The new smokey eye is... softly jewel toned
What the Little Black Dress is to fashion, the smokey eye is to beauty: classic, takes-you-anywhere-reliable, suits everyone. This season’s make-up tweak means stepping away from a traditional, monochrome black and grey palette and instead embracing colour.
Make-up artist Kenneth Soh, who created the looks on these pages, used a variety of blue shades, starting with a deep blue pencil liner, which he recommends running all around the upper and lower lashlines and into the waterline. If you then shut your eyes tightly, it smudges and softens a little. Then, with a fluffy brush, wing the colour out, creating shape, all the time working upwards and outwards to keep eyes looking lifted, adding more pencil if you need to.
Nars High-pigment Longwear Eyeliner in Park Avenue, £19, glides on, giving play time before drying and staying put for hours. Once you have the shape, brushing a teal grey powder eyeshadow over it both ‘smokes’ and sets the pencil, reinforcing the shape.
Save the strongest blue, which Soh chose from Lancôme Hypnôse Palette in Bleu Hypnôtique, £42, for the centre of the eyelid, towards the lashline. Using it there means that when you blink or close your eyes, there’s a beautiful kingfisher-like flash of blue, which becomes a bluey haze when they’re open. Lashings of mascara (we’re fans of the evocatively named L’oréal Paris Bambi Eye False Lash, £10.99) add a sexy, lived-in feel.
Wear it with:
To keep the focus on the eyes, choose milky shades of pink or apricot toned blush and lip colours, such as Dolce & Gabbana Dolce Blush Creamy Cheek and Lip Colour in Tender, £31, and Shiseido Colorgel Lipbalm in Hibiscus, £25.