Smokey Eyes for Soft Faces & Features

I think that anybody can rock a smoky eye with depth and drama. It's just about finding the right shapes, textures, and colors for your features. If you're anything like me, you may sometimes feel a little bit overwhelmed by those more dramatic looks, especially when it comes to the eyes. So today I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks for how I modify that kind of look for my softer features. And by softer features, I mean maybe you have fullness in your face, round shapes, maybe you have softer bone structure or are low contrast or super fair, maybe you have asymmetry even, and sometimes dramatic eye looks can accentuate that. Or honestly, maybe you just prefer softer versions of more dramatic styles for your personal taste, your lifestyle, your workplace, whatever it is. So that's the plan for today. Let's get into it. For this look, we are going to start with the eyes. I do have foundation, a little bit of bronzer on, but I do think it's important to start with the eyes, see how they turn out before you then decide how you're going to balance and accommodate the look with your blush and your lips. Step one, what we're going to do is pick our palette. You can definitely mix actual physical makeup palettes, but what I mean by that is are you going to stick with warm tones, cool tones, neutral tones, maybe mix it up a little bit. But honestly, I think for the most part, sticking with your undertone for this kind of look is a great starting point because it's just going to feel that much more harmonious. So if you're super cool, go with one of those classic silver and gray smokey eyes. If you're warm, something more brown and coppery. For me today, I'm going to go with something neutral. So I'm going to be using the Natasha Denona Glam Palette, which has a lot of different options. I can add a touch more coolness, a touch more warmth, which is something I tend to like in my looks in general. But before I go in with this palette, the first thing I'm going to do is brighten up the lid. So this is a theme you're going to see me touching on a lot throughout this look because when it comes to being able to accommodate these more darker, heavier styles, when you have that softness, you want to find these moments of levity in the look. So maybe that's the way you have some brighter areas in the face. Maybe you have shimmer to lift up the look. I'll talk about it as we go through and different moments you can find this, but this is why I tend to brighten the lid first. I'm going in with my favorite brightening shade and I have already put some concealer on the eyes, so that's also a great starting point. And I'm just going to lay this down on the whole lid, but especially focus on areas of the eye where I do like brightness, kind of no matter what. I always like brightness in the inner corner and I always like brightness on the brow bone. But this just provides an opportunity that you have this base and this initial shade that you're going to keep coming back to, to blend, to bring things forward a little bit. And it also just creates a base for all the other shadows to stick to. See the difference? Very subtle. This one just had a bit of concealer. Now we have a little bit more brightness happening here. Step three, we're going to start building out the shape with a transition shade. So this is a very standard thing to do in any kind of smoky eye. You pick a shade that's definitely more of a mid-tone or a lighter tone that acts as a transition point between your skin tone and then that darkest shade. I'm going to go in with this one here. I like that it has a little bit of warmth personally. And a medium fluffy kind of brush. This is from Ruffer, the number one. Number one. And think of this step as an opportunity to honor your eye shape by finding ways you can extend it without manipulating it into something else. I think a good smoky eye kind of brings depth to your eyes in general and makes them really a focal point. So we don't want to contain it too much. We do want to find opportunities to extend the eye shape. So I tend to start with the crease area and just work it into the natural shape. It's like this for me personally. It's this soft kind of crescent moon, let's call it. And then I'll start building that same shape out further. So I'm not taking this color and creating a V for example because there isn't really a V shape at this part of my eye. So I'm taking this half moon shape and that's exactly how I'm going to extend and blend this transition shade further than the actual feature I have here. Now I'm not saying that you can't manipulate shapes on your face. Of course you can, it can be very impactful. But I know there's been times where I tried to do this, especially with a dramatic eye look, and it just looked messy. And when you just honor the shape you have, it's just a little bit easier, you know? So I'm just gonna build this up a little bit, work it part way in to the inner corner. Now for me, I don't particularly like bringing a color fully onto the entirety of the lid. So I might leave that brightness at the inner corner and maybe a little bit here as well. We'll see as I go, but it's something I'm gonna bear in mind as I continue to blend and add more depth. I'm gonna think about if I want to add more color or keep this lighter part, you know, at the inner corner, maybe on the brow bone, maybe on the lower lash line. You may find you just want to work on the upper lid and leave the lower lid totally blank. That can really open up the eyes, but then you have this smokiness on top. And then if I've had any trouble blending or I really want to blend it, whatever it is, I can take a fluffy brush that has nothing on it and just diffuse out that shape even more. Maybe I'll use my brightening shade on it and that will help with that really seamless blend. Now that we have the shape laid out or the beginning of the shape, we're gonna start adding more depth. And I encourage you to use shades