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I’m back again with another Urban Decay Naked Palette look. I am no makeup artist, just a lover of makeup and applying it :). I did a look with the the Naked 2 here a while ago too. I think most makeup lovers picked up one of these palettes along the way, so I want to cover all the bases.

This time I did a really easy and achievable Smoky eye using the aptly named Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette.

You can check out swatches of the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette here here too, if you want to see all of the shades on the skin.

First up I primed my eyelids with the Paese Eyeshadow Base. I just used my finger to apply it.

Then over top of it, just to set it and to get rid of the tacky feeling, I used the lightest shade in the Naked Smoky Palette ‘Thirteen’ all over the eyelid.

This step isn’t really necessary, but I just added a little of the shade ‘Combust’ into my crease to begin the story 🙂

To lay a base for the darker shadows on my lid, I grabbed the Nyx Jumbo Pencil in Slate.

I applied this to the moving part of my eyelid, one eye at a time and blending as I went as these set pretty fast.

To blend out the edges of the Jumbo pencil more and deepen up the crease, I took the shade ‘Password’, which is a grey toned matte brown.

I used a clean Mac 217 blending brush to buff this into my crease, and to make sure there was no harsh edges.

Next is the fun part 🙂 I loaded up my brush with the colour ‘Armor’.

And patted this onto where the Jumbo Pencil was. Be sure to pat, there is alot of fallout. You can always apply more of this at the end to intensify the look so don’t worry if you blend some away finishing the look.

I decided to darken the outer v so I took a tapered blending brush and grabbed the darkest shade in the palette ‘Black Market’.

I basically just drew a V with the brush on the outer part of my crease and lid.

Then, you guessed it more more blending 🙂 I cleaned my 217 off again and diffused the edges of the black.

If the colour gets too muddied, just apply more and blend the edges. Don’t worry if the edges of your eyes get a bit messy, you can just clean it up with you concealer.

Under the eye I added some ‘Black Market’ with a pop of ‘Armor’ in the middle and blended it up to meet my top lid

I curled my lashes and added some healthy coats of mascara. You can by all means add lashes and some liner on the top lash line at this point if you want to make the look even more dramatic.

I decided to add some gel liner to my inner waterline. Rather than going for black, I went with the Inglot AMC Matte liner in 78, which is a grey colour.

I wrote a whole blogpost about how I apply liner here so I won’t bore you with all the details. I use a pencil dipped in the liner to get the job done though :).

So I tightlined the top.

And the bottom.

You can see the difference with or without liner here.

Last set. I added some highlight to the inner corner. I took the shade ‘High’ in the Naked Smoky Palette.

And applied a good helping with a pencil brush.

It just adds a brightness to the look. You can see one eye with and one without here.

And there you have it, there’s my hopefully easy smoked eye look using the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette.

I added a light pink lip and some peach blush to finish it off.

That’s my look with the Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette complete. 🙂

xxx

When I say top five eyeshadow brushes, I don’t mean you have to run out and buy these specific brushes. I just mean having similar brushes in your life will make your eyeshadow application a little bit easier.

I’m a firm believer in letting your eyeshadow brushes do the work for you. Obviously, makeup lovers tend to accumulate alot of brushes over time, but if you take care of yours, I think 5 (or so) will get you through any makeup look.

First and foremost, you need a blending brush.

Blending brushes can be used for pretty much everything.

The Mac 217 is probably the most infamous blending brush, but most brands have their own version of them nowadays. I use a blending brush for applying my crease colour and blending it out softly . As they have a rounded top, you use the higher bristles to apply the products and then diffuse it using the whole of the brush. It’s handy to have two blending brushes in your collection so if the one you are using gets too much product on it, you can switch, but you can always just wipe it off as you go. Noone wants a muddy crease line do they? 🙂 A blending brush works just as good for applying colour all over the lid to, so it’s a bit of a multi tasker in your arsenal which is never a bad thing.

For more defined crease work a tapered brush will come in very handy.

These are just examples of what I use, but again anything similar you can get your hands on will work fine. You just want a soft(ish) brush with a more pointed top. It will let you isolate the colour more when adding it to the crease, so you get a more distinct line there, but you can still use it to feather out the colour if it’s looking a bit too harsh.

A flat brush is a great one to have in your collection too and is definitely a part of my top five eyeshadow brushes list.

Something you can pack colour onto the lid with. It’s great to have a bigger one and a smaller one, but whatever your budget allows is really ok. You just don’t want something too big, unless you’re just using it for washes of colour all across the lid.

I think a pencil brush is another essential brush to have in your collection.

Like a blending brush, they can be used for a plethora of reasons. To apply colour under the lash line, above the lashline, in the tear duct, on the brow brone, or for applying very precise lines in the crease, if you are being particularly fancy.

Finally, I think an eyeliner brush is a must.

I think which one you choose comes down to comfortability really. Whether you are a bent liner brush gal, a straight thin brush, or one of an angled variety, there’s one of to suit all.

There are so many brands out there now that do fab eyeshadow brushes, for all different uses and price points. Sigma, Zoeva, Louise Young, Real Techniques, Mac the list is endless. And us Irish have some fab brands on our doorstep like Nima Brushes and Blank Canvas Cosmetics which is pretty brilliant.

When it comes to real hair or synthetic, just remember don’t apply liquid products with real hair brushes, it will soak up all the product and it will probably damage your brushes in the process too. Synthetic brushes are much more suited to this and you can apply powder with them aswell.

There you have it my top five eyeshadow brushes. I hope that was somewhat helpful, if you’re in the market. If you have any more questions, just ask me in the comments sure 🙂

Thanks for reading.

xxx

Posts

Easy Eye Look- Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

I’m back again with another Urban Decay Naked Palette look. I am no makeup artist, just a lover of makeup and applying it :). I did a look with the the Naked 2 here a while ago too. I think most makeup lovers picked up one of these palettes along the way, so I want to cover all the bases.

This time I did a really easy and achievable Smoky eye using the aptly named Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette.

My Top Five Eyeshadow Brushes

When I say top five eyeshadow brushes, I don’t mean you have to run out and buy these specific brushes. I just mean having similar brushes in your life will make your eyeshadow application a little bit easier.