Make-up artist Romani Saunders shows Jess Gray how to get that smokey effect in her eyes.
Whether splashed all over your favourite magazines pages or as worn by the well groomed receptionist in your office, smokey eyes are everywhere.
For those who want chapter and verse, smokey eye is defined as ‘a dramatic style of eye make-up that gives the eyes a dark, smudgy appearance.’
So there you go: dark, smudgy, and in my opinion, very sexy-looking eyes.
Once again, I am left pondering how to achieve the look I’m looking for. I’ve dabbled with the whole winged eyeliner thing (didn’t go well, to say the very least), and I have tried to mess about with dark eye shadows. But every time I try to give myself those sultry, smokey eyes… I end up looking like I have just gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
Assuming I am not the only one in this predicament, I asked East London makeup artist Romani Saunders (20) to tell is how to do it right. And here are the five tip-top tips she shared with me:
- Blend, blend, blend! Blending is the VERY simple and oh so easy art of mixing and rubbing colours or pieces of make-up so that they combine together and fade out. You can purchase a fluffy blending brush to smooth in the colour you have just applied to your eyelid so it doesn’t look too harsh. Do not ever just apply your eyeshadow and leave it sitting there like a lemon. Rubbing it in (blending) will make the difference between a black eye and a beautiful smokey one.
- Always make sure your blending brush is clean, so that previous make-up colours aren’t being transferred on to your new make-up look.
- Use a Mac paint pot called Painterly as a primer (the foundation which allows make-up to go on smoother and last longer). This is a great base for oily eye lids which increases make-up’s staying power and avoids creasing.
- Use a powder highlighter or even a matte white eyeshadow to highlight the inner corners of the eye and the brow bone: this technique makes them pop so much more.
- If you are going to do really dark smokey eyes or you are planning to use loose powder eyeshadow (which is generally more messy), always do your eye make-up before any other make-up on the face; otherwise you will end up with small amounts of product falling down the face, resulting in streaks and smudging.
Do they work, these tips? Well this (see below) is what Romani’s techniques did for me when she applied them to my face.
To see more examples of Romani’s work check out her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RomaniSaundersMakeup