Brown Smoky Eye Tutorial

Hey everyone! It's the weekend again. I'm experiencing major DOMS right now since I've been working out everyday following my monthly calendar and even inserting some pole training after my workout (gotta take advantage of being warm!) today is rest and recovery day and I thought of doing  a makeup tutorial. I haven't done one for so long so I'm like, why not, right? So here I go.

This look is pretty easy and doesn't use a lot of loud or crazy colors. I thought I'd go classic this time. It can be used by anyone and can be worn if you're going to prom or attending a wedding or even just going out to meet friends. This is called the brown smoky eye, which, obviously uses a lot of browns and here, I made browns look not boring. When I was starting out with makeup, I used to hate browns because I found it so boring and blah and reserved only for the lolas. But really, browns are amazing because they go with any color. And yes, browns can be made smoky and sexy too. So let's start.

As always, I want a clean face so do your skincare and let your moisturizer sit a bit before applying primer. When the primer has settled, go ahead and do your foundation base and brows. I pulled my hair back into a bun for this look but feel free to do curls or volume or set your hair or whatever. I just want to make things neat for today.

I contoured my face. Again, my objective for contouring is to not give me a super supermodelish bone structure but slight dimension so I don't flatten out in photos and to give my face an all-over warmth. It actually kinda enhanced my skin color  because I've been swimming a lot again once more since it's been sunny again so I've been less pasty and pale. Yay!

Before I do eye makeup, I dab a good amount of loose powder under my eyes. This is to catch any eyeshadow fallout when I do my eye makeup since I don't want to be having flecks of eyeshadow on my cheeks and the hassle of cleanup. Some use eyeshadow guards which can be bought at makeup supply stores, it's up to you.

Most of my products are from the Lorac Pro Palette, which I purchased at Tupped Boutique.

 It's got a lot of very wearable colors which can make a lot of looks, from day to night. What I like about it is that it has a very good selection of matte colors. This is very pigmented though so when using this, use little product first and then add on as you go.  I also applied eye primer on the lids. This will help my eyeshadow stay put. For this look, I used NARS Pro-Prime Instant Line and Pore Perfector on my eyes.

I start with my brow highlight and I used this color called Cream, which is a nice skintone color that doesn't look too harsh. I like that this makes my browbone pop.

Using a fluffy blending brush (I used MAC 217 here), apply Taupe on the crease creating a contour. Now for the crease contour color to look natural, I want you to blend the life out of it and make it blend seamlessly with the Cream.

Time for the lid color. I used a warm, matte brown color such as Make Up Store eyeshadow in Khaki.

I used a paddle brush to deposit the color on my lids and blended this with my crease color. If I want to deepen my crease, I add a bit more Taupe.

Now just for a tad of shimmer and to make this makeup look less flat, take a clean flat brush and dab it on a satiny, shimmery brown color (not too glittery). I used Pewter here from my Lorac Pro Palette. You can also use a shimmery loose powder eyeshadow.

My lids should look somewhat like this by now.

Smoky is not smoky without eyeliner so I lined my eyes with a nice, smudgy black eyeliner like Urban Decay in Perversion. Don't worry about getting this too perfect because we would be smudging this anyway with a smudger brush or a cotton bud.

To make the black stay, set this with matte black eyeshadow (I used Black from the Lorac Pro Palette).

Blend a bit of Pewter along with the black on the lower lashline.

For more definition, you can use some of the black eyeshadow on the outer V of the eye. You can also add more warmth by blending a bit of reddish brown (such as Garnet) on the crease. Don't put too much!

Curl your lashes and apply mascara. Lashes make a lot of difference in opening up the eyes so go ahead and apply false lashes. But if you prefer just your natural lashes, it's okay too.

For this look, I skipped the falsies and went for a super volumizing mascara such as L'Oreal Miss Manga, which is also waterproof.

Brush away the loose powder and you have these eyes.

Blush and lipstick are next. Since brown goes with almost anything, feel free to use your favorite blush and lip color. I wanted this look to be more on the warm, coral-y look, so I used a coral blush like Benefit Coralista on my cheeks.

I got my Coralista in this awesome Holiday set I got last Christmas. It's so great I got like six blushes from Benefit in one palette plus a bonus highlight and teensy travel sizes of mascara and eyeliner.

To match my cheeks, I went for a neutral peach-y lip color like MAC Please Me. I use this color a lot at work and my clients really love this color. It's a favorite on most bridal works.

My smoky eyes are done and ready to go.

I admit the look really did take some time since there were a lot of steps, not my usual go-go-go tutorials but it used super basic colors and turned it into an awesome look. If you have all these browns and want to go beyond your sweep of shadow for a special occasion like date night or if you're heading off to an event and you don't have a makeup artist with you, go ahead and try this. It's actually one of my go-to looks if I need to be made up for work and I don't really want to think of what color to use to match my dress or whatever.

Let me know as well if you've tried this look for yourself and where you tried it. Take a photo of yourself and tag me (IG: @bambikitty) so I can see!

Have fun! Stay awesome.