I don’t know about you, but the one makeup trick that has always been just outside my realm of success has been the smoky eye. I never seemed to be able to master it. I’d search tutorials, watch YouTube videos, but to no avail.

Finally, thanks to a little bit of Pinterest, and a little bit of my own experimentation, I’m proud to say I’ve mastered 2 versions of the smoky eye, and I’d like to share my easy techniques with you!

First some inspiration. Here are some pictures of great smoky eyes that I styled my technique after:

3-Step Intense Smoky Eye

Step 1. Fill in entire lid with black eyeliner. (Don’t worry about being messy!) Using a smudger, smudge the line of the eyeliner into the crease and toward the outer side of the eye.

Step 2. Use an eye-shadow brush to take a shimmery color (golds and purples work well) and PRESS (don’t smear/wipe) the powder onto the eyeliner. Blend into crease and out towards the outer side of the eye.

Step 3. Apply black mascara.

5-Step Adjustable Smoky Eye

What’s great about this version is that you can change the colors

and shadows to make your smoky eye fit the occasion!

Step 1. Use a base color eye shadow (skin color) to cover everything from your eyelid up to your eyebrow.

Step 2. Choose 2 colors that complement each other: I chose a shimmery maroon, and a dark matte purple. Apply the lighter of the two (for me, the shimmery maroon) to the entire lid and and blend into the crease.

Step 3. Use the darker color to fill in the upper outer lid and blend into the crease and out.

Step 4. Use this same color to blend from the outer corner of the eye, onto the bottom lash line (only about halfway).

Step 5. Apply eyeliner and mascara (for these colors, brown worked better for me, but it depends on the shadow colors you choose).

What’s your favorite way to do a smoky eye?