Eye Makeup: Brown-Gold Smokey Eye

Sunday 22nd June Eye Makeup Look

A brown smokey eye isn't something I usually wear- I know it seems really neutral, simple, and within most people's comfort zone, but for me it's still not. So again it's really nice to be branching out and trying things I don't usually wear.

And I really like how it turned out!

I wore it last sunday to a house party, it was so simple and easy to use!

I used the Naked 2 Palette, but I'll have a full list of products further down with pictures of what I used.

The pigmentation of these shadows is obviously amazing, and they feel so so creamy and blendable. I do find with such creamy shades it's sometimes hard to pick up enough of the product on a brush though. I also sprayed the brush with a bit of Fix + from Mac just to intensify the colours even more.

Here's a list of the products I used.

As a base I used the Benefit Stay Don't Stray primer, and then I began applying the eyeshadows from the Naked 2 Palette. I used foxy as a browbone highlight, tease in the upper crease as a transition colour and bootycall in the inner corner to brighten things up a bit. On the inner third of the lid I put chopper, then in the middle third I placed YDK, and on the outer third busted with a tiny bit of blackout in the crease just to tie everything together. I repeated the same colours on the lower lash line as I always do. For eyeliner I used the L'oreal Superliner as always, and for mascara the ELF Mineral infused mascara.

I hope you enjoyed this look, let me know in the comments below if you did, and also what your favourite eye looks to wear are!

Eye Makeup: Gold and Blue Smokey Eye

Friday 20th June Eye Makeup Look

As I mentioned in the last eye makeup look I posted, which was very similar to this just using purple and silver, I know I'm going to be going out quite a lot in the coming months so I've decided to document each funky eye makeup look I do and give a quick description of what I did. It all stems from the conscious decision I've made to branch out with my eye looks and add pops of colour to make them more artistic and adventurous.

So for this party on friday I did something I've done once before, using a gold shadow all over the lid and a bright blue in the corners and under the eye for a pop of colour.

I hope the picture quality is okay, I know it's not as good as last time because I was getting ready at a friends and didn't have my huge Canon camera.

I know this look may not seem that adventurous, and it's not pretending to be, I just have recently liked doing a tiny addition of colour to amp up the drama in my eye makeup for a night out.

For anyone interested, now I'm going to describe what I did.

I used a matte white as a browbone highlight and then a medium cool-toned brown just above the crease and into it as a transition colour. I then used a pigmented gold shadow from the innermost part of the eye even using it as a highlight there also, and carrying it across 3//4 of the eyelid, but not dragging it much into the crease. I mirrored this placement under the lower lash line too. Then I placed a bright blue shade on the remaining part of the eye and blended it into the gold to make a smooth even transition from gold to blue. Again I mirrored this on the lashline by placing blue 1/4 of the way across and blending it into the gold underneath. I finished it off with black eyeliner into a wing on the upper lashline, and a few coats of mascara.

I just love the gold-blue eyeshaodow colour combination! I really didn't think I would be able to wear gold shadow because I'm so so pale, and it generally looks better if its not a stark darker contrast to your skin colour! But I really like wearing it in this look and I'm going to branch out and maybe try some gold-based smokey eyes in the future.

Here are the products I used:

I used the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk for the eyeshadow base/primer. As you can see, it's my favourite one and I've used it loads.

For the lid colours, the gold and blue, I used two colours from the Urban Decay sustainable Palette which is really old now- it was my first palette! And I'm trying to use it again as the colours are amazing (just a bit chunky on glitter, and not as smooth in texture as their more recent eyeshadow additions). The colours were Half Baked (a huge favourite of many, and in many Urban Decay palettes, and Kiddie Pool (which I just think is the best name ever, especially for this shade). They're next to each other in the bottom right of the palette.

For the browbone highlight and matte brown transition shade I used the Soap and Glory Lid Stuff quad in the shade What's Nude, (for the browbone I used the lightest shade, and for the transition a mixture of the two other matte colours (so the only one I did not use was the 4th colour, the sheeny dark brown)).

For mascara I used the Maybelline One By One and Clinique bottom lash mascara.

And for eyeliner I used the L'Oreal Linear Intense eyeliner in Carbon black which is my favourite eyeliner by far and lasts for ages- I will never find an eyeliner I love this much.

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That's it! I hope you enjoyed reading about this look, it's so simple but looks amazing. I'll be posting another one of these looks very shortly so hope you guys love reading that one too!

Would you wear this eyeshadow look? What's your go-to slightly different eye look? Let me know in the comments below.

Top 3 Neutrals Palettes

My Favourite 3 Palette Picks

On a day-to-day basis if I wear eyeshadows at all they are almost always neutral shades, so these palettes as well as my neutrals mac palette (see the blog post) are my most used. 

I usually wear light shades over my lid for a wash of colour, and sometimes but rarely attempt dark eyes (it washes my light skin out).

Into my top 3 most used neutrals palettes, in no particular order.

1. Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

A Naked Palette being in here probably isn't surprise to anyone, however this is probably my least used palette of the three.

In hindsight I think the Naked 3 with rose-hues would have been the best for my pale skin. However the colours in this are amazing, there's no doubting, and I can create so many looks with this.

The transition colour Tease is amazing, as is Foxy for an all over wash of colour or browbone highlight. I also use the matte black Blackout quite a lot.

The price is around £40 which actually for 12 full sized amazingly creamy quality eyeshadows is not something I see as too expensive. 

The pigmentation is amazing with every single shade, even the matte ones.

I highly recommend this palette! Check out the naked palettes and see which of the three will best complement your skin tone. If you wear eyeshadow, buy one of these! Nothing beats Urban Decay for eyeshadow- they're definitely even better than Mac.

2. Sleek Makeup Storm Palette

This is a neutrals palette with a twist- the possibilities are endless. You can do a classic brown smokey eye, a blue one, a pink one or a green one. But I still count this as a neutrals palette.

The price is around £8 from Superdrug, and the quality is amazingly creamy. It has a lot of similar colours to my next palette, and the Naked 1 as well.

I actually like using the sponge-tip applicator on occasion as it applies a dense amount of highly pigmented creamy colour- using a normal brush with these can be problematic.

I use the two matte shades for my eyebrows- they're perfect for that and it lasts all day.

12 shades, £8, you do the maths. That's a great deal. Also Sleek Makeup have many fab palettes to choose from- you will find the one for you. I find this to be the one I'd use most.

The colours I use most in this are the second one along- a lot like Stila's Kitten and amazing in texture, and the two matte browns for transition colours and my eyebrows.

Sleek is worth checking out- I swear by their stuff and it's not gonna make you bankrupt.

3. Stila In the Light Palette

I love this palette, and with the others in this list this is well loved by beauty bloggers. I loved the look of this and had to get it.

These palettes are creamy in texture, but not chalky. None of them are duds- they all are amazing. The palette is priced at around £25, which for 10 shadows really isn't that much at all. Worth it? Definitely.

The colours resemble those in the Naked 1, and also some of them are very similar to the ones in the Sleek palette.

If you like the colours and think you'll get a lot of use out of them, definitely pick this up! You can buy it online from loads of stores, and even find it in some of the bigger Boots.

The pigmentation is like nothing else and texture is less chalky than the Sleek palette- you can definitely feel the difference, and why this one deserves to be priced so much more.

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I always suggest buying palettes, especially if you're just starting out with makeup. Don't bother buying individual shades just get a couple of palettes to start with!

I hope this post was somewhat helpful or interesting to you!

Will you be picking any of these products up? What is your favourite palette? Let me know in the comments below.