that are deep, like mid-tones and dark tones that are deep, but we're not going as far as black. So if you're using, say, a more mauve color story, maybe your deepest color is a plum rather than a black. And then you're finding those in-between shades to create the dimension. I'm gonna go in with this brown shade here with a slightly smaller brush than the first one. Tap off any excess because as you start to get into these darker shades, they might have a little bit more fallout. And I'm going to keep it really focused at first, starting to bring depth at the outer corner and then blending it into that transition shade slowly. And just kind of stop and assess as you go. You lay down a little bit of color, kind of think, can I handle more? Do I want more? Do I want to bring this shade further in? Do I want to bring it further out? What I'm going to do is kind of create a mini version of that rounded shape I started with by softly extending my upper lid with its own little mini crescent moon here. As I was saying, I blended a crescent moon here. I'm going to do the same here. So I'm keeping those rounded shapes even as I work in smaller shapes. As I'm assessing this, I feel like, oh, you know what? I do want to bring more depth onto the lid. So I'm going to go in with my transition shade and add some of that to the main part of the lid. But I'm still keeping my levity and my space at the inner corner. Going back in with that deeper shade. And sometimes you may find you can add so much depth with a single shade. It can look very different sheared out than it can look as you really build it up. So don't feel like you have to use like 10 shades to create this look. You can create a lot of nuance and depth with three or four shades. One thing you may want to do to add depth without going super dark as well is to use those darker satin kind of shades like this one here. It has a little bit of sheen to it. It's not a matte. And that means it's going to bounce the light a little bit. Actually, I don't want to use my finger right now, but I may want to go in with a brush and use that as part of one of my mid-tone darker transition shades because it will subtly catch the light. Or maybe you want to use that as your only transition shade, something that has this light bouncing quality and that, as I said, is a moment of levity. Anything with shimmer, anything that brings light to the face adds that touch of something to brighten it and soften it. So I'm bringing this kind of as a transition on the lid from the transition shade to this slightly smokier shade. Now I'm going to move on to the darkest shade in the smoky eye and I'm going in for this. And I think you can see that it is not as deep as a pure black. It's more like a charcoal. And I'm just going to be a lot more careful with how I use this deepest shade. Just really start small. The lash line is a great place to bring this depth in the outer corner. Now at this point, I'm personally deciding that I do want to bring some depth on the lower lash line, but you may want to skip this. I think if you just keep it on the upper lid, it can look so cool as well. Once you've put lashes on and everything, it makes a bit more sense. But I do want to add some depth. I'm going to take that second shade, the mid-tone deeper shade, and just start to connect just a little bit with that upper lid and the kind of blown out shape here. And then taking my transition shade and that's the one that's going to transition to the inner corner rather than the dark shade going all the way to the inner corner. And I'm going to squint and blow it out. Like I said at the beginning, this idea of extending your eye shape softly. I'm following this soft U of my under eye and bringing it further out. All right, we're getting, we're getting there. Trust the process. Also when you start with the eyes before you've done the cheeks and the lips, it can sometimes just feel like dirty. It'll look dirty until you have the lashes and everything else done. So trust, trust, trust yourself. I'm going to go back in with my first brightening shade. Like I said, it's this kind of anchor point and this blending point. So I'm going to brighten back up this area. You know, if any shadow happened here, it just helps also blend those lines. Maybe you don't feel the need to brighten the inner corner. You just want to stick with say the brow bone or the lower lash line, modify it for your features. But I do really think there's something to having this play of light and dark so that it's not just all dark on your lid. That's when it can start to feel more overwhelming for softer features. Okay. At this point, we're going to think about any finishing touches we want to do before going through with the mascara. So the waterline, this is also a great point to consider whether you want to add depth or light. You can go with a light waterline, maybe you don't put anything in it, or you could go for a dark brown, some kind of mid-tone and make it smokier. It's all about that play of light and dark again and what you're feeling you're needing. A lot of the time when I'm doing a smokey or heavier look, I will add a bright waterline. It just pops open the eye and makes it feel less intense. Today though, I am in the mood for leaning into that smokiness even more. So I'm going to take the shade from Urban Decay, Cool Coyote, and it's just going to add a little bit of smokiness without completely closing off the eye the way a dark black does. I mean a black, but it has the same effect, you know, where it's starting to really bring that smokiness to the entire look. And now, right before I do lashes, I need to think about if I want to add shimmer to this. Some people prefer matte looks, some people prefer shimmer, but shimmer can be that other opportunity to add levity to the look. And so I think I'm going to do it. And you can do this in two ways. You could take a more satin kind of shimmer, think about something like this. It's definitely going to bounce the light. For