I’m not some YouTube vlogger goddess, but occasionally I like to throw up a tutorial for you. Because I more-or-less missed summer anyway, I’ve been ready to embrace Autumn for a while though we don’t actually hit Autumn for almost two weeks. Last Friday, I did a nice warm Autumn Gold and Violet Eye look (trust – it works) and liked it enough that I wanted to share.
What I used (feel free to adapt based on what you already have!):
- Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion (BONUS: Nyx Milk)
- Virgin, Naked, Buck, and Half Baked eyeshadows from Urban Decay’s Naked palette:
- Violetta, Fine Wine, and Violet Echo eyeshadows from the Coastal Scents 252 Palette:
- Desired black liner of choice – on Friday I used Stila Stay all Day, for this, I used a L’Oreal gel
- Lash Curler
- bareMinerals Flawless Definition mascara or whatever makes you happy
- Flat Shader Brush (or two, if you like)
- Crease blending brush – something with a fluffy dome to place and blend color in your crease (or two, if you like)
- Precision blending brush – doesn’t have to be special, just something to help blur any harsh lines
Start by priming your eye area with UDPP or your eye primer of choice. Priming is important to prevent creasing, fading, all that jazz. Though this isn’t a look that is like WHAM look at all this purple, you do want it to pop where we do place it. I added some Nyx Milk pencil and blended it out on the outer third of my eye (you can see it below).
Next, pick up some Naked and Buck on the same brush and apply them to your crease. This flatters my skin, but you may need different crease/transition shades; use whatever works for you. You just need something slightly darker than your skin. Blend this back and forth in the crease in windshield-wiper motions until you’re satisfied.
After that, using a flat shader, pick up Half Baked (or any awesome gold shadow – Gold from Lorac Pro would be awesome too, there are so many gold shadows that would work, even more bronze-y golds. Use what you have!) and pack it onto the inner 2/3 of your lid. Intensity is up to you.
And here’s another…
Using the other side of your flat shader, pick up all three purples I mentioned. I wanted a rich, warm purple that leaned red…but not too red, which is why I tossed the Violet Echo in to balance out Violetta and Fine Wine. We want reddish-purple, not purplish-red, got it? Purplish-red would make this a different look. Pack those onto the outer third of your lid, but don’t bring it all the way into the crease…not yet, anyway. PACK IT ON. Don’t worry about making it look too pretty because we will blend and clean it up in a minute.
Intensify the gold if you want. Using the clean brush you intend for precision blending, go in tiny tiny circles over the space where the gold meets the purple. We aren’t avant garde here; blend it for a nice transition. To help, you can use a fingertip and gently pat the pan of either gold or the three purples (depending on which you want to see more of on your lid) and tap that lightly at the (hopefully now-blurred) line to help. You want them to fade into each other, as if gold would naturally transition into a warm purple any other time. It wouldn’t, but damn it, make this autumn gold and violet eye look that way.
Then, blend out the violet – you can go up into your crease and blow it out if you want; I didn’t because I don’t find that flattering on my face, but if you dig it, rock it.
Swipe Virgin on the inner corner for a highlight using whatever you feel like. If you want, you can smudge a tiiiiny bit of the purple mixture along the outer third of your lower lashline. Mine was actually due to surprisingly nicely-placed fallout (on one eye, anyway) – normally I don’t go crazy with under-eye stuff because I make a mess like a preschooler with finger-paints.
And straight on…
Line your eyes however you desire. I used Stila Stay All Day on Friday, but I used L’Oreal Infalliable Never Fail Gel Lacquer Liner for this. Wings are appropriate with this look. Make them as ridiculous as you feel appropriate or comfortable with (I’m a wuss and don’t tend to do crazy dramatic wings). Curl your lashes. Apply mascara as you see fit. Forget to do your brows and then take an allegedly-finished photo of your autumn gold and violet eye for your blog. Oh wait, you can skip that last part.
Autumn Gold and Violet Eye
There’s the look! Even though this autumn gold and violet eye is comprised of six shadow colors, it is very easy to pull off (especially since three of the colors are applied simultaneously). I think this look would be easily adapted to suit many shadow collections (aka you don’t need a CS252 or Naked palette) and will flatter all eye colors. I want to tell you this autumn gold and violet eye will flatter all skin tones, but I don’t want to be the blogger that tells you that when you know you don’t feel good in purple, then have you slap purple on your eyes and feel foolish–y’know? I don’t want to be that guy(girl).
Thanks for bearing with the ridiculous quality and lighting of my photos – my DSLR wasn’t handy and I had to keep switching between an ancient point and shoot and my smartphone (but I think I have a solution for that going forward). I hope, despite the weird photos, it was enjoyable and educational.