Easy black smokey eye

I love a simple smokey eye. It looks fierce and sexy but it’s very easy to do. Like actually easy. Here are my makeup tips for an easy black smokey eye.

easy smokey eye

I love to use a black liner as a base. In this tutorial I used Jane Iredale’s Mystikol in ONYX. It makes this super easy! To bring some light in my inner corner and my lower lashline I used NYX’s Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk. So you only need two products plus mascara and lashes. If you’re using a liner like I do – make sure the liner is matte, otherwise you need it set it with powder so that it doesn’t crease during the day. This particular liner dries to a matte finish so I got away with only using that.

easy smokey eye

I decided that the easiest way to show this is to make two pictorials. So here is the eyes closed version and below you can see how it looks eyes open.

1. Apply primer and set the primer using a powder (unless the primer is already matte).
2. Apply the black liner all over your lid. Blend it using a small dense brush (or your fingers!).
3. You’ll need to pack that color on, so just apply another layer of that black liner and blend that. Here I realized I could do this with my fingers and it actually worked out better than with the brush. So I tapped the liner on with my finger and tapped on the edges of the colour to blend it out.
4. Apply the black liner on your lower lashline. Here the brush is useful. It’s up to you how dark and smoked out you want your lower lashline to be. I left it quite light.
5. Apply the white pencil on your inner corner and on your waterline. Do this if you want your eyes to appear bigger and brighter – if you have big eyes you can go with black instead (that looks awesome too).
6. Finish the look with mascara and lashes.

easy smokey eyeEyes open version is helpful to people with hooded or deep set eyes like me. I always check how my eyeshadow looks eyes open – in the first picture you can see that the color isn’t high enough – it needs to be blended above the hood to balance the eye shape.

black smokey eye with glasses

This is how the makeup looks with glasses. Since the makeup is very ‘out there’ the glasses don’t hide it – they actually kinda finish off the look very nicely. This is by the way me 80% of the time – anytime I’m working. My sight is okay but when I’m reading or working on a computer I get a headache if I don’t wear glasses. I just feel weird taking photos with them. Would you like to see more of the glasses or not? Let me know, I love to get feedback.

jane iredale mystikol onyx

If you’re interested in a review of this particular black liner, check out my January Favorites post.

PRODUCTS
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Jane iredale Mystikol Eyeliner, Onyx
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil, Milk
Purminerals Impact+ Mascara
Ardell Demi Wispies Lashes

Makeup By Me – Classic Smokey Eye

 

I love a classic smokey eye.

A true smokey eye is really almost black and it goes on to the whole lid as well as on the lower lashline. This kind of makeup can look a bit harsh on blue eyes but for brown eyes it looks almost like it was always there. Right? If I had my model’s eyes I’d probably do this makeup every day!  I softened the black/brown shade with a warm orange that brings warmth to the look and also acts as a transition color. Since the eye shadow is mostly matte I paired it with a glossy nude lip.

Isn’t she gorgeous? How do you do a smokey eye?

I did this look at the end of the summer so I couldn’t remember all the products – sorry!

PRODUCTS (or some of them)

Rimmel Lasting Finish Nude Foundation
Benefit Hoola Bronzer

Rimmel Brow This Way Palette in Medium Brown

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Urban Decay Vice4

Jane Iredale Lipgloss in White Tea*

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