The Makeup Box

[Requested] The Black-and-White: Soft gray-scale smoke with graphic Black and White Liquid Liner

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This is a simple white-and-black smoky eye with a more dramatic graphic liner twist. The eyeshadow isn’t hard to do, and is something that you can easily wear out, but the liquid liner is slightly trickier and it’s also not always hard to locate a very strongly pigmented white liquid liner, so it’s optional whether you want to follow the look exactly or just keep it simple and either skip the liquid liner, or only do the black.

For a basic liner application guide, look here.

The same rules apply when you are applying liquid and gels/creams. 

Products used:

• 88 Warm palette (3 shades used; matte white, black, and a deep metallic grey)
• Lime Crime Uniliners in Quill (black) and Lunar Sea (matte white)
• Black mascara (L’oreal Voluminous Carbon Black)
• White eye pencil (Revlon Khol pencil in White)

If you’re looking for budget white liquid liners, Prestige used to have one, but I am not sure if it is still available. Unfortunately, most of the good matte whites I know are from more expensive brands like Illamasqua, Stila and Lime Crime. 

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Soft Duochrome Violet:  Quickly transform your neutral day look into a glam evening look!

Great for:

• Those who work where makeup needs to be subtle
• Most eye colors since it’s a blend of so many tones
• Monolids and regular lids
• Pretty much any skintone

Note: If you have very pale or dark skin, you may need to lighten or deepen the brown shades a bit.

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FAVORITE PARTY LOOKS

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Face it. This is the only time of the year most of us are likely to get away with full-on makeup on the eyes AND lips. 

Here are some of my favorites!

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1. Smoky matte brown eyes and coral lips

This looks festive and so pretty on so many skin tones. Coral is bright and cheery, but doesn’t look as heavy as a full-on red, so it still looks fresh when paired with a heavier eye. 

2. STRONG wash of deep jewel-tone shadow on the lids

Sometimes keeping the whole face quite soft and neutral can bring out the drama of a strong eyeshadow even more. If you’re attracted to all those bright purples, fuchsias, blues, and teals popping up in the holiday palettes, wearing a single shade to maximum intensity as a smoky eye is the easiest way to get into it this time of year. Just make sure you line and mascara so your lashes don’t disappear, and feel free to experiment and bring the color up as high as you dare.

Keep your hair and outfit simple, and you absolutely DON’T have to match your shadow to your dress. This looks sooo fierce when a girl’s wearing all-black or all-white and her lids are this deep jewel-toned violet or sapphire-blue.

3. Primrose pink on the lips

Take a cue from Natalie Portman and throw a little warmth into your fuchsia! It’s not quite as electric as a very blue-based pink, and works for most skintones. 

Try MAC Lickable lipstick if you have lighter skin and Speak Louder if you have a deeper skin tone!

4. Drama Queen

Color on the lips AND eyes. There ARE no rules but it tends to be more flattering if you keep one feature bright and punchy (e.g. coral on the lips), and one feature a deeper jewel tone (navy, dark hunter-green, etc) instead of all bright and electric as well. Feel free to reverse it and go deep and dramatic on the lips, bright and punchy on the lids!

(I definitely don’t recommend a strong bright blush on TOP of all this though.)

Blue-Tipped Winged Eyes

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Here’s a super-quick club-friendly eye that only requires 3 products and about 5 minutes to do.

You’ll need:

• Black liner
• A bright/strong colored shadow (I chose a matte blue from the Original 88 Palette)
• Mascara or flash lashes

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Step 1: First smear black liner all over the lids and along the lower lash line.

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Step 2: Use your finger tip to just smooth out the edges and fade the black out. 

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Step 3: Using a flat brush for control, apply the colored shadow along the entire lower line outwards into a wing, and then double back to the upper lid, along the socket line, so the blue sort of “wraps” around the outer corner of the black pencil. 

Then just apply mascara and that’s ALL you need.

Twilight Fae: Dramatic Colorful Eyes with a touch of Sparkle

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For those of you craving some excitement for Summer nights, here’s a colorful and dramatic smoky eye which is actually pretty easy to create. To tone it down for day, just keep the shadow within the socket area instead of blending it out and up as far as I did.

There were 3 main products I used:

• Black kajal (any very creamy and smudgy black cream shadow or pencil will work)
• Translucent green sparkle (I used a discontinued mica from TKB called Starlight Green, which has been replaced with Starbright Green. The Body Shop also has a single shadow highlight #08 which is exactly the same thing but in pressed form.)
• Pink/purple duochrome with blue sheen (I Nuovi Amethyst dust; this is like a loose version of MAC Stars n Rockets shadow.)

And yes, these swatches above look NOTHING like how they appear on my lids, but that’s why it’s so fun working with duochromes and a black base!

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Step 1: First apply black kajal or paint very thickly all over the lids, up to the socket line. 

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Step 2: Using a synthetic concealer brush (or any synthetic paint brush), softly smoke out the edges so there are no hard lines, and bring the color up and out. 

Step 3: Apply the kajal to the lower lash line and water line as well, and smudge out lightly. The finished look should now be like the above image, which is a typical winged smoky eye shape.

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Step 4: From here, we move on to the fun stuff. Lightly dust the translucent green highlight all the way from lower lash line up to the brow, but ONLY ON THE INNER HALVES of the lids.

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Step 5: The shade that’s going to make everything look holographic is the pink/violet/blue duochrome on the outer half of the eyes, top and bottom. When you pack it over the black, you will no longer see the pink, but the violet and blue is going to take on a sort of glow which is going to stand apart from the green and give the most interesting effect.

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Step 6: This step is optional. I wet a flat brush with a little liner sealant (Ben Nye Liquiset), dabbed it into some aqua green translucent glitter, then pressed it right down the center of the lids. This echoes the green shadow, but adds a “wet” effect and gorgeous sparkle when you blink.

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Step 7: To finish the look, I curled my lashes and then applied a strip of wispy lashes. Any type of lashes would work, including plain black mascara.