The ‘smokey eye’ is one look that never leaves the pages of fashion magazines and it flatters every eye shape.

So many people love the smokey style but don’t know how to achieve it without the ‘been in a bar fight’ look. I won’t say that it’s simple – it will take a little bit of work and practice – but once you have it mastered I promise you that your friends will think you have had a make-up artist do your eyes!

The Tools

A smokey eye needs layers of colour! You’re going to need at least three eye shadow colours to achieve the right amount of blending and shading required to make your smokey eye look professional. Also make sure you have an eye shadow brush – it’s the only way to blend the shadows over each other flawlessly. Finally, you will need an eyeliner and masacara which act like the frame to the smokey shadows and will turn what looks like a smokey mess into a perfect sexy eye design.

Prime and Prep

Starting with a clean fresh face we are going to kick off with the eyes! When dealing with dark eye shadows it is better to wait to do your foundation until you are done with your eye makeup. If dark shadows fall and land on the foundation they can stain it and nothing can repair the grey looking foundation other than to remove it and reapply, so its best just to leave your skin bare and start with your eyes.

Since we are not applying foundation at this point you do need to prep your eyelids for the eye shadow application. An eyeshadow primer will do the job and I will be using the Nars Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, but if you don’t have one, you can apply your foundation over your eyelids and then brush on some loose powder to set it. Now we are ready to go!

First Colour

The first colour you apply should be the lightest and most highlighting colour. This is the base colour; it can be shimmery or matte and it will go over the entire eyelid from the lash line up to the brow. This is the easiest step, and the most important, because it helps to prevent your eye shadows creasing and keeps it perfectly in place all day (and all night!)

Second Colour

The next colour is your contouring colour, as it creates depth and definition by following the natural contours of your eyes. Again, we start by applying it from the lash line up through to the socket of your eye (the natural hollow of where the eye sits in your skull). This layer is also important to ensure any other colours will glide on seamlessly and blend together beautifully.

If you were to forget this step you would find that your darkest colour of eye shadow may grip and look patchy on the lid.

Third Colour

The final eye shadow colour is always the darkest. This is the layer that creates the ‘smokey’ in your smokey eye! This is also the layer that can be the most intimidating, but if you remember to take it slowly and apply from the lash line and across the eyelid (the part that moves when you blink) you will be able to create a soft smokey effect easily. I recommend going with a more natural dark brown the first couple of times you do your smokey look because it is a lot easier to handle than black but once you have practiced with a dark brown for a few times, using black will be an easy transition.

 Finishing Touches

Now, up to this point, you may be panicking that your smokey eye is looking like a smokey mess, but this is the part where it all comes together! First you want to apply eyeliner to the top of your eyes – I prefer a liquid liner for the top lid, but for underneath you will need a soft black eyeliner to draw along your inner rim of your eye.

One of the things that makes a professional smokey eye look appear so polished is the smudging of some eye shadow around the outer edge of the eye. You can see in the photo below the smudgy smokey effect the eye shadow around the eye has created.

Once you are done with all your liner, pop on your mascara and you’re finished!

The clean up

Now that your eyes are perfectly smoked you can go ahead and fill in your eyebrows, apply your foundation, sweep on your blush or bronzer and pop on some lip gloss and you are ready to go!

One Last Thing… 

Remember that you can do this same application process with any colours you like! Why not try a beautiful blue smokey eye orperhaps a hot pink? There are no limits to what you can do!

To show you how amazing coloured smokey eyes can be, I have done a glamourous green smoked eye on my beautiful friend Effie.