Reader Request: Dramatic Colored Eye Shadow Application for Nervous Beginners

How many of you wear the same basic eye shadow everyday and even when you go out at night? Are you scraping the bottom of your Stila espresso shadow palette? Do colorful eye shadows make you nervous? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re in an eye make up rut!

So let’s start out with the colors that everyone MUST have in there make-up collection. I’ll start with the sparkly-shimmery hues.

Sparkly

All from Urban Decay (they have the most fab colors)
Eye Shadow , $16 each

Navy Blue (Goddess)

Sea-Blue Green (Shattered, Urban Decay's most popular color)

Green (Vert)

Light Blue (Kiddie Pool)

Purple (Crash)

Next is Iridescent: Iridescent colors are very important for blending the darker sparkly colors and lightening them up a bit.

Iridescent
From Nars Duo Eye Shadow, $31 each

Blue/Purple (Iceland)

Green (Iceland)

From Nars Single Eye Shadow , $21 each

Pink (Himalayas)

White (Tibet)

Ok, so now that you’ve got your palette, let’s talk application. If you’re super freaked out by using these bright colors, my best advice is to start light. As you get increasingly confident, you can try more advanced blending and fading techniques.

For the bright eye shadow virgins out there:

1. Start with a neutral base color on your lids. Pick a color that is almost the same color as your skin. You can skip this step all together and just apply a little of your normal foundation onto your lid.

2. Next get your small Angled Brush and apply the purple or navy blue sparkly eye shadow directly along your lash line. Navy and purple go with almost all eye colors, and they are a little less daring for your first time! I like to start about 2/3 away from the inside corner of my eye, and work my way to the outside corner. Then take a little more shadow on the brush, blow off the excess, and lightly work your way from the first place you started towards the inside of your eye (towards your nose) You can totally line your eyelid, or you can go half way. Experiment to see what looks best.

3.Now breath, you’re almost done! Take either the iridescent blue or pink, depending on your first color, or you could even mix it up, and with an Eyeliner Blending Brush start at the center corner of your eye and blend along the lash line. Blend less as you go away from your nose to the outside corner, so the original color stays darker. Finally take a little of iridescent color and sweep it along your brow bone. Your brow bone is directly under your eyebrow and it usually sticks out a little. This will open up your eye and make you look fresh.

Finish with a little black mascara and you’ve done it! Hopefully your first color eye shadow application was pain free. And remember, you can always wash off something that’s hideous and try again. Even the most experienced eye make-up lovers just can’t get it right on the first attempt!