Want to amp up the sex appeal of your holiday party ensemble? Pick up your favorite grey shadow and eyeliner and blend together a smoky eye! Aside from being one of the most sultry makeup techniques we know, it’s also one that can easily be created in the short amount of time between leaving the office, and arriving at an after-work party.
Using one of the stunning red carpet looks he did on Gugu Mbatha-Raw as inspiration, celebrity makeup artist Nick Barose demonstrated the effect on our Associate Fashion Editor Andrea Cheng, all while dishing out his sage advice on how to master it at home. We broke each step down into user-friendly GIFs so you could master it with ease—keep reading to get all the details!
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Barose began by picking up Gucci’s Impact Long-Wear Eye Pencil in Black ($32; gucci.com) and ran it along Andrea’s upper lash line, winging it out at the end. “Get in really close to the lash line to avoid that blank space, but don’t worry about making it perfect just yet,” he advises. “Line just the outer corner of the lower lash line, not the entire thing as that will shut it down. Then, smudge it up a bit.” Because the Gucci pencil sets pretty quickly, we recommend finishing this step on one eye before moving to the other.
Barose then dipped a blending brush into the silver hue of Gucci’s Cosmic Deco Eye Shadow Quad ($65; gucci.com) and applied the color all over the lid. “When you’re using something shimmery, it already has drama, so you don’t have to do a lot of shading,” he says.
“You don’t want your smoky eye to be too complicated.” The inky black hue was blended into the outer corner to add extra dimension. Pick up a clean dome-tipped brush to blend both colors together, or mix in a touch of loose powder if you’re having trouble creating a seamless gradient. Whatever you do, don’t add extra shimmer! “For me, I like the sparkle to be focused on the lid, and keep the browbone matte,” Barose adds. “Sometimes if you put too much shimmer on, it all gets blended in together.”RELATED: You Can Do Smoky Eyes
Barose used Gucci’s Power Liquid Liner in Iconic Black ($37; gucci.com) to intensify Andrea’s lash line. “You can dot it in between the lashes too if you don’t want to do a straight line, but it really adds the finishing touch,” he says. “This look is all about elongating the eye.”
A few coats of the Opulent Volume Mascara ($33; gucci.com) topped off the sultry effect. “Depending on how dramatic you are, you can add a little more sheen by dabbing the shimmery white from the Gucci palette just in the center of the lid, and blend it in with the silver color,” Barose says. “At the end of the day, it should all look like one color—gradually going from grey, to the highlight in the middle, to the black in the outer corner.” Gorgeous!
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