My Red Eyeshadow Tutorial

Red eyeshadow is rare on makeup counters and personal makeup kits. For one thing, red on the eyes is quite tricky to wear, its presence usually on high fashion shoots and shows. It can make the eyes look puffy if not worn properly and with a very strong color such as red, it might be a challenge to wear too. Heck on the lips quite many have a hard time wearing it, what more on the eyes?

With that in mind, I came up with a tutorial on how to wear red eyeshadow without looking too weird. I came up with an easy technique of doing smoky red eyes. Of course, makeup like this is too strong to wear on the office, so wear this on gimmick nights, parties, or days when you feel like wearing red on your eyes (and I'm not talking about conjunctivitis, okay?).

First of all, since the color red could accentuate redness and uneven tones on the skin, it's best to make a clean canvas. After prepping the skin, apply foundation and concealer. Set everything with powder.

I opted to include blush first so I chose a peach-pink mineral blush on the apples of my cheeks for a natural and warm glow (Elegant Minerals in Peaches and Cream)

Frame the eyes with a strong pair of brows. I'm using here Shu Uemura eyebrow gel in Seal Brown, which gives a natural but strong definition. I like the ashy brown color since it fits most Asian tones.Now here's the eye makeup. First, I prepped the eye with an eye color base for the eyeshadow to have something to hold on to. Some girls prefer wetting the brushes but I really prefer applying the eyeshadow dry or at least with a primer or creme shadow base. The wet technique can contaminate the makeup with the moisture (moisture breeds bacteria) so invest on a good eyeshadow primer or base, as this will save your makeup from wet application contamination. I used here Laura Mercier eye basics in eye bright.

For the eyes, I dabbed my eyeshadow brush (stiff bristles deposit more color) on my matte red eyeshadow and applied this at the center of my lid (A). For the contour, I dabbed a coppery bronze eyeshadow on the crease area (B) as shown. As the colors look imperfect and clumsy, the solution for this is to blend the colors real well so they end up looking seamless (C). Highlight the brow with a warm gold color and don't forget to blend. I didn't highlight the inner corners of my eyes as they could accentuate my wide-set eyes. (products: MAC Cabared Red, Dreammaker, and Glamour Check! eyeshadows).

Finally, for more definition, I lined and tightlined her eyes with soft black pencil and smudged it to get it in between the lashes. Black eyeshadow with shimmer was used to set the pencil to prevent travelling (products: MAC Eye Kohl in Feline and eyeshadow in Mont Black) of eyeshadow.

For flirty fringes, curl lashes and apply mascara.

Strong and bold eyes like this go with a nude and natural lip so I kept my lips moist by applying Lip Conditioner in Popster. At the end, the eyes should look like this:

So that's my own way of wearing red eyeshadow on eyes.