Smoky Smudged Eye Makeup Done Right

As girls grow up, we begin to experiment with makeup — and at that prime age of 12 (sometimes older, sometimes younger) we dig our hands into countless tubs of blush, gloss, and polish. Back in the day, we were trying to look like our favorite actresses such as Jennifer Love Hewitt on Party of Five, Tiffani Thiessen from Saved by the Bell, and Jenni Garth from Beverly Hills, 90210 (the original). If you remember, they all had that innocent with just a touch of makeup look.

Nowadays, the stars we know and love definitely know how to turn it up a notch. Taylor Momsen hasn’t dressed her age since, well, she went into the double digits. And the other Gossip Girls definitely know how to glam it up along with her. Raedawn Johnson, a freelance makeup artist, shows us how to mimic their look and get that perfectly smudged smoky undereye they do so well.

Step 1:

Start with a clean face so you can easily clean up any makeup that falls onto the under eye. Wet your angled brush and blend the water into your black eye shadow. Raedawn is using the Mehron Paradise palette in black, but you don’t have to limit yourself — feel free to experiment with violets, dark blues, or dark green eye shadows too.

Step 2:

Apply the wet shadow to the under eye area. Depending on how dramatic you want the look to be, you can line the entire under eye for a bolder vibe. But if you want a tamer version, you can apply the shadow only to the outer corner and smudge inward.

Step 3:

Gently smudge the line with a smudge brush or your finger, working your way away from the lash line.

Step 4:

Apply a fine line of black liquid liner (such as Mehron Detailz Pen in black) to the top lash line and rim the bottom inner eye (the water line) with black kohl pencil.

Step 5:

Finish the look with a heavy coat (or two) of mascara on both the top and bottom lashes.

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