my style though, I especially love how a very, very bright pop of shimmer looks against something smokier and grungier. I just think it really brings the look forward, really brings it to life and makes it really glam too, if you want to go for more of a glam look. So I'm going to take this shade from Glamonatrix, Nearly Natural, and it's like a cream off-white, nearly silver bright shimmer, because I just want that pop against all this smokiness. I'm going to place this not completely in the inner corner, more on the outer third middle. I cannot find my glitter glue, so pray for me. Another great place to put a little bit of shimmer is on just the inner corner. And then I always like a little bit of shimmer here as well, because then the lower lash line also is getting that little bit of lift. It's interesting how completely silver that translated against the more warmer transition shade. Anyway, now we're going to bring this look home, bring it to life. Of course, mascara is just going to be such a game changer. So I am going to go in with a dark brown. I have been using a dark brown with almost all of my makeup looks the past few months. I just find it has that little bit more softness than a pure black. So I recommend trying out a softer shade of mascara, but I do recommend going for a lot of mascara. Not necessarily like a really chunky, volumized look, but I don't think this is the time for going really light and barely there with the mascara. I think a smoky eye really benefits from the lashes standing out and kind of grounding the whole thing, especially because what lashes do is they really open up the eye and once again, that's a moment of levity against this darker makeup look. Now I do want to add a little half lash at the sides here. So I do recommend a style that isn't too heavy. It's just fluttery and soft. I'm going to be using the Mac on Janu and these are also a dark brown, which is bonus points. It's funny, I used to never feel like a makeup look was complete without lashes and now I've barely been using them. So now I just definitely reserve them for those glam kinds of looks. See how soft this lash is? It's got an invisible band rather than a black band. In terms of the colors I'm going to now use, I am not really going to go for, you know, a bright red lip at this point or a bright red blush. More some really core neutrals or mid-tones or light tones that just make me feel my best and tend to look good with all kinds of colors. A little bit more neutral rather than bright and bold, you know? So I have been loving Office Hours from Tower 28. I think I'm gonna see how this one goes. I'm just gonna start with a little bit at a time. As someone who loves a really blushy look, sometimes when I have more of a eye focus look I just pare it back a little bit, not completely. I think I would like to go for just a little bit of a higher placement than I usually do, so just right on the cheekbone. And I think this can be an opportunity to lean into your softness. So that softer color, you know, a wash of pink, a more diffused application of blush. Because we do have this more bold eye look, we want the rest of the face to honor aspects of our looks that maybe the slightly more dramatic look is just competing with just a little bit. Some highlighter for sure. I want more light bouncing on the face, so on the cheekbone as usual. For the liner, I'm going to this Anastasia Beverly Hills shade called Deep Taupe. I want something that's going to add a little bit of depth to balance the eye and the lip. And it's a pretty neutral shade. I'm hoping it's going to tie in with the little bit of, you know, neutral warmth happening in the crease. And this is a good opportunity to potentially honor the roundness in your features. So I will create a lush shape to the lip. And then I'm just going to have the lip liner be the main lip shade and add a little bit of a translucent shimmery gloss at the center of the lip as an opportunity to bounce some light and add a little bit of levity. All right friends, this is the finished look. Honestly, I love it, especially for a night out or some kind of vacation where you just really want to look a little bit more sultry and dramatic. And I really do feel like these tips and tricks just help this kind of look feel a lot more comfortable for me, which is really the goal with your makeup. You want to feel comfortable and elevated and beautiful. And sometimes it can be overwhelming when you feel like there's something that isn't working for you. And there's one final note I want to make on for softer faces, creating this kind of more smoky look is don't underestimate the power of your hair accessories and your clothing to work with the look. So we have these more dramatic eyes. This would look very different if I had my hair more straight and severe. It is straight naturally, but the waves and the curls just soften my face so that the smokiness doesn't feel as intense as if I had, say, a really flipped back style. The softness of the hair honors my features while I play with this more dramatic look. And then maybe you want to wear rounded earrings. I often actually wear hoop earrings with dramatic eye looks. Today I'm just wearing something sparkly and ethereal, which does add a little bit of brightness. And yeah, maybe your outfit is soft and swishy, nothing like a blazer or anything with sharp lines. These are just some ways you can consider balancing the more dramatic look. And I think that's it for today. Toasty, let's take it away. Let me know if you guys have any makeup hacks for this kind of look and honoring your softer features. I'd love to hear from you and commenting helps the algorithm. Thank you as always for watching until the end. I really appreciate it. Toasty appreciates it. And if you want to check out my Patreon for bonus content and ad-free content, I have that link down below. And until next time, may you all find yourselves a little bit of makeup magic, and we will see in the next video. Bye, witches.