Smoky Eyes: How To Create The Look

Smoky eyes are seen on the catwalk season after season, year after year. As of late they have been especially noteworthy, making this look not just timeless, but also trendy. This guide will show you, step by step, how to create the look, which products to use, and more. If you already have the tools  mentioned here in your makeup bag,  then great. If not, you should have them anyway because they can be used for creating other makeup looks too.

Contents [Hide] 1 Step One: Prep 2 Step Two: Add Color 3 Step Three: The Final Touches 4 Troubleshooting

Step One: Prep

Concealer  Creating the perfect canvas for flawless eyes starts with covering up any dark circles or puffiness. This is very important because you want your eyes to look big and wide and darkness will only be enhanced with a "smoky" look.	Loose Powder  Set the skin by dusting translucent or regular powder over the eye area. Using a big, fluffy powder puff  is gentler on the sensitive skin around the eye area.	Eye Shadow  Using a nude or neutral powder eye shadow and a large eye shadow brush, gently dust the entire eye area from lid to brow if you'd rather not use power. It will create the same effect and act as a base for the rest of the makeup to come.

Step Two: Add Color

Eye Liner  Choose a pencil style eye liner in black,  brown,  olive,  plum,  or navy  depending on the color of your eyes and skin. You can even go bold with gold  or blue,  a popular color this season. Line completely around the inner rims of the eye, both top and bottom. Make sure that you line as close to the eye lashes as possible.	Small Eye Shadow Brush  After lining the eyes you'll need to soften the liner a bit by diffusing it a couple millimeters outwards. Make sure the eye shadow brush is tapered and narrow, or flat and thin with medium to firm bristles.	Eye Shadow Choose a powder eye shadow of the same color as your liner, whether it be classic black, soft brown, or something more exotic. Make sure that the color is the same if not just very close to the color of the liner.	Sponge Tip Applicator  Most makeup  comes with applicators,  but usually the quality is mediocre at best. A quality applicator will be softer on the eyes and help smudge your eye liner  just enough without removing it. Use the sponge tip applicator to apply the eye shadow.

Step Three: The Final Touches

Eye Shadow  Typically, if you use black liner then you would use brown shadow for this step, but you may need to adjust the color depending on how intense you want the look to be, and on what color you may have chosen for the liner. Powder shadow works best for this step UNLESS you do this step first and follow with step two (mascara is last, of course), in which case you might opt for a cream shadow.	Eye Shadow Brush  Using a fat, fluffy eye shadow brush, graduate the shadow from the lashes outwards by blending the dark shadow into the light shadow. Make sure to encircle the entire eye. Also, extend the light eye shadow on the upper lid all the way to the crease.	Eyelash Curler  For finishing any look, or just to make your eyes pop au naturel, eyelash curlers do wonders for giving your peepers a bit of perkiness. Use with mascara  for the full effect.	Mascara  A good coat, or two, of jet black mascara finalizes the look. Opt for black rather than brown since the look should be intense, not soft. In comparison, keep the lips and cheeks soft and muted so the focus stays on the eyes.

Troubleshooting

Raccoon Eyes? Luckily you applied a dusting of powder  or shadow  before applying color. Simply get a clean makeup brush, Q-tip, or tissue and dust off any shadow that fell under the eye. You can follow up with a bit of foundation  and powder  after to set the look.	Looking Trashy? Make sure to clean up your eyebrows. Since the focus is on the eyes, any messy unibrows will make your look appear unkempt. Also, avoid applying any more color to the rest of your face, such as blush  or lipstick.  It will make you look over done.