Smokey Eyed Drama in Denver

The second I saw Gaby I thought "That is one gorgeous girl." But then I started to get to know her... and her warmth, optimism, and sweetness made her even more beautiful. For her photo shoot, I was honored to work with photographer Alyssa Kapnik  who really listened to my vision of how I wanted the makeup portrayed in order to highlight the dramatic eyes, and killer cheekbones of our model. I wanted to create a purple smokey eye that was intense, but wearable. You can see from the variety of pictures how different the exact same makeup can look depending on the lighting and editing. There were no touch-ups done between shots. So take a look!

So I've gotten some feedback from you guys that you would like a more step-by-step explanation for how to create the looks I'm posting instead of running through the basics and giving a product list. I can't promise I'll do that for each look, but for this one, I think it would be really fun to try on yourself and it's actually relatively simple so I'll break down what I did on her eyes in 10 steps:

1. Cover lid with an eye primer (I used the Benefit Stay Don't Stray)

2. Use a black eyeliner pencil along the outer half of the lid and smudge it up with blending brush or your fingertip. You want to blend it up to the crease so that it's darker along the lashes and lighter at the crease.

3. Use a light shimmery pink or peach on the inner corner of the eye lid (I used one of those pinky-beige colors in the Naked Palette from Urban Decay).

4. Use a matte, deep but not dark purple on the middle of the lid (I used MAC Fig).

5. Use a dark purple on the outer corner of the lid and sweep it up into the crease, creating a relatively slanted (but blended) outer V (I used MAC Blackberry).

6. Blend all of those colors together very well and buff out the harsh lines by using a skin-colored shadow along the edges of the dark purple. This is how you make it "smokey."

7. Using a black eyeshadow (I used the black from my Estee Lauder palette) go over the outer V subtly to make it even darker and more dramatic. But blend it out so that it doesn't look separate - you want all of the shadows to meld together.

8. Use the dark purple along the outer lash line on the bottom of the eye. Smoke it out.

9. Line the lower lash line with a *waterproof black eyeliner pencil (I used Urban Decay's 24/7)

10. Sweep a little bit of glitter across the whole lid (I used Bella Terra glitter pigment in Glamour - a burgundy glitter)

10. Apply false lashes! Or to keep it a little bit less "editorial" just curl your own lashes and apply some seriously thick mascara.

Give it a shot and let me know how it goes! Hope you have a wonderful day!