NYX Nude on Nude palette - Night Look

 

I haven't really been doing many looks using eye shadow but I felt inspired today because I have been so exhausted and in a bit of a low mood so what better way than to play with makeup? This look sort of came out of nowhere: I literally wasn't thinking and just mixed colors from the NYX Nude on Nude palette as and when I felt like it and I freaking LOVE LOVE LOVE the end result because I never incorporate more colors when I do this sort of black lid-black liner-blackblackblack look. The more black the better (plus it's easier) but I think I will opt for this look more often.

For some reason I need to give this look a name. It shall be called my Phantom of the Opera look. Don't know why, was the first thing that popped into my head!

The main things about this look: I used a shimmery gray and a matte black for the lid and a matte white, gray and black for my inner corner and water line. I don't really like gray anymore these days despite it being one of my favorites in terms of clothing. I kind of realized gray isn't flattering on tan girls like me and as soon as I realized it my heart broke and I avoid gray now. Mostly. I still cave and wear it whenever I miss it too much. Anyway, moving on...

As for the eyeliner bit, I usually am a heavy eyeliner girl. I like it thick and everywhere. I like the whole Cleopatra kind of appeal and I think it suits me well because it doesn't scream "tramp" (I don't see how it would to begin with, to me it's blue eyeshadow and Barbie pink lipstick for some reason - think the tackier the makeup the more "trampy" it is for me) but more like "Hey, I'm mixed therefore exotic therefore BOOM look at my eyes"?

SO! For this look, I used liquid liner for my eyelid only extending it halfway and keeping as close as possible to my eyelashes and for my waterline (refer to earlier picture, not the one above) I lined it thick where I brought the matte black down and then lined it more thinly until the white inner corner where I just didn't line it at all. Make sense? Good, didn't really to me!

Here's a more comprehensive step by step...

I should have done this with my other daily looks but oh well. Refer to numbers and letters above please.

For my lids:
I actually didn't use any eye primer because I wanted a softer look and I'm glad I didn't!
Using 16 (shimmery gray), pat it on your eye lid from inner corner to about half way on your lid. Smudge out the edge of it so it's not as sharp.

Using 10 (matte black) gently pat on the rest of your lid - from half way where the gray ends and to your outer corner - and make sure it isn't too dark because next you want to take that black into your crease and doing the windscreen wiper movement get it into your crease and a little into where the shimmery gray is. You can't see it that well in my photo but in real life my crease is much darker than my lid color.

You can choose to do this part next or wait until you're done but since the photo above shows it I will tell you now. Using a liquid liner (liquid because you'll get a thinner stroke and I don't recommend a very very sharp pencil liner, do liquid and make life easier as it won't smudge too), like from outer corner to about half way across your lid. Do it as close to your lashes but not too close else you won't be able to see it.

 

(It is crazy how tan I look here, my camera automatically contours for me - serious did not contour today - and also makes me super tan occasionally)

For my water line:
Using 10 (matte black) I lined my water line from outer corner to about where the edge of my iris is.

Then, using 20 (matte gray) I lined the rest of my eye leaving a little bit of space where my inner corner is.

Closing your eyes, get some 11 (matte white) and dab it on that inner corner area so it gets on both your top lid and on the edge of your water line. I do it with my eyes closed as I don't like lining it with my eyes open since I find it always gets under my contact lens and bugs the heck out of me.

Using a pencil liner, line thickly where you brought the matte black down then thin out the liner as you get to the gray and stop where your iris ends towards the inner corner.

For my lips:
I used some G even though I wouldn't pair this look with any of the colors provided in the palette! Since I'm so tan I prefer to steer clear of the pale pinks (even though everyone seems to do otherwise) and go for browns instead. So with this look I'd probably use a nude ish light brown.

And that's it! Hope you got something out of this or just enjoyed the painful way in which I tried to explain how to achieve this look.