Step-By-Step Eye Makeup Tutorial (Because I Can't Show My Face. Yet.)

The last time I did an eye makeup tutorial to this degree of detail was... many, many, many, many posts ago. Hahaha! You cannot imagine the insane number of hours I spent creating this post - taking photos, doing the makeup, selecting photos, editing, watermarking, uploading, writing, editing. >.<" Whoever said being a blogger is easy-peasy should come and try it. COME!!!!!! Lol.

Despite all of that, I LOVE WHAT I DO! 😀

Ever since my skin erupted into pus-filled barnacles, I haven't touched makeup at all. The horrific facial that led to a vile upheaval in my life occurred on 27 May 2013, a date I will not forget for a long time, and at the time of writing this post, my face has been makeup-free for the past TWENTY SEVEN DAYS. May not be a lot to you, but a big deal to a beauty blogger.

I get questions like "How do you pair your eyeshadow colors?", "How do you know what colors go well with what?", "Are there color rules that we can follow?" all the time.

My answer is always "I don't really think about it. I just... pick whatever, and work it".

That statement comes with a lot of practice though, and maybe, a little bit of innate color coordination? I mean, there ARE those color wheels that teach you about primary, tertiary, complimentary colors, but it's really through experimentation that you know what works best for you.

Some people stick to neutrals because of a serious corporate environment, but most tell me they just don't know what to do when faced with colors other than browns.

I never like browns, as in brown+brown+brown. You will never see me with that kind of eye color combination. Because. I. Just. Cannot. I love reds! greens! blues! pinks! purples!

But because I was away for so long (27 days probably feels like 270 makeup days), I felt slightly jittery when I took out my Z Palettes filled with all these depotted eyeshadows. Suddenly I looked at them and went "Ummm.... OK.... Maybe I should just go safe and use this champagne, and brown, and this bronze..."

I WAS LOSING MY TOUCH!!! NOOOoooOOooOoo......!!!!!

Fortunately I snapped out of my apprehensiveness and used... anything but brown. NO BROWNS, please, Juli. Hahaha! Don't get me wrong, I do use browns, but they always play only the supporting role.

Come join me on this journey, as we explore how to create the above eye makeup! 😀

(I'll mention where you can get the products used to create this look at the bottom of this post so as not to interrupt the flow of the tutorial.)

Step 1 - Primer

No matter how much in a rush I am, I always use an eye makeup primer. It helps neutralize my very yellow undertones, creates a smooth canvas, mattify my oily eyelids, helps makeup stay on longer, and enhances color. Takes only 10 seconds, and for all these benefits, why not?

I used Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden.

Step 2 - Eyeshadow

Okie! Here comes the fun part! The part I enjoy the most, always! 😀

You should read my Tutorial on Horizontal Eyeshadow Application first, if you haven't!

Apply The Body Shop Color Crush Eyeshadow in Be My Valentine, a beautiful orange with golden undertones, on the inner 1/3 of the eyelid. I used the MAC 239 brush.

I hesitated when choosing the next color. Should I use something safe? Or something bold?

BOLD, of course!! And so I went with a bright red from Elianto. I got it in City Square Mall in JB; it doesn't have a name at all. Lol.

Place Nameless Red on centre of eyelid. Blend well so that there is no harsh line between Be My Clementine and Nameless Red.

I contemplated using on the outer 1/3 of the eyelid something maroon-ish or a bronze to make it a one color family kind of combination, but decided to do the exact opposite and dipped my synthetic Sigma E55 brush from the Mrs Bunny Travel Kit into the beautiful green that is Sugarpill Midori.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

BAHAHHA!!! XD

Never mind that the area above the three colors isn't perfect, coz you're gonna blend it with MAC Free To Be. The area above is what I like to call the Contour Area (Detailed Eye Makeup Tutorial on Contour Area), and what most people like to call the 'Crease'.

The what? And the WHAT?? Lol! You can read more about it in my post on Asian Eyes VS Caucasian Eyes.

