Fancy Fridays Week One

Fancy Fridays Week One: Smokey Eye

I had the idea to start an ongoing weekly series of posts where I do an eye tutorial for a more fancy or formal look, so I'm going to try it out and see how it goes! Smokey eyes seem really fancy to me, and they're not all too difficult to accomplish once you get the hang of it, so I decided I would start with that. Since prom season is fast approaching, I'll probably do a couple of prom looks as well. For today's look, I chose to use the Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette.

I put down the shade Combust as my transition so that all of the other colors would blend better. This is probably my all-time favorite transition shade for my skintone.

Next I used the shade Password in my crease to add some depth.

After that I added the shade Whiskey to my crease, this time a bit more concentrated to add even more depth.

To start off the lid shades, I put the shade Thirteen on the inner third of my lid. It's okay if it gets on the middle third of the lid because we'll be covering that up with a darker shade in just a moment.

For the middle third of the lid I used the shade Dagger. Make sure to blend it into Thirteen well.

I used the shade Black Market on the outer third of the lid, making sure to blend it really well and build it up slowly as it's easy to go overboard with black.

I added the shade High to my inner corner and browbone as a highlight because I wanted some sparkle, but this is totally optional and you could also go with a matte shade.

As a finishing touch, I put the shade Smolder on my lower lashline and blended it out a bit for a smokier look.

Many people say not to pair a smokey eye with a bold lip because they distract from each other, but I just absolutely love the look of a smokey eye with a red lip, so I did it anyways. When it comes to makeup, there really are no rules, so do whatever you want! I used MAC Russian Red.

Naked Smoky Tutorial

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Eyeshadow Palette Tutorial

I wanted to try out my new Naked Smoky palette, so I decided to do an eye look tutorial using only shadows from that palette. I think it turned out pretty well, so I'm posting it here.

Apply the shade Whiskey all over your crease, not worrying too much about blending yet. We'll get to that in a bit.

Apply the shade Armor all over the lid, blending it slightly up into the crease.

Put the shade Dagger in the outer v of the eye and blend it partially into the crease.

Apply the shade High to the inner corner and lower lashline, blending it to the inner third of the eyelid as well.

Blend everything out to make the look softer and less harsh. I also used a makeup wipe to clean up below and next to my eye, as well as make the shadow into a harsh line extending from my outer corner.

Apply liner, curl your lashes, apply some mascara, and you're done! A super easy yet pretty smoky eye.

Here is the finished eye look, paired with Too Faced's Melted Chihuahua. I think this eye look would go well with most lip colors, but I thought that a nude would keep more attention on the eyes.