The Two Product Smokey Eye

I love a smokey eye, it’s probably the look that flatters my face best, but time is of the essence and the perfect smokey eye can sometimes be as hard to achieve as human flight. Sometimes, it’s just not gonna happen.

Now I’m not just telling you this to bum you out, I of course have a solution up my sleeve! I’ve got a simple, go to, two step smokey eye back up plan. Did the title give it away?

My go to smokey eye fix comes in the form of a crayon and a pencil. I’ve waxed lyrical on the Kiko Shadow Stick in 06 Bronze before, a gorgeous bronzed taupe shadow stick with a beautifully creamy formula and awesome staying power, so you know the drill by now. I take the crayon all over my lid, not being particularly neat or careful, and blend it at the edges, with either a coarse bristle brush or my finger tips, either works! 

When that's done, I take the Max Factor Kohl Liner in Black messily along my upper lash line, and my waterline too. I just take a q-tip or a small brush and blend the edges of the liner, which creates a dark, smokey effect along the lash line.

Finish off with lashings of mascara! It's that easy. It's a two minute job and it looks awesome! 

What products do you use for an easy smokey eye? 

I Can't Contour.

Ahh contour. This is possibly one of the more difficult things to do when it comes to makeup. I'd tried everything, big brushes, small brushes, dark bronzers, light bronzers, matte bronzers, shimmer bronzers, cream bronzers, the lot. It's a lot more difficult than it looks.

Earlier this month, there was an article in Stylist Magazine, called Down With Tools, and thanks to that, I think I may have figured out the perfect way to apply contour. 

I've found that NARS Laguna works best for this, it's pretty matte, the hint of shimmer isn't enough to make your face sparkle Edward Cullen style, and it's light and not too orange for a pale skinned girl like me! Please excuse dodgy pictures of me, I was half way through doing my makeup, with hair pinned back and foundation lips!

To do this, you use the fleshy part of your hand under your thumb, and lightly roll it in your bronzer. I prefer to do this really lightly, and then more than once, so I don't end up with too much.  Then place this part of your hand under your cheekbone, it should sit there perfectly, and roll your hand, so the bronzer transfers. 

This should leave you with a line just like this! I like to continue to use that part of my hand to blend it out a bit, but then I go to town with my Real Techniques blush brush to blend it all out! 

I then use the top line to guide where my blush should go, and then blend the two together, or if I'm going to skip blush just blend it out upwards!

I've found this is the only way to contour which doesn't leave my face looking bruised! It's definitely the most natural application method I've found!

I hope this helps!

How do you guys apply your contour?