At the beginning of this semester, when I was vaguely ambitious about this column, I swore that I would not write some boring article on how to get the perfect smoky eye. Swore! Because what's duller or more cliched than a how-to for the smoky eye, especially because probable zillions of such tutorials already exist on YouTube and beauty blogs galore?
Well. Clearly, senioritis is getting to me, and by that I mean one: I'm too lazy to think of something brilliant and creative at this precise moment in time, and two: I've been partying a lot more than usual lately. I mean, I went out three nights this weekend. It was like freshman fall, except, you know, I wasn't strutting around AEPi in a friggin' bandage skirt and "going-out top" trying to mack on sophomores. Also, my makeup has gotten better over the years.
The truth is, I have always sucked at eye makeup. Did you know I used to figure skate? I cannot walk over flat ground without tripping or go a literal day without smacking my head on something, but I used to rotate in the air for multiple revolutions while wearing velour bodysuits emblazoned with Austrian crystals.
Even trendier than my skating dresses, though, was the requisite 10 pounds of eye shadow I donned for each competition - all too often in powder blue, the color of champions. From my lash lines to my eyebrows the shadow lay, caked on thick enough to throw off my center of gravity and send me plummeting to the ice during mid-Atlantic regionals in 2010. (It was for sure the eye shadow.)
Long story short, my Blue Period was not cute. It took me years to acknowledge the clunkiness of my application technique and many more to figure out how to do the damn thing right. That brings us to last Thursday when, around 8:45 p.m., I, for the first time ever, applied the perfect smoky eye. And guys, it was hot. And sultry and messy and laughably easy.
Here's what you need: an extremely dope black cream eyeliner, such as TarteEmphasEYES Waterproof Clay Shadow/Liner ($24, Sephora.com). Use an eyeliner brush - I use Essence of Beauty brushes ($10, CVS.com) - to swipe the liner across your upper lash line. I start approximately in the middle of the lid, but usually dab a very thin, tapered line of the pigment toward, but not all the way into, the corner of my eye. Like, where the lashes start getting thick. And don't try to do any cat eye crap with the brush. It will not look great.
Then I grab a matte black stick eyeliner, such as Make Up For Ever's Aqua Eyes liner in matte black ($18, Sephora.com), and kind of scribble a line of that right above where my cream shadow is. I smear that out a little with my finger, scribbling and smearing until it looks as club kid as I want it to. The trick to this is not to build the line too high, because you'll be able to see more of it than you think when you're done applying.
Finally, I soften the contrast between the eyeliner and the un-eyelinered skin with something bronzy and glittery - a dark BB cream, a shimmery (not matte!) powder bronzer or even this champagne-colored Revlon lipstick whose actual name escapes me. Just smudge your bronzy thing of choice between where you have the stick eyeliner and the rest of your eyelid, and bam! You're ready to party like a freshman with a bunch of slack-y seniors. Incidentally, tweet me with good parties, kiddos.
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Rebecca Santiago is a senior majoring in English. She can be reached at rebecca.santiago@tufts.edu, or on Twitter at @rebsanti.
