Valentine's Eyes

Good Day Everyone,

Happy Valentine's Day for Friday! You know what they say... the eyes are the window to the soul, so whether you're all loved up or all loved out (for now), you can still have beautifully made up eyes :o) As you know, eyes are my thing and whilst a bright red or pink might work beautifully on the lips, it's a little harder to pull off on the eyes. So, I'm sharing a look that I like to wear that is a little twist on the colour of luuurve!

For this look, I used this eye shadow palette from Marks & Spencer that I bought quite a while ago. I instantly fell in love with that burgundy wine colour (4th from the left). In my younger days I always used to think that having brown eyes was really boring and envied people with green or blue eyes. However, as I got older I started to appreciate the perks of having brown peepers as most (eye shadow) colours work really well with brown... it's kind of like what black is for clothes - can be paired with almost anything colour wise.

Eyelids with MAC Prep+Prime

I started of by using my MAC Prep+Prime (reviewed here) to mattify my eyelids, reduce any discolouration and minimise the appearance of my fine veins.

Eye shadow colours

Next I swept the pale pink colour (1st on the left) all over my eyelids going up to my crease, and then I used a fluffy blending brush to apply the pink (2nd from the left) into my crease and blended it with the pale pink. Next I took a little bit of the burgundy wine colour on the tip of the same fluffy brush and softly defined the outer corners of my eyes, taking the colour half way into my crease. To reduce the redness of the burgundy colour I layered a bit of the brown (3rd from the left) on top and this made the overall effect a bit more purple-y. The key with this look, as with most eye shadows, is to layer and build the colour slowly as it's easier to add more colour than to take it away if you add too much. In addition, you must blend blend blend with a fluffy brush after the edition of each colour, to get that seamless, diffused colour transition with no harsh edges. I also took some of the pale pink onto my lower lash line with an angled brush, at the inner corners of my eyes and used the brown and burgundy on the outer half of my lower lash line just to add a bit of definition.

Black kohl liner on the upper lash line and lower waterline

I then applied a very thin line of black pencil kohl liner on my upper lash line and on my lower waterline just to intensify the look a bit. I followed up with a couple of coats of black mascara and used a tiny bit of MAC Strobe Cream as a brow bone highlighter.

MAC Strobe Cream on brow bone

Finally, as this is a Valentine's look I decided to add a bit of sparkle by using my Make Up For Ever Diamond Powder on the inner halves of my eyelids. Unfortunately, I don't think my photos did the sparkle much justice. And there you have it, smokey eyes with a twist on the traditional colour of love.

Make Up For Ever Diamond Powder on inner half of lids

What (eye) makeup looks do you like to wear for Valentine's Day? Whether you're out with a loved one or having a night with the girls, I hope you have a lovely valent-eyes day :o)

Love Sheen xxx