How to do the perfect smoky eye

Smokey Eye Tutorial

I love a smoky eye, especially when it is done like this! I have often had this look done by the makeup artists at the Armani counter for special events. It’s really not that hard to do once you know how. For this smoky eye you will need a black kohl pencil, flat black shadow, flat beige or slightly shimmery beige shadow, black curling mascara, smudge brush, blending brush and a sponge tip applicator. When doing a smoky eye, black shadow can fall onto your under eye area or cheeks so lay down a layer off loose powder. This will catch the loose shadow and you can just gently brush it away when you are done.

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  Start off by applying black kohl eyeliner to inner rim of upper and lower eye lids. Then smudge liner into upper and lower lash lines. Using your sponge applicator smudge the liner on the upper and lower lash line to create a “smoky” look.
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  Using your sponge tip applicator, retrace the area you just smudged with black shadow. Start out with as little as possible, you can always add more. Trace around your whole eye, concentrating the black on the outer half of the eye. Don’t’ worry about being precise at this point; you will blend it out later.
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  Next, using your blending brush and the beige shadow, blend the black shadow beginning at the crease. Blend in an arch around the crease of the eye until it looks like the black is darker at the lash line and becomes softer toward the crease. At this point you can determine if you want to add more black to make it more intense. But the key to a good smoky eye is blend, blend, blend. For this look, I often add a bit of dark brown shadow to the crease contour to give it a bit of definition.
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  After the shadow, curl your lashes and apply several coats of mascara.

To avoid having it look too dark, I prefer using a slightly shimmery shadow as the blending or highlight shade. It adds light and makes it look luminous yet smoky. Once you are done with the eyes, brush away the powder you laid down earlier. That’s it! It takes practice to perfect a good smoky eye, so don’t worry if you don’t get it now. Practice makes perfect!

You can use any colors to do a smoky eye. Black can be too much for a daytime look or if you just think it’s too dark, try a dark brown instead of black as the smoke color. I’ve done this same look but with a dark brown and it’s looked stunning! For the brown eyed girls, a dark midnight blue makes those eyes pop!

Photo: Giorgio Armani