Eye makeup can be a great way to add some color to your outfit or mix up your personal style. It can significantly enhance the beauty of your eyes and be a fun way to express your personality. But it can be difficult to know where to start if you’ve never tried to use eye makeup before. For those of you who are just starting out in the realm of eye makeup, this article will give you some basic instructions to start with.
Step 1: Primer
The first aspect of eye makeup that you should familiarize yourself with is primer. Primer is a first coat cream that you should apply to your eyelids before applying any colored makeup. Primer creates a smooth surface for the makeup to stick to and will help your eye shadow and liner to stay on longer. Simply apply a thin layer of primer to your eyelids and wait for it to dry before continuing.
Eye Shadow
The next step to great eye makeup is eye shadow. These are powdered colors that you will apply to your eyelid with small brushes to enhance and highlight the shape of your eyes. Once you have the basics down you can experiment with different colors that compliment your eye color or your outfit, but try to begin with basic neutral tones until you’re used to the process.
You will typically use three colors for eye shadowing. One color should be darker than your skin color, one that is similar to the shade of your skin, and one that is lighter than your skin tone.
The darker color should be applied in the eyelid crease and toward the edge of your lid farthest from your nose. The mid-tone color should be applied across the eyelid mostly in the center. The highlighting tone can then be applied close to your tear duct and up over the top of the eyelid.
Once you’ve used flatter brushes to apply these colors, you can use a shorter, fluffy brush to blend them together.
Eye Liner
Once you’ve applied all your eyeshadow colors and blended them how you like, you are ready to apply some eye liner. This will usually be dark brown or black, but as you get more comfortable with eye makeup you can try experimenting with brighter colors.
While there are many approaches to eyeliner, the best place to start is to apply the liner along the entirety of your upper lashes and just the last half of your bottom lashes so the two lines meet at the edge of your eye. If you feel like making your lashes pop even more you can later add some mascara as well.