Model: Yanay Rico. Makeup, Hair, and Styling: Kristen Arnett. Photos: Evi Abeler.
Shimmering, gilded eyes are an easy, quick way to go from day to night and be party-ready in a flash!
In an ideal world, we’d have oodles of time to get ready to go out, but sometimes (maybe most times) we just have a few minutes in our tightly packed schedules to pull it all together. Rather than show you some hour-long makeup routine, I’ll show you how to go from now to “wow” with very little effort or time.
The Value of Gold
Shimmering gold, warm bronze and copper are colors that work for every single woman. Rarely do I make such broad generalizations as a makeup artist, but in this case I stand behind it! Gold undertones brings out warmth, radiance and glow in skin, eye and hair color on everyone. That’s what makes it a foolproof way to get gorgeous fast!
Follow these two rules to make the gilded look work:
#1: Choose a base tone of gold, bronze or copper that complements the depth of your skin. Lighter skin = lighter gold. Darker = darker gold.
#2: To use gold as a highlight anywhere on your eyes or face, don’t go more than two shades lighter than your skin tone or it’ll look too crazy.
The Supplies
Chocolate brown eye pencil or eye shadow
Base gold color - as described in Rule #1
Highlight gold color - as described in Rule #2
Lash curler and mascara
Warm (matte) bronzer or contour shade for cheeks
Apricot blush
Clear lip-gloss with a bit of sparkle to it; nothing frosty please! (Leave that for the cake.)
7 Easy Steps
#1 Liner
Line both upper and lower lashes with chocolate brown. This can be almost black if you have very deep skin tone.
#2 Shadow
With a medium sized eyeshadow brush, apply the base gold color all over the lid, diffusing the brown around the lashes, then pulling the shadow into and above the crease. Apply a bit underneath the lashes with a smaller brush to create a wide-eyed effect.
Make sure you pull the edges of the color up and out, so there’s not discernable stop and start line.
#3 Highlight
Using a smaller eyeshadow brush, apply the lighter gold shade as a highlight to the inner corners of the eye, just under the arch of the brow (not the entire brow bone), and just under the lower lashes to soften it up.
Pro tip: The tighter the bristles on the brush, the more color will deposit on the skin. The fluffier the brush, the more chance you have of weak color impact and spreading sparkle to other areas of the face.
#4 Lashes
Curl your lashes to really open up the eyes before applying mascara to upper and lower lashes. Don’t go crazy here. Lots of chunky mascara will ruin this pretty effect.
#5 Sculpt
Warm up your face with a bit of bronzer (matte is preferred) or contour powder to sculpt the cheekbones and harmonize with the gold colors.
#6 Blush
You will need to put some color on the cheeks so you don’t look too monotone. Apply an apricot shade to the apples of the cheeks only.
#7 Lips
Finally, add a clear, shiny gloss that plays with the natural pinkish tones in your lips so your eyes can stand out. This is a low maintenance mouth – perfect for a party where you might be eating, drinking and talking a lot.
For the daring: If you’re feeling extra adventurous, you could add a deep red lip to this look without it being “too much.” Get the how-to on red lips here opens in a new tab.
There it is! A fast and pretty look that easily goes from daytime to evening. I’d love to hear how this look works for you, so leave a comment below and share!
Be sure to check out more makeup tips opens in a new tab, like how to apply mineral makeup and mastering a natural look. Interested in more blogs by Kristen Arnett? Read 'em here opens in a new tab.
