Makeup - Eyes

 various shadows

I've been a little busy lately, but maybe I have been avoiding this makeup post as well.  I tend to spend the most amount of time on my eyes during my makeup routine and I tend to be quite disappointed with the results of my eyes.

I really like my eye color, it is kind of a green/blue that almost appears to change color in response to what I am wearing.  They are actually quite pretty.  So then why am I not happy with them?  I think mostly their shape.  I think that women have more almond shaped eyes while mens tend to be more rounded.  So I feel as though no matter what I do, my eyes never really look that feminine.  Which bugs!

Anywho - here is my eye makeup routine:

lid smoothie

First I apply a eye foundation from clinique, it is called lid smoothie.  This stuff provides a smooth base for me to apply the shadow on top of.  I really like this product as it helps to even out small eye wrinkles.  It also helps to hold the eye shadow color much longer than if I do not use it.  The other thing it does it to provide a slight shimmer wherever I place it.  I generally place it over my entire upper and lower lids.

After that I generally use a four color eye shadow palette.  I currently have several different manufacturers color palettes.  I have several from clinique, one from lancome, one from bobby brown, and several from maybeline.  Depending on my mood I will use anyone of them.  I tend to prefer colors that contrast from my own eye color.  So while I am drawn to blues and green, I normally wear earth tones.  This translate to lots of browns, greys, silvers, golds, blacks, and not much color at all, although occasionally I will do some pinks.  My wife on the other hands, with her gorgeous brown eyes looks great with almost the complete opposite colors that I wear.

With the four color palette, they will often come with some sort of directions on where to apply the different shades.  Clinique does this as well as lancome.  The directions that came with the lancome shadow were great! They were the best I have ever seen.  The makeup was also some of the most expensive I have ever purchased, but it was well worth it.  I would also like to mention that while I have shadows that cost less, the more expensive colors are richer and take less product to achieve the results that I prefer.

In general while using four colors, if you have them arranged from lighter to darker, like 1, 2, 3, & 4.  You would put #1 over the whole upper lid, up to your brow.  #2 would go on your upper lid, up to the crease line, where your lid folds.  #3 would go in the crease of your upper lids.  And lastly #4 would go in the outside corner of your eyes.

In between each application of color I will use a blending brush.  This is a rather large brush that helps to blend each color in with the other and makes it all look smoother.  While I am mentioning it, I have also invested in several really nice brushes.  I have about 3 or 4 clinique brushes that I use to assist in my shadow placement.

various liners

Okay, so after shadow, if I feel like it, normally at night only, I will apply some liner to either just the top lids or both the top and bottom.  With liners, I have sticks, liquids, and gels.  Each takes it's own learned skill level to apply it.  All I can say about this is, in my opinion less is more, and practice makes perfect.

a couple of mascaras

After liner, I will use an eyelash curler to curl my lashes.  I then will apply mascara.  With mascara, a trick my wife taught me, which seems very wasteful, but works wonders is to use a tissue to remove almost all of the product from the brush.  Then I can go over and over my lashes without it clumping on my lashes.  I have always thought it to be very wasteful, but it does work quite well.  Also with mascara, try and get as low on the lashes as possible.

Oh yea, one more thing I do for my eyes, I use a light brown shadow to fill in my eyebrows.  I have very light brows and if I don't do that step it looks almost as though I don't have brows.

Okay, I think that is it for my own personal eye routine.  Hmm... that wasn't that long, okay maybe it was.

Love Ya!