so that it can suit most eye shapes and that’s through correct highlighting and shading. The post ‘highlighting and shading the eyes’ goes through the basics on where to apply eyeshadow, the look above has been built on those basics, I’ve swept a MAC Teal Pigment into the socket line and further intensified the look with a black eyeshadow in the outer corner of the eye which then blends deep into the socket line turning the look more smokey. The highlighting and shading of this smokey eye can be adjusted to suit each particular eye shape by using a little less for small eyes and more for bigger eyes.
This smokey eye has less highlighting and more shading with the entire lid filled in with black eyeshadow, this gives it a much heavier smokey look, the socket line has a subtle sweep of colour to enhance the darkness and bring out the eyes a little. These types of looks are better for bigger eyes as they can ‘close up’ smaller eyes and further ‘push back’ deep set eyes.
Black eyeshadow can be quite tricky to blend so if you are attempting to do it yourself and are not too confident with blending then start off applying your chosen colour (if using colour) and then mix the blacks into the colour a little at a time so you slowly build up the intensity, the key is to not blend up too high, keep sweeping the brush over where you want the smokiness to be when blending and don’t sweep any higher. Whether you are adding in colour or not a helpful tip is to apply the black with a pressing motion to first get the colour on where you want it then follow through with a clean brush to soften and blend the edges. The step by step tutorial – classic smokey eyes will show you how to apply a basic smokey eye make-up in more detail.
Smokey eye make-up looks great when highlighted and shaded to suit each individual eye shape and can really bring out the colours in the eyes, when applied correctly it can enhance different coloured eyeshadows in the mix and really define the eyes (even small eyes). If you adjust the amount of black eyeshadow you apply then you can create different levels and styles of smokiness that can range from quite natural through to very dramatic, this is also where your skills and creativity as a make-up artist can start to come into play.