Classic smokey eyes for fashion photo shoots
Monday 2nd November
Today Branka was talking about the classic smokey eye look. There are so many different variations of "smokey eyes" but today she showed us the classic black, intense smokey eye look that is requested so often from catwalks to editorial looks or any special occasions.
Branka first cleaned the skin with Bioderma to remove any excess oils and dirt and applied a small amount of Vitamin E serum to the dry areas of the skin to make it look more even and hydrated.
As she was creating a dark smokey eye she started the make-up with the eyes to make it easier to clean up any fallouts from the under-eye area afterwards.
Branka applied Illamasqua gel eyeliner as a base making sure not to go higher than the crease. Please do keep in mind that this product dries very-very quickly so you need to be pretty quick when blending the edges. It's best to focus on one eye at a time.
Once the edges were blended Branka applied the same eyeliner onto the upper - and lower waterlines.
She then applied MAC Carbon eyeshadow on top of the eyeliner base without blending the edges. She applied a soft cream colour eyeshadow (Brulee) underneath the eyebrows.
To blend everything together she first used a taupe colour followed by a darker, chocolate brown colour to avoid the blended edges to have too much grey tone.
Branka did not apply any eyeshadow underneath the eyes as she wanted to do the skin and any concealing before finishing the eyes.
She used MAC's Full Coverage Foundation in a light shade to highlight the highest points of the model's face and used a darker shade to contour. She then blended everything together using a soft, dome, fluffy brush.
She applied a touch of translucent powder underneath the eyes and a little bit on the nose.
She then applied a pink toned shimmery highlighter by MUA to highlight the cheekbones and the bridge of the nose followed by a touch of cream blusher on the apples of the cheeks.
After finishing the skin she concentrated on the eyebrows. Branka used the derma-colour concealer palette and an angled brush to create the perfect shape.
She mixed shades D13 and D14 to achieve the perfect shade. She then set the brows with a touch of brown eyeshadow and a brow gel.
Lips:
As the eyes are pretty dramatic and heavy Branka decided to go for a very light, nude lip-look. First she used Naked lip liner by MAC to outline the lips.
She then mixed a mauve lipstick with a tiny bit of foundation that's left on the back of her hand to create a nude shade lipstick. She finished the look by applying a bit of clear lipgloss on the lips.
Shiny smokey eye look:
It happens very often at fashion shows that a make-up artist has only a few minutes to vamp up a make-up look, Branka showed us a very quick tip to transform this look into a sultry shiny smokey eye look with a dark, berry lipstick.
All she did was to take off the nude lipstick and apply a very dark plum lipliner and lipstick colour. To get the perfect lipstick shade she mixed the two darkest colours Cyber and Hang Up from the Plum Lipstick Palette by MAC.
To create the glossy finish on the eyes Branka gently pressed a touch of Vaseline onto the eyelids.
Practical:
As I was trying to recreate this look I had to realise right at the beginning that using a fast-drying gel eyeliner as a base is not as simple as it looks. I actually took the base off twice as I wasn't happy with the result. I found it very hard to blend the edges as this product dries so quickly.
The third attempt was probably the most successful but it was still far from being perfect. Let's just put it this way: I will definitely need to practise a "helluvalot" to achieve a smooth base to start with :D
I then applied Carbon on the top of the black base and a soft cream colour underneath my model's eyebrows as a highlight colour. For the transition colour I applied a taupe shade followed by a dark brown shade into the crease. I think this is when it went a bit too high up in the crease.
Lips:
I applied a natural colour lip pencil to my model's lips and than filled in the lips with a nude lipstick.
Overview and evaluation:
Overall I really enjoyed creating this look, however I found it really difficult to use MAC's Black Track as an eyeshadow base. I found it very patchy and it also dried almost too quick. It might just be that I need to improve on being a little bit faster but literally it was dry within seconds. By the time I swapped my small synthetic brush that I first applied Black Track with to a fluffy blending brush it was almost impossible to blend the edges. I actually took the base off twice as I got really annoyed not being able to blend the edges:)
Even though I was really gentle, taking off the base twice caused my model's skin being a bit red around the eyes so I had to move to the other eye and hope for the best:)
After I finally managed to blend the edges I was sort of "happy"with the base (not so much, but I did not want to run out of time), up until I started blending with the taupe and dark brown eyeshadows. When i stepped back a little bit to check the look I realised that I probably went a little too high above the crease with the dark colours. I also found the shape a bit too rounded towards the outer corners.
At the end I realised that I could have corrected this by going back with a tiny bit of foundation on a fluffy brush and take a little bit of the black/brown colour back but it was nearly the end of the lesson so I did not have time to do that.
Conclusion:
On my clients I would probably opt for another cream product as a base. Perhaps something that does not dry within seconds. Maybe a paint pot, or a jumbo pencil. Next time I also need to keep an eye on how high I bring up the darker colours.
Product List:
- MAC Black Track gel eyeliner
- MAC Carbon eyeshadow
- MAC Brule eyeshadow
- MAC Cork eyeshadow
- MAC Brun eyeshadow
- MAC Smolder Kohl Pencil
- MAC Face&Body Foundation in C3
- NYX Pro Conceasler Palette
- MAC Dollymix Blusher
- MAC Haute & Naughty Too Black Lash Mascara
- Bobbi Brown Lip Pencil in Beige
- Miss Sporty lipstick in Twinkle Shine 130-DJ
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