Charlotte-Sofia Artistry: Smokey eyes!

04.11.14 Fashion trends lesson 5, Tutor Branka

Smokey eye (red carpet)

What you’ll need:

Black track MAC eye-liner
Small applicator brush
Concealer brush
Cleanser, toner, moisturiser
Cotton buds, and wool
Ben Nye colour palette
MAC eye shadow palette
Buffering brush
Eye brushes
Foundation brush
Kryolan derma palette
Mixing medium
MAC face and body foundation
Angle brushes
Ben Nye translucent powder
MAC brow pencils
Smudger brushes
Blusher brush
MAC lip liners
MAC lipsticks
Kryolan lip palette
Mac vanilla power
Eye glitter
Vaseline
Mascara
Mascara applicators or small fan brush

Technique tutorial from Branka:

Prep models face
Apply MAC black track eyeliner across lid, all over ending just beneath crease.
Blend line upwards using a clean concealer brush
Soften edges using a cotton bud
Using the same small applicator as used to apply the lid, place along the waterline.
Use concealer brush to dab on Ben Nye black eye shadow over the look to intensify the black colour
Use MAC eye shadow palette, colour brulee under brow
Buffering brush, use brown colours together into the crease line to warm the skin tone, gently blend in.
Go back in with a little more black shadow on the lid.
Use buffering brush with brown colour that’s left on it back over socket liner.
Apply foundation and concealer.
Set using translucent powder
Fill in brows using MAC brow pencil either lingering colour good for blondes, light brunette, & red heads, stud colour is good for- dark hair colours.
Use a small angle brush to blend line in using brown eye shadows.
Use either a mini smudger brush or small angle brush and put black shadow under eye.
Go over with buffering brush that you've previously used to blend and soften with the brown shadow.
Using a mini smudger add highlight to the corner of the eye and blend upwards, you don’t want it to appear white.
Apply contour to cheekbones, and temples using a darker shade of foundation using an angle brush
Apply highlighter (MAC vanilla pigment) to Cupids bow, top of chin, temples, top of the cheekbones.
Apply a blush.
Apply a lip liner.
Apply lip stick
Apply glitter to all over the black on the lid secure using Vaseline for a quick fix or for long lasting (MAC shine make-up mixer) tiny amount.

Overview & evaluation of the lesson:

So I paired up with my classmate Zainab, who I've never worked with before and has a dark skin tone, which I've never worked with before either so I was looking forward to a change and possibly a challenge!

I prepared her face so I had a clean surface to work on. With the eye I found it really hard to work fast enough to be able to blend the MAC black track eye-liner upwards without it setting, I think maybe I didn’t apply a thick enough layer, as it was drying so fast, if it was thicker it would have taken longer to dry. So I applied the Ben Nye black shadow over the top and blended that upwards.

After I applied the two different brow shadows I blended it all together, I feel that I blended them all well together and was happy with the end result.

Now this is where I really struggled...the foundation!!! My models skin was beautiful so there was literally no need for concealer but she has different shades on her face, her forehead and chin being the darkest places, then the rest of her face was a bronze golden colour, so at first I mixed a darker colour but it looked too dark over her entire face, so I mixed a lighter colour but because I didn’t have a really harsh yellow to mix in with the foundation it kept looking quite grey on her face, so I added in some make-up mixing medium to lighten it and in hope that it would be a lighter application, but it was too light to cover the dark areas.

So after a lot of trial and error I decided to mix in some darker tones from my derma palette into the light mix I had created, then I also mixed up a lighter foundation with no mixing medium, I chose to apply with my fingers as I feel more comfortable so I literally dabbed the two different colours over the face put more light onto the dark areas, and more dark onto the lighter areas then used my bronzer brush to buff and blend, using circular motions.

It was the end of the lesson by the time I finished the foundation so I quickly filled in my models eyebrows using MAC brow pencil in Stud colour, which I found a piece of cake as she had had them threaded the day before so there was a good clean shape and line to work with.

Overall I was annoyed that it took me so long to come up with a solution for my foundation issues as it left me with an incomplete look, also I really wanted to get some practice in with the things I feel I need to work on more such as, lip lining and contouring which I didn’t get a chance to do. But I am glad that I fixed the solution myself, and in the end I think I achieved a good base, I was also happy with the Smokey eye. I will definitely be investing in a yellow concealer colour for my kit for the future, because if I was on a job with a time limit I wouldn't have been able to do it!