15 minute smokey eye!

Since finishing my make up course last month I have spent a lot of time practising what I have learnt and pushing myself to create looks in short amounts of time as make up artists often have to work under pressure and to time constraints. I decided to test myself and see if I could create a half decent classic smokey eye in 15 minutes and then a bold red lip in 5 minutes. As a lot of you will know it is hard to perfect something in this amount of time as I myself could spend an hour on just my eyes, making sure everything is blended and adjusting the shape so that the symmetry is correct. However, a working make up artist does not have the luxury of time so I love pushing myself to work quicker and create a good look in less time. I applied my base, bronzer and blusher before getting started.

Here is my 15 minute smokey eye 

Firstly I used a paintpot by MAC in blackground all over the lid which is a cream consistency creating a dark eyelid straight away and giving the shadows something to cling onto. I love working with paintpots because they are quick and easy and immediately give you the colour pay off you need. This black colour has shimmer to it with an almost dark green tone to it and could even be worn alone. I didnt worry too much about being neat I simply applied it with my fingers all over the lid coming just above the socket line then blending with my MAC 217 brush. I applied some product under the waterline too.

I used my ELF 100 pc eyeshadow palette which at £7.50 was a total bargain and is perfect for those of you who want to play with colour and create looks without spending hundreds on high end shadows. 

I applied a shimmer black from the ELF palette on top of the paintpot all over the lid once again except for the inner corners. I pressed it on to get the best pigment and to help it adhere to the cream paintpot. Again I blended this with the 217 brush keeping it to a smokey soft shape but not worrying too much about being neat. The best smokey eyes are often the messiest! I also applied some shadow under the eye again below the waterline and blended slightly to give a rock chick look.

I used a shimmer silver grey on the inner corners of the eye using a pencil shape brush to get right into the corner and slightly above and below creating a wide eyed look and giving the smokey eye some variation in colour.

I used a black gel liner along the lashline to intensify the darkness and put lots of mascara on both top and bottom lashes. 

I patted on some ELF studio conditioning lip balm in Neutral to give a matte, nude lip finish. I usually like to wear smokey eyes with a nude lip, however......

I then decided to challenge myself to a 5 minute red lip!

I lined the lips using Illamasqua medium pencil in Fiesty, a gorgeous bright red. I always have a little trouble with lip liner especially in darker colours but I tried to work fast and precisely to create an even, symmetrical line! I then used Smooch cosmetics red lipstick (it has no name on the product) to fill in and define the lips. I used a bit of concealer to tidy up around the edges however I ran out of time whilst correcting the cupids bow so it was not a perfect red lip!

Overall, I am quite pleased with how I did considering the time limit and doing exercises like this and documenting the results inspires me to be better the next time! 

x