Basic Neutral Eye Look

I'm going to take a little break from posting my lipstick collection to give a brief eye shadow tutorial.  When you wear bold lip colors, it can be pretty difficult deciding what to do with the rest of your makeup.  For me, I choose to pair it with either a slight wing (hey, if it's not broken...) or this look.  This is an easy way to look polished and to avoid looking costume-y.  

For this look I use three brushes, one palette and a little mascara.  That's it.  Very simple, very subtle.

These are the three brushes I used for this look, please excuse their dirtiness.

 (1) This brush came with Urban Decay's original Book of Shadows and I love it.  I'm not sure what a similar brush might be, but look for a very small width (ferrel) blending brush with longer bristles.

(2) This brush was a free gift with purchase from Estee Lauder about 10 years ago.  Yes, I know I'm not really being helpful here.  You can replace this brush with any basic blending brush.

(3) This is a Crown C433 Pro Blending Fluff.  Anything like the MAC 217 would work here.

The palette I used to achieve this look is the Naked Basics Palette by Urban Decay.  This is a great palette for basic eye looks and is very travel friendly.  I used all of the shades except for Crave, the matte black shadow. 

Start with a primed eyelid.  I used Urban Decay's Primer Potion in its original formula.

This step is optional, but I usually add a white cream shadow to the lid, just to subtly lighten the area and provide a blank slate for the shadows.  I know a lot of people that use NYX's Jumbo Shadow Pencil in Milk for this, but I use that horrible white stick concealer from Maybelline.  It's drier and, for me, doesn't crease.  As a concealer, I don't understand it, but I definitely recommend it as an eyeshadow base.

Apply W.O.S. to the full lid.

With brush (1), apply Faint along the crease.  You don't have to be precious with blending at this shade.  What you want is basically a line at just above the eye lid.

With brush (2), use Naked 2 to blend the crease out.  Go right into the shade and just continue blending upward until you have a nice fade.  Tiny windshield wiper movements, guys.  Don't rush it.

At this point, I like to soften the top of the crease shadow with a mixture of Foxy and W.O.S.  Use brush (3) to apply these shadows at the brow and slightly below.  This should just take a couple of seconds and you might not even feel that it's necessary, I just think it softens the look.

Highlight!  This is also not a necessary step, but I have trouble saying no to a little shimmer.  Using brush (3), I apply a little bit of Venus just below the brow, at the center of the lid and in the corner of the eye.  It just brighten and opens up the eye a bit.

At this stage, you can put on a little bit of eyeliner, but I just added some mascara.  Here, I used one layer of Clump Crusher and one layer of Benefit's They're Real.

Hello.