My brown eyed girl...

Ok, so after a flood of responses from yesterday's blog about highlighting and contouring, I was reminded by a few people that I never posted about the golden smokey eye. Whoops!! So sorry! So here it is...

My brown eyed girl. I am a brown eyed girl. I remember in middle school and high school ALL I wanted to have were blue eyes. I contemplated getting contacts just so I could have these coveted blue eyes. SO ridiculous now that I look back. I've come to LOVE my brown eyes. And the gold and green specks inside of them. Which brings me to my point of a golden smokey eye. Usually brown eyes can rock ANY color/color combo of eye shadows. Just because, brown eyes are that awesome. But I was finding when I was doing a smokey eye with grey tones and black tones, it would be cute, but wouldn't exactly highlight the warmth and goldfish tones of my eyes and skin. I still think that the black and grey combination for a typical smokey eye is harsh on blue, green and hazel eyes as well. So, I wanted to share my smokey eye redo. This golden smokey eye can be used on ANY color eye and for any occasion. If you want it darker for your girls night out at the club, add some more black or dark brown in the areas that I talk about in the step by step instructions. If you want it lighter, lighten it up. It's a great everyday look and easy to accomplish! Enjoy!

Step 1: Cleanse, moisturize and use your eye cream. I ranted about this yesterday and I'm hoping that I don't have to mention again why you should do that key trio...every. single. day. Here is my naked eye that I started with!

Here it is! THE naked eye!

Step 2: Add your base shadow. I like to use something called a liquid illuminator or cream shadow. You want something with an eye primer built into it, or use eye primer separately with a neutral/light shadow if you don't have a cream shadow base to work with. The most important thing is to always have something as a base with some kind of eye shadow primer in it. Because other wise your shadows will fall onto your face and crease throughout the day. Add the cream shadow/basic light shadow from the inside of your eye all the way up to your eye brow. 

Liquid illuminator 

Ignore the creepy smile. :-) 

Step 3: Once you've applied that shadow all over your lid and all the way up to your brow line, we are going to add one more layer of highlight. Some people are saying that it's "unnecessary" to do this, or looks juvenile, but I think adding in some extra highlight only makes my eyes pop more. To each their own right?! I am adding a photo below of the two different Mary Kay shadow trios that I'm using for this look. You don't HAVE to use these specific ones, just use similar colors. I also am posting a pic of the brushes that I'm using for this look. Take the flat brush, and dust some of the white/lightest color you have in the corner of your eye and the top edge part of your eye brow. 

Mary Kay @ Play Shadow Trios

LtoR: Flat brush, rounded brush, smudging brush. 

Apply white shadow to inner corner

And to the top edge part of the eye brow

Step 4: GREAT JOB!!! haha. Alright, next step. Find the color, I like the one in the earth tone palette on the edge. Combination of granite/toffee tone. But sparkly! We all know how much I like sparkles. :-) I apply that color all over the lid and up to the crease/pocket. Everyone's crease is different on their face, so saying "apply all the way to the crease" is a bit too general. Look in the mirror and find when you open your eye and look straight on, where your eye socket pocket it. That's where you want to bring this middle color to. And if you make a mistake, NO WORRIES!! Nothing is permanently tattooed onto your eye so relax. 

This is where my eye socket pocket is. Bring the shadow all the way to there. 

Ugh...sorry about the towel. I meant to crop these, But that just takes SO much time!

Step 5: Time for your accent tone. I like to use a mix of the brown and lighter granite color we just used. Just swirl them together and apply to the V on the edge of your eye. pics below show exactly where to apply. This creates some depth in the corner of your eyes. It draws the eye up and gives you a mini eye lift! Just blend in with the rounded brush, like a wind shield wiper, back and forth. Blend those babies together until there aren't any harsh lines of shadow visible. 

Mix the brown and lighter toffee color together. For a softer look. For a darker look, try just the brown. 

Top of the v in the corner of your eye. 

Bring it down to the edge of your eye and sweep across the bottom. 

Deer in headlights much?! Anyway, this kinda shows what the brown looks like once it's been blended.

Step 6: Liner. Liner. Liner. I love eye liner. It brings a sultry look to your eye. I like to use a gel or a liquid liner. The one I'm using today is a gel liner. For the love, DO NOT PULL THE EDGE OF YOUR EYE!!! You are almost guaranteeing yourself to have some wicked bad crows feet. I start at the edge of my eye and work my way in with the liner. And if it goes on too thick, or a little messy, no worries! Just use a q-tip to smudge and move along. 

Mary Kay's gel liner

Outside and work your way in

Pre-smudge. Depends how feisty I'm feeling if I smudge or not! 

Step 7: Time for another layer of awesomeness! This is where the other palette comes in! I like to add a bit of black to the edge to finish the look. Black and grey alone for smokey eyes is too harsh in my opinion, but adding some black to ANY shadow look always works great! Use the smudging brush, get it a little bit wet and swirl around in the black shadow. You're going to add it in the same place as your eye liner and the dark brown V that we talked about above. Again, less is usually more with black. If you make a mistake, you can always tone it down! 

Black, white and grey shadow trio with smudging brush. 

Sweep across the liner and then add to the v on the edge. 

Voila!

Step 8: Ok. so I always always always do my eye make up BEFORE my face make up. It just always looks better at the end. Finishes better. That way if you have any residual shadow that has fallen on the cheek below, you can scrub that off without ruining your perfectly contoured face! :-) AFTER you apply your face make up and set that with a finishing spray or powder, this next step comes in. I like to line the bottom of my lashes with shadow. I never ever line with liner...I think it's way to harsh. Especially for a fairer toned person like myself. I like to dip a liner brush in some water, and swirl it around in the brown and green shadows and line underneath. 

Dip and swirl!

Less is more peeps!

Step 9: Eyebrows! Holy smokes this post is getting long, BUT eyebrows are so so so important. It frames your eye and completes your look. I hate watching women walk around with beautiful eyes and eye make up but then they forget their eyebrows? What???? That's like purchasing a beautiful painting or getting a wonderful print of photography and just hanging it on the wall with tape instead of framing them. Make sense? I like to use a blondie liner (wood pencil liner) but you can always use a hazelnut colored shadow as well. Less is more with this too! Don't over do. 

Blondie wooden eyebrow pencil 

Compare with the pic above! Finishes the look right?

Step 10: LAST STEP!!!! Mascara. Now, not everyone likes mascara. So, that's fine. But, I really think to have your eyes stand out, you need to throw some mascara on those gorgeous lashes and go! I have a 3 step process with lashes. 1. Curl. 2. Primer. 3. Mascara. I like to use the primer because it conditions my lashes, lengthens them and helps my mascara last longer on my lashes and look cleaner. After curling your lashes add a coat or two of the clear lash primer and let set for about 10 seconds. Then...Mascara. Mascara rules are as follows...start from the lash base and shimmy your way up the lashes. This helps separate them and lengthen as you go. Add a few layers and set. 

LtoR: Curler, Ultimate black mascara, MK lash primer

with primer after curling

Finished!!

Enjoy your new look!!!! Spray your face with some finishing spray if you feel like it. Do your hair and hit the road. Enjoy your golden smokey eye!! I would LOVE to hear who tries it and please forward any suggestions to me!!! Practice makes perfect! If you use the right products, you won't need to even think about wearing falsies. Good luck! Enjoy! 

The complete look! Contouring and golden smokey!
 Seriously. Why does every pic I post look like I'm naked?! I'm not. I swear.