Smokey eye how-to (with pictures)!

I've been asked what process I use to achieve a smokey eye so I decided it'd be easiest to show you.  So I did a picture tutorial.  Here's the look we're going to achieve today:

Now, how to do it:

1. Prime eyelid, I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance.  I have also already chosen to line the inner rims of my eyes, both top and bottom, with a black gel liner, I used "Immortal" from Makeup Geek.

2. For good smokey eyes, you'll want to use a base of some sort to add some extra depth to your shadow, I usually use NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Black Bean".  Since I'm doing a blue look, I used a blue gel liner, "Electric" from Makeup Geek.  I took this under my eye as well.

3. Top base with your darkest color.  I used MAC's "Sea & Sky" mineralized eyeshadow duo, the darker color of the two.  I made sure that I took this color high enough that you could still just barely see it when I opened my eyes (I have hooded eyelids).

4. Take a mid-toned blending color and place along the edge of your dark color.  I used "Purely Naked" from Makeup Geek.

5.  Blend the colors together, trying to create an almost seamless fade from one color to the other.  You will probably have to go back and add more blue, then more tan, then more blue, and so forth to get the blending right.

6. To make my highlight color stand out more and clean up the line of my brow, I add NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Milk" (which I have melted into a little pot and apply with a concealer brush) under my brow.

7. Add highlight color on top of the white base.  I chose "Bling" from Makeup Geek.

8. Go back with the tan color and blend that up into your highlight color, again trying to crease a seamless fade.

9. With my eye shape, I need a bit of depth in the outer v area so I added some black ("Corrupt" from Makeup Geek).

10. Blend that well and add some liner.  I chose Motives Luxe Precision Eye line in "Jet Black."

11. Add mascara.  I used Benefit "They're Real" mascara.  This would be way better if I had felt like going the extra mile and adding false lashes!!

12.  Now it's time to clean up around your eye.  Brush off and fallout and clean up under your eyes.  On top of brows use a slightly too-light concealer to help highlight the area.

13. Blend that out and set with a translucent powder.

Add simple face makeup and a nude lip and you're good to go!

Face makeup:

Revlon Colorstay for oily/combo skin "Sand Beige"

Maybelline Fit Me concealer

Maybelline Dark Circle Eraser "Fair"

Ben Nye Translucent Fair setting powder

Motives Contour, Bronze, and Highlight kit

Benefit "Coralista" blush

Brows:

Rimmel brow pencil

Anastasia Beverly Hills brow powder duo "Taupe"

ELF Studio cream liner "Coffee"

Lips:

NYX "Natural" lipliner

NYX "Harmonica" lipstick (this color is seriously horrible unless you use a liner and top it with a gloss!!)

Buxom lipgloss "Debbie"

And then I put together this little picture tutorial with the highlights if you want to see it all together!

I hope this was at least kind of helpful!!

How I do my eyebrows: A step-by-step picture tutorial.

I have been asked numerous times how I fill in my brows so I figured I'd do a step-by-step picture tutorial to show you what I do!  Brows make such a huge difference on a face, good brows make everything look clean and neat and finished.  Seriously, take a look.

So onto the tutorial!

What you will need:

1. A brow pencil (I use Anastasia Beverly Hills Perfect Brow Pencil)

2. A cream liner (I use ELF studio liner)

3. A brow powder, preferably a duo (I use Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo)

Extras you can use, which I like to:

A white, or very light, cream liner (I use NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Milk")

Highlight color of your choosing

My brow with nothing on it

Fill brows in with pencil.

Here's what they look like when I've finished filling them in with the pencil.

Grab an angled liner brush and your cream liner

Follow the bottom of your brows with the cream liner, creating as much or as little of an arch as you want

After using cream liner (sorry it's fuzzy, apparently I didn't get a clear picture of this), you can see where I placed the liner

Grab a clean angled liner brush and your brow powder duo

Fill brows in completely, covering the pencil and cream, blending everything together.  I use the lighter color toward the inside of my brow and the darker color on the outside.

Once that's done

Now, you can stop there if you want, but to make it a little more crisp, I like to do this next step.

Grab a concealer brush and your NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil (which I have depotted)

Draw a line under your brow

Blend it out with your finger and add your highlight color.

You're all finished!!

I hope that helps someone out there with measly little brows like I have naturally!  I put this together, too as a place to have all of the steps in one picture if that's helpful!

New post! It's been a while!

Sorry guys that it's been so long since I've posted anything!  My daughter brought a nice stomach bug home with her from school that I caught and it messed everything up.  My immune system couldn't shake the bug by itself so I had to be put on antibiotics and fluids and that helped but it pushed my chemo schedule back.  I was supposed to be done the week before Thanksgiving but now my new goal is to be done by Christmas so I guess that's better than nothing.

Well for my birthday, I decided to check out the sale section on Sephora's website and I ordered a bunch of these Prisma Chrome eyeshadows because they were only $3 and I figured I couldn't really go wrong (there are only 2 colors left now but there were way more when I ordered).  There's an orange one that's really pretty and I wanted to wear a bright pink lip (using OCC Lip Tar in "Anime") so I figured I'd go with simple orange on the eyes and this is the look I came up with:

please excuse the lazy brows, I just filled them in with pencil.

Two of my shadows came broken (the orange one being one of them), they are pretty soft, but here's what the orange one looks like in the pan (they sure made a weird shape with them in the pans, almost like a wave).

From not really expecting too much from this, I was surprised at how much I liked it.  I've been using these shadows quite a bit, a lot like how I used it here.  Just super basic.  I haven't even been adding a crease color lately.  Gosh, what is wrong with me??  I need to get back to my makeup doing, I just don't feel like it, you know?

Here are unedited pictures of all of the colors I got: 

too bad this is broken because the color is GORGEOUS!!

I did this look probably 2 weeks ago, just between being sick and chemo I've been really thrown off schedule.  So I'm sorry for that and I really hope to post some more.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!