make school

This beauty buddy movie pairs two bold focal points together — a messy reddish brown smoky eye and a crisp blackened red matte lip — to create a jammin’ juxtaposition of grungy and glam, and you know I’m all about the contrasts in makeup. 

What you’ll need

FACE PRODUCTS

• Face Primer with pearly sheen (BECCCA Backlight)
• Medium coverage liquid matte foundation (NARS Natural Longwear Radient Foundation in Stromboli and Valencia)
• Concealer for your under eye area, if you want (MAC Matchmaster Concealer in 4)
• Face Powder (MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Golden Tan)
• Warm pinkish mauve powder blush (MAC Extra Dimension in Faux Sure!)
• Peachy tan bronzer (MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Give Me Sun)
• Matte blackened red lipstick (MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipstick in Carnivorous)
• Reddish brown lip liner (MAC Mahogany)

EYE MAKEUP

• Brow gel, either clear or a color that matches your brows (Hourglass Arch Brow Volumizing Gel in Warm Brown)
• Two powder eyeshadows: a warm reddish brown powder eyeshadow (MAC Swiss Chocolate) and a glittery bronzy peach (MAC Honey Lust)
• A warm reddish brown eyeliner, ideally something creamy which you can buff out and blend (MAC Costa Riche)
• Mascara (Benefit BAD Gal Bang!)

TOOLS

• Smudge brush (MAC 219S)
• Fluffy angled eyeshadow brush (MAC 275S)
• Blush brush (MAC 127S)
• Flat eyeshadow brush (or, you can just use a finger)
• Something to blend your foundation (BeautyBlender)
• Something to blend your foundation (BeautyBlender)
  

  1. Face (primer) first

  Because the smoky eye is a focus of this look, and we want to do it well, if we start with the eyes before we finish the skin, it’ll be easier to clean up any fallout without ruining our foundation…but because the face primer needs time to dry, we’ll start with that first.
  Choose a face primer with a pearly sheen (for peekaboo shimmer that’s just barely visible beneath the liquid matte foundation you’ll be layering on top), and apply it all over your face.

  2. Build that (casual) brow!

  OK, now, fill in your brows with gel.
  So we’re making two big statements with this look. One is the blackened red matte lip, and the smoky reddish brown eyes are the other, so bushy, casual-ish brows balance nicely with that IMO.

  3. Line your upper and lower lash and water lines

  Use your reddish brown eyeliner for this, and it’s 100% absolutely OK if it’s messy because you’re just going to smudge the heck out of it in a minute anyway.

  4. Take a smudge brush to it

  Smudge your lower lash line with a smudge brush, and I like to do this early when I’m doing a smoky eye because the corner of where that lower lash liner ends up dictates how far I’ll be taking out the eye makeup (see step 5).
  

  5. So sketchy

  Sketch the shape of the smoky eye on your upper lid using your warm reddish brown eyeliner, and the exact shape you choose is up to you. Whatever feels right.
  I have a semi-hooded lid situation, so I usually (but not always) draw a half moon shape on my lids, and when I get to the outer corner, I use the liner I applied on my lower lash line in the previous step as my guide.
  Basically, when I’m sketching the shape of the smoky eye on my upper lid, I look at the end of that lower lash line, and I connect it to the corner of the half moon on my upper lid, thereby wrapping the smokey effect around the entire eye for a halo of cohesive color.
  LOL. I don’t know why, but I just made myself laugh there. 

  6. Blend the edges of the liner on your upper lid

  Blur them with a blending brush, but still try to maintain the shape that you carefully sketched in step 5. You want a gradient that goes from dark at the lash line and lightens as it moves up toward your brow bone.
  Any blending brush should do, but I prefer to use small, semi-fluffy angled eyeshadow brushes for this.
  I place the short bristles along the edge of the half moon, then gently blend the liner using careful, controlled back-and-forth strokes to keep the liner from going all the way up to my brows.
  When you’re done blending, clean the brush’s bristles a bit by gently rubbing the head on a paper towel.

  7. Using the same blending brush…

  Now load the brush with your matte reddish brown powder eyeshadow, and pat it directly on top of the smudged liner on your lids. Then blend, keeping the light-to-dark gradient.
  (This intensifies the smokiness.)

  8. The eye is shaping up

  Next, load your smudge brush with the matte reddish brown powder eyeshadow, and blend it on top of the liner on your lower lash line.
  Note: Don’t forget to connect the outer corner of the lower lash line to the outer corner of the shadow on your upper lash line to envelop the entire eye in smoky goodness.

  9. More sophisticated smoke

  Now load a flat eyeshadow brush (or a fingertip) with the glittery bronzed peach eyeshadow, and pat it gently on the inner half of your lids. You can then either blend the edges with your blending brush, or leave the shadow to settle on its own.
  I do it both ways sometimes, and either way works!
  (If you use the blending brush, when you’re finished with it, clean the bristles on a paper towel one last time, because you’ll need it for the next step.)