First and foremost, you have to prep your face. Start with a moisturizer with SPF. Distribute evenly across your face and neck and let it absorb fully in to your skin. Next, grab a good primer and apply evenly. After that, touch up with a concealer and smooth it all over with your choice of foundation. At this point you can choose to add an eye specific primer if you like. If you are going with something a bit more basic and demure, you can skip this part. If you are going to be applying colors that are dark or pigment heavy, you will want to do an eye primer to hold everything in its place. If you do go with a primer, dab a bit on your lids and pat it in gently.
Now it's time for application. For basic application, I recommend four styles of brushes, which you can purchase here.
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| Flat shadow brush |
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| Standard shadow brush |
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| Tapered shadow brush |
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| Angled shadow brush |
Select your shadows. I suggest a minimum of two but usually end up using close to five for any look.
The lightest of your shadows should be applied on your lid from the inner corner to the center of your eye lid with the flat eye shadow brush. Next take your darker color and apply with the standard shadow brush from the center of your lid to the the outer corner of your eye lid. Bring your brush back to the center of your eye lid and blend in with your lighter color. It should not be clear where one color starts and another ends. When you are satisfied with your blending efforts, pick up the tapered shadow brush and blend along the crease. I usually select a similar color that falls between the lighter and darker colors I have already applied. I use this in my crease to add a bit of depth. Pull the brush back and forth along the whole crease.
Next, it's time for liner. Once again, application depends on the look you are going for. Some people suggest applying liner first, but I prefer adding it last. I use a cross between kohl liner and powder. Line your inner, lower lids with your choice of liner color. Then swipe a line across your upper lash line. Depending on the look, you can bring the liner to a small wing in the outer corner of your eye. After this, I dip my angled powder brush in the darker color I used on my outer lid. I apply this powder over any area where I already applied the pencil liner. I do this for two reasons. First, it softens up the liner so it doesn't appear quite as severe. Second, it helps set it so it doesn't wear away throughout the day.
Finally you can add the finishing touches. Curl your lashes and apply your favorite mascara on both your top and bottom lashes, and ta-da infallible eye makeup!
