Valentine Look - Black Smokey Eye & Brief product reviews

I'm back with another eye tutorial! This time I did not have enough time to take pictures of each step like I did in my last eye makeup tutorial but this one is so simple, I promise!

"Smokey eye" is a type of technique you use to apply eyeshadow. You can use any colours you like and still have a smokey eye effect. There are two smokey eye techniques, I demonstrated the first type in my Simple Soft Neutral Smokey Eye For Hooded/Asian Eyes post, where you smoke-out your outer corner of your eyes (outer V). Today I will show you the second way of creating a smokey eye. Keep reading if you like what you see =]

You can see in the picture above that instead of smoking out the outer V of your eyes, we are applying all the colours along the entire lid. You will need three shades, preferably matte to satin finish because it shows up better in pictures. Here I will be using a matte to satin light brown (something close to your skin colour; this will be used for blending), a matte medium dark brown (to help transition the black that will be used; this will give a nice gradient effect) and last colour is a matte black. All the colours I used was from the awesome NYX-10 Colour Eyeshadow Palette in Champagne & Caviar (ESP10C03).

*Click image to enlarge*
NYX-10 Colour Eyeshadow Palette in Champagne & Caviar (ESP10C03)
Thank you Raluca from http://ralucasbeautyandstyle.blogspot.com/ for including this awesome palette in our swap! ^^ s2
Great palette, super pigmented, softer consistency in comparison to their single eyeshadow. Great compacted and sleek design. Love that it includes many matte shadows in one palette. Comes with a great sized mirror. Affordable price.
Only down side is that some colours are very similar to each other.

Step 1:
Prime your eyelids with your favourite primer.
Here I used Motives Cosmetic by Loren Ridinger's Eye Base with my ring finger (this is the best stuff ever! Feels like cream but when you apply it on your skin it instantly turns into powder! I've never felt anything like this!). Best for those who have oily eyelids, specially those who have SUPERRRR oily lids. Gives you a wash of colour, great for those who have darker lids, you can apply this, your liner, mascara and u can run out the doors looking refreshed and awake! The only down side is that you need a very small amount of this (lightly tap it and that's ALREADY enough for both eyes) so you might accidentally go over board with this primer and you probably won't ever get to finish this LOL.

Motives Cosmetic's Eye base

Step 2:
With a blending brush, apply a light brown (#1 from NYX palette) onto the crease and slightly blend it upward. This will mark the area where your darker colours should not pass and will be using this same colour for blending.
 *Note to those who have hooded eyes or double eyelid like I do. Apply this colour with your eyes open so that you know how far up we need to apply your dark colours and have it still visible after opening your eyes*

Step 3:
With a flat shadow brush, apply a dark brown (#2 from NYX palette) on your entire eyelid from lashline to the crease area, not passing the colour we just applied. Also apply this dark brown on your entire bottom lash line.

Step 4:
Slightly blend the two browns so that the edges have a nice gradient rather than a harsh line

Step 5:
With the other side of the same flat shadow brush, apply a matte black eyeshadow (#3 from NYX palette) to your lid closest to your lash line and blend upward so create that gradient effect going from black to dark brown to light brown.

Step 6:
Keep layering your colours for a more intense look, remember to blend Blend BLEND!!!!

Step 7:
Apply your favourite highlighting colour to your inner corner of your eye and underneath your brow bone. I used a blend of #4 and #5 from the NYX palette.


Step 8:
Line your upper lash line with your favourite gel liner or liquid liner. Here I used Maybelline Gel Liner.

 Love this creamy and pigmented gel liner BUT I find that it does not stay on top on my NYX eyeshadow ><. It came right off when I tried to apply my false lashes. I find that it works great when I use minimum eyeshadow beneath it.
I have to use it more before I let you guys know on it's lasting power.

Step 9:
Curl your lashes. With a pencil liner, tight-line your upper lash line and line your bottom waterline.

Step 10:
Add a pair of wispy false lashes to your top lash line and apply mascara to your bottom lash line.

Step 11:
Fill in your brows. I couldn't find my brow pencil so I just used an eye liner =P ooppsyy. I could have used the same matte black eyeshadow I used on my eyes but I'm to using pencils that's why the first thing I thought of as an alternative was a liner lol!!

Sephora Flashy Liner Waterproof in Black - Thank you Jessy from http://threenothing.blogspot.com/
Maybelline Define-A-Line eye liner in Black
Lancome L'Extreme Mascara

Thank you Jen from http://www.withlovejen.com/ for including this in my xmas package!

The eyes are done!!! Go on and finish your face makeup!! I will be listing the products I've used on my face below.

Without flash
*Click image to enlarge it*

With flash
*Click image to enlarge it*

Products I used on my face:

MAC Pro Longwear Foundation in NC 35 www.maccosmetics.comThank you Raluca from http://ralucasbeautyandstyle.blogspot.com/ for including this in our swap! s2!
Love this foundation! It is light but yet it can provide full coverage! I don't have to use concealer when I'm using this. It gives you a nice finish but it is best to apply a primer before hand and set with a powder to fill in some pores and fine lines. One down side to this is that it is not suitable for flash photography. Took me a while to adjust my lighting so that it wouldn't create a white cast on my face in the pictures! ><

Clinique Setting Powder in 02 Transperency to set my liquid foundation
Affordable, you get a LOT of products in here. Works great to set foundation making it last longer but I think I prefer my Makeup Forever HD setting powder because it gives a nicer finish.

NARS DANMARI Blush palette: Love this palette because it is soo handy (comes with a bronzer, a highlighter and 4 blushes) but I wish the colours were more pigmented (all the colours except Desire-bright pink).
I rather use my Benefit Hoola Bronzer and my Motives Blush in Naughty.
My favourite colour from the Danmari palette would have to be Desire (bright pink). I'm surprised at how nice and natural this pink really is. At first I was afraid to use it because it was so BRIGHT but now I love it!. It's the most pigmented blush on the palette but you can make it as sheer or as bright pink as you wish!
I Used Casino Bronzer to contour, not pigmented at all so it is great for a natural look
I used Orgasm mixed with Desire blush on my cheeks

Motives Cosmetics by Loren Ridinger 10 Years Younger Makeup Setting Spray
Used this to set my powders and to give my skin a silky-looking finish with a healthy glow (this is a natural glow, does not contain shimmers/sparkles)!!
Love this Stuff! Better than my Urban Decay all Nighter Setting Spray.

 Yves Rocher - Sheer and Shine Lipstick in Gelee Litchi
Picture taken from http://www.yvesrocher.ca/control/makeup/lip-gloss/sheer-and-shine-lipstick/?cmSrc=Category
Thank you Raluca from http://ralucasbeautyandstyle.blogspot.com/ for including this in our swap!
Love this lipstick! It's sheer but the colour stays on for a long time! 

 

Wish you all have a wonderful V-day with you Mr. and Ms. or with you friends and family! Will hopefully post a few more V-day related posts in the future. Thank you all for supporting me this entire time. I'm always happy and excited to read your comments!

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Hope you enjoy this makeup look and my brief review on each product (knowing myself, I feel like once I posted something on my blog I don't feel like posting again that's why I included some of my reviews beneath each product because I probably won't be blogging about the same product in the future unless it's AWESOME. If you want a full on review/demo of certain products, feel free to leave them on the comments below but you know how slow I am with that because I want to really test it out rather than just giving your my first opinions =P

Keep a smile on! =)
**Alx**