Smoky Eyes Instructions at DarkComplexions.com

Smoky Eyes

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The "smoky eyes" look refers to a variety of eye shadow styles that both make the eyes look more deeply set, and create a dark but soft frame around them. Darker skinned people already have naturally well defined eyes, so we don't need to darken the eye socket so much as to create a soft, but deep frame for them. To do this, we should use artistic contrast.

Here are some examples of smoky eyes palettes suitable for darker skin.

For the person with a dark cool complexion, a glittery black adds a bit deeper shadow without looking sooty. This black should be somewhat sheer, but a quality brand of powder that you can use a watercolor technique to line the eyes.

Mildly metallic dark silver is a good median color, but for contrast, a lavender or somewhat rosy purple is best. What we're going to do is to use the median color as the balance between them in some places, but the light purple will make the black look darker without having to add more eyeshadow.

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Sets and palettes for smoky eyes on dark skin:

For all complexions, this Nars pencil set is a good one to have. They all have a bit of glitter, but not too much. It's more accented than glam.

For warm complexions, the "chamomile" set provides a dark, median, and light color with crushed pearls for the mild shimmering effect.

The "Ooh Ahh" duo is specifically for contrast on cooler complexions. It comes with a black shimmer and silver shimmer for the extremes, and can be easily mixed for the perfect median shade.

How To Do Smoky Eyes Eyeshadow

For our how-to, we're going to use medium-dark warm complexion as an example. With warm complexions, you want to stick with earthy, natural colors for the smoky eye look. Black and silvery colors end up looking far too flat. The basic steps are about the same for both cool and warm complexions though.

	First, lay down your colors. Line your upper lid with a somewhat narrow line of the darkest color. Add a thicker streak in the fold of the lid. Put some of the median color in the middle of your lid. Then another narrow line of the lightest color just above and mildly overlapping the narrow darker line. Then dot the outer arc under your brow with the lightest color.
	Now soften it up by blending the shadow on the upper lid outwards from the center. Smear the lightest and darkest colored line horizontally. You just want to soften them. The dark shadow at the fold should be blended upwards into the arc of your eye sockets, and the lightest colored shadow under your brow should be blended around and somewhat inwards. You want the shadowy part and the highlight to seem to fade into one another.
	Now open your eye to check how it looks. Some people with puffier eyes may be tempted to add more dark shadow right away, but be careful about this. What you may actually need here is a little more of the lightest color blended under your brow for contrast.
	Now, moisten a narrow eyeshadow brush with distilled water, and dip it into the darkest color. Make a well defined line across the edge of the upper and lower eyelids. Remember that if you have small eyes, you should only line the lower lid 1/3 to 1/2 of the way.
	Let the watercolored line dry completely, and then using a regular spongy eyeshadow brush, soften the line using small outward strokes.
	For more impact, you can add a little of the lightest color, or a more apricot color just under the lower liner.

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