A Smoldering Smoky Eye Make Up Step By Step Tutorial For You

Smokey eyes… One of the most popular eye makeup looks to sport. It looks amazing but is technique heavy. Done right, you look amazing; done wrong and it might seem you need medical help. Here’s our lowdown to help you master the art of smokey eye makeup.

In this post, we cover:
• Smokey eye makeup looks: Image gallery
• How to do a smokey eye: step-by-step guide
• Eyeshadow palettes to have for smokey eyes

Smokey eye makeup looks: Image Gallery

In a classic smokey, you primarily play with black and any lighter color (traditionally brown). But you can always do a modern take on smoky eye makeup by using gray, purple, orange and pink as base colour. Check out the smokey eye makeup pictures for inspiration.

How to do a smokey eye

For a classic smoky eye makeup look, you need to have these products handy:

• Black gel eyeliner (preferred) or black eye pencil
• Brown eyeshadow
• Black eyeshadow
• Highlighter
• Mascara
• Eye base
• Eyeshadow application and blending brushes

Step-by-step guide to get the perfect smokey eye look

Method 1: The bottom-up approach

1. Apply eye base on your eyelids to give a uniform color and even base for applying makeup.
2. Apply black eyeliner on your upper and lower lash lines, and join them at the outer corner.
3. Smudge out the lines using black eyeshadow on the liner up till the crease line. Continue applying black eyeshadow till you get the desired intensity. However, don’t overdo it as excess black eyeshadow can leave you with panda eyes.
4. From the middle of the eyelid apply brown eyeshadow and take it up to (but below) the browbone.
5. On the inner corner and browbone, apply the highlighter. It can be any light-coloured shimmery eye shadow or a regular cheek highlighter.
6. Apply 3-4 coats of mascara on your eyelashes to complete the look. You can also curl your lashes before applying mascara. Note: don’t curl them after mascara as they might break!
7. If you want more intensity, tight line your upper and lower waterlines with black pencil.

Method 2: The top-down approach

In this method, we reverse the order of steps. So, instead of starting with eyeliner application, we start with highlighters. The benefit of following this approach for smokey eye look is that it does not let the dark colors to go past the crease line.

1. As before, put eye base or primer on your eyelids to set an even base for makeup
2. Apply the highlighter on the brow bone.
3. Take the brown eyeshadow and apply it from where the highlighter ends and the crease line begins.
4. Now is the time to apply the darker shade, or black eye shadow in this case. Make sure you keep the color below the crease line but do blend it with brown slightly so that the color transition is smooth.
5. Apply eyeliner on the upper and lower lash lines and smudge them slightly.
6. Apply black eye pencil on the water line and do your eyelashes using a curler and mascara.

If you are planning a smokey eye look for a daytime event, you can skip applying pencil on the lower lash line. Also, go for softer colors and try gray instead of black.

Eyeshadow palettes to have for smokey eyes

As such, you don’t really need an eyeshadow palette specifically to do a smokey eye look as you can experiment with colours. However, more and more brands are coming up with palettes specific for this look. Take a look.
(Psst… we have also included the non-traditional palettes for the modern twist.)

Read our article on the best eyeshadow palettes in India to know more.