Brush used here is synthetic Sigma E40 from Mrs Bunny Travel kit. It's bigger than MAC 217, even bigger than MAC 224, so it's excellent for a sweep-across, and not precise application.

Step 3 - Highlight

Then you would proceed to do some highlighting on your under-brow area and inner corner of the eye. (Read: Eye Makeup Placement)

No, not the 60's kind of disco ball shocking glittery highlights, but subtle, just-about-there to take the shadow out of these areas.

On the brow area I used Makeup Geek Shimma Shimma, and Lioele Glittering Jewel Liner in 01 on the inner corner of the eye.

How's it going so far? Not too difficult right? The worst is over, HAHAHA, so now it's gonna be much easier.

Step 4 - Eyeliner

The eyeliner shown in the left picture is Naris Up Wink Up Maxigrade Eyeliner SP Liquid Black, one of my Holy Grail eyeliners.

Shown in the right picture - no, I'm not poking my eye! - is a technique called 'Tightlining'.

In tightlining, you get the eyeliner on the waterline to create the effect of lusher, more volumized lashes. I used to use eyeliner pencils - as you would read from my Tightlining post, but realized that even the 'best eyeliner pencil' UDPP Zero caused smudging on my very oily eyelids. Thank gawd for gel liners.

Lioele Gel Liner and Sigma E15 Flat Definer brush make up my daily Tightlining essentials.

I ALWAYS tightline. I can even do without mascara, but I MUST tightline. You can see the difference between using only eyeliner and after tightlining. (Trade secret. Shhh...)

Step 5 - Brows

I do my brows after eyeliner, before mascara, so that the eyeliner has time to dry completely.

Here's using my trusty Lioele Auto Eyebrow Pencil in 01 Natural Brown. I have really dark brows, so the lightest shade would already be sufficient.

One of the things I love about the Lioele Auto Eyebrow Pencil is that it comes with a very good spoolie at the other end. Good as in it's not too hard, scratchy or fluffy, just the perfect size, texture and firmness to blend the pencil into place.

YAY TO DEFINED AND FILLED-IN BROWS! 😀

Step 6 - Lower Lash Line

I like to add color on my lower lash line; greens and blues are my favorites.

I used Maybelline Color Tattoo in Edgy Emerald, with synthetic Sigma E30 Pencil brush from Sigma Mrs Bunny Travel Kit.

Step 7 - Concealer

I usually do undereye concealing after foundation, but since I only worked on my eye, I didn't think of using undereye concealer for this look UNTIL I realized how unsightly the shadows on my undereye area looked in the pictures. Lol. So here we go.

I used Candy Doll Concealer, and Sigma F82 to pat and blend it in. I use Sigma F80 for foundation and Sigma F82 Round Kabuki (pictured here) for concealer.

Step 8 - Eyelashes

Always curl your lashes before applying mascara.

And of course, using my favorite mascara of the moment - Lioele Volume & Curling Mascara.

Extras!

I went to add another shade to my brows with Shiseido Integrate Eyebrow BR371 (the middle golden shade), to give my brows more dimension. Normally I'm good to go with just the Lioele eyebrow pencil, but since this is a tutorial, a small difference in shade is magnified. See now there's a gradient from golden brow to dark brown to black tapered at the end.

I used the Sigma E75 Angled Brow brush.

I also added some glitter in the inner 1/3 for some glamor effect - Bobbi Brown Sparkle Eye Shadow in Sunlight. Had to take a blur shot in order to capture the glitter. *Bling Bling*!

The haze is REEEEEALLY bad! How are you dealing with it? PSI levels have reached a toxic 400+!! One reader told me Indonesia didn't want me to be lonely in wearing a mask, so they sent the haze over to let the whole of Singapore accompany me. LOL!

Now surgical masks are insufficient to keep the harmful particles in the air from getting into our lungs. I've started to wear the increasingly-hard-to-get N95 masks. I hope you've managed to get some! The haze makes my eyes really irritated!! 🙁