Some of us aren’t blessed with big, open eyes and when we smile, those eyes all but vanish. These are some tips to making your eyes appear larger, brighter and awake!
First, if you are going to make over your eyes, you should tone down the rest of your face. Use foundation as usual, a light coat of blush on the apples of the cheeks and a light gloss instead of a dark lip color. When taking these steps, the eyes should be the focus of your face. Attempt to make the eyes stand out, but if you do the same with the rest of your face, it will be too much.
When applying foundation to the face, use a sponge and put a light coat of the same foundation on the eyelid and underneath the eye. This will help the eye shadow stay on your lids longer. Before applying any more make up, go ahead and apply eye make up. This way, if any eye shadow spills on your cheeks you can just use a make up sponge to erase it away. For the best eraser, use the make up sponge with a tiny bit of your foundation on the tip.
Take a large eye shadow brush and put a highlighting color underneath the brow all the way to the lash line. Also, apply the highlighter to the inside corners of the eyes. Great highlighter colors are white, champagne, light pink, light gold, sunburst and light yellow (looks best with blue or green eyes). Also, try to stay away from colors that contain sparkles or glitter unless you are under the age of 18 – then, these types of shadows might be age appropriate for you.
Find a complimentary shade which is somewhat darker than the highlighter. You should choose a shade that is also complimentary to your eye color. Use the opposite color of your eyes. So, if your eyes are blue, use brown or deep purple. If your eyes are brown, blue, green or taupe might be a good choice. Use a medium eye shadow brush (or a shadow sponge if you aren’t good with the brush) to put this color in the crease of your eye right above the lid. Use the medium shadow brush to blend the color in with the highlighter so it creates a fading effect.
For the next step, you can use an eye liner pencil, liquid or a dark eye shadow with a very small, slanted eye brush. You can find this type of eye brush for around $3 at your local drug store or a cosmetics specialty store like Ulta. Put the liner on your upper lid first, trying to get the liner as close to the lash line as possible. Line from the inside corner to the very outside of your eyelid, but no further to the outside than that. Then, line underneath rim of your eye as close to the eyeball without going inside the eye. Line it from the corner to the outside, also. I prefer to use eye shadow for lining my eyes because it makes it easier to blend the liner in with the shadow on the lid. Use a bright blue or dark blue liner to make your eyes really stand out.
Lastly, curl your top eye lashes with an eyelash curler and then use black mascara on the bottom and upper lashes. You’ll also need to use a small to medium eye shadow brush to darken in your eyebrows with a shade that matches your brow color. This will help fill in any gaps in your eyebrows and complete the look. Before taking these steps for a big night out, take a day and experiment with your eye make up. That way, you can play around with colors and find out which look best on you. For less formal eyes follow step 1 and then use the highlighter underneath the brow line and fade it lightly to the eyelid, apply mascara and go.
For a quick and easy application, use a fat, pale pink eye shadow pencil with a dull tip to highlight the inner corners of your eyes. This will help take away from dark circles and create an instant awake look.
