Good morning!!!
Today I woke up ready to explain how to apply eyeshadow to your eyelid because… It’s about time!!! Now that we know how to eliminate dark circles and make our skin perfect with makeup, bronzer, blush, and lipstick… all that’s left is to learn how to do our eye makeup properly!!!
I’m not going to talk about eyeshadow shades in this post; that will come in another one. I’m simply going to talk about how to apply eyeshadow to your eyelid. If you want it to look perfect, you must first apply a base eyeshadow in powder, “vanilla,” or “bone” cream, so that the rest of the eyeshadow stays put all day.
In this post, I’ll only talk about powder eyeshadow, not cream… that’s for another day…
Having said that… let’s get down to business… because, as Estefanía says… I ramble on more than a broken record!
The key is to use a good brush…
I recommend two from Bobbi Brown that I love: the “eye shadow brush” and the “touch-up brush”.
I love this eyeshadow brush (made from pony hair – don’t worry… they only cut their hair, nothing gets done…) because it picks up very little pigment from the eyeshadows, and they blend perfectly and evenly on the eye. It’s like it’s depositing “veils of color” on the eyelid.
How to apply eyeshadow with an eyeshadow brush
Take your brush, and with the side of it (since we’ll be applying eyeshadow with the side, not the tip, okay?), dab the brush with the eyeshadow, and then tap off a little on your hand (which will be your mixing palette from now on… except for the most “meticulous” among you who can do it on a tissue, but nothing beats your hand). Then you can apply it to your eye. Just like with blush, I always summarize it for my “students” by saying the technique is: “two taps on the eyeshadow, two taps on your hand to remove the excess, and then onto your eye!”
On the eyelid, it’s best to apply the color in small strokes, from bottom to top or top to bottom, and not from side to side… WHAT?! … Relax… I’ll explain… you have to try to make small strokes, as if you were caressing the skin, not tapping or rubbing quickly from side to side… but from the lash line to where the eyelid ends at the top (aka the crease or eye socket)… and with the movement from bottom to top or, if you prefer, from top to bottom, that is… from the crease or eye socket to the lash line in light passes.
If you do it this way, you won’t get eyeshadow on your under-eye circles, which is so annoying, because what we’re doing is “depositing the product little by little and exactly where we want it” !!!!
The great thing about using an eye shadow brush is that it looks super natural, and it doesn’t leave harsh lines, bad strokes, or overly defined shadows.
Almost all of you apply eyeshadow a bit too aggressively, from side to side, making long strokes or pressing too hard on the eye, and that’s a mistake, because that way the eyeshadow will hardly last and there will always be “cuts” when you close your eyes, or you’ll have eyeshadow fallout all over your eye and under-eye area, especially if you use dark eyeshadows.
Touch-up brush
This one’s also one of my favorites. It’s made from “white goat” hair (I know it’s not very glamorous), but it is what it is… I think it has the advantages of classic sponge brushes for applying eyeshadow, and at the same time it’s much more hygienic than them… because since it’s made of hair and not foam, it picks up a lot of pigment (due to the type of hair) but it can be washed, which is difficult with foam brushes and you end up having one for almost every eyeshadow, and it’s a pain!
So, in short, this brush picks up much more pigment than the previous one. The application method is exactly the same: small strokes from bottom to top or top to bottom, not rubbing sideways, but pressing the shadows onto the eyelid. I really like it for when you want the shadow to be more intense… it looks almost as if you applied it with your finger, but it lasts much longer on the eye.
This brush is called touch-up (pronounced tach‑ap) but I call it “tach‑an” … because it serves not only to apply eyeshadow to the mobile eyelid, but also to define the crease and to blend the lines we make with pencil or eyeliner on the eye and even, Bobbi Brown herself, also uses it to apply concealer under dark circles (although I am not so much a fan of this).
When I do the “eyeliner” post, I’ll explain how to blend it perfectly with this touch-up brush.
Another way to apply eyeshadow is with your fingertip
This way you get a lot of pigment, a lot of color, so to speak, but it won’t last as long on your eye, and the line isn’t very precise. However, you can combine this technique with using a brush.
I often apply my makeup first with a brush, and once the color is well blended, if I want to add more intensity with another eyeshadow, I apply it with my finger, pressing it onto the eye in the area I want to make it stand out more. But I always apply it with a brush first, which is what guarantees uniformity, evenness, and longevity.