Smoked Out
Blurred, dark, and deliberately undone. 5 steps, roughly 16 minutes, rated advanced.
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A smoked-out eye is not a neat eye that happens to be dark. It is deliberately soft at every edge, which is why it survives a long night and only looks better as it moves.
The order matters more than the shades. Pencil first, powder over it, then blend the powder rather than the pencil.
What you will need
- A soft kohl pencil
- A matte deep brown shadow
- A matte black or charcoal shadow
- A dome-shaped blending brush
- Volumising mascara
- A muted rose lipstick
No specific brands. Any version of each will behave the same way.
Scribble the pencil in, do not draw it
Scribble kohl along the upper lash line and into the outer third of the lid, then smudge it upward with a fingertip while it is still soft.
You are laying down a base of pigment, not a line. Precision here is wasted effort because every edge is about to be destroyed.
Tip
Warm the pencil tip on the back of your hand first. A soft tip drags less on the lid and blends far more willingly.
Lock it with a matte brown
Press a matte deep brown over the pencil with a flat brush to set it, then take the same brown well above the crease with a fluffy brush.
The brown does two jobs: it stops the pencil from moving, and it gives the black somewhere to fade out into.
Tip
Pressing sets, sweeping smears. Use a flat brush pressing straight down for the first pass and a fluffy one after.
Deepen the outer corner
Work matte black or charcoal into the outer corner and along the outer half of the lash line, keeping it low and tight to the lashes.
Blend it in small circles until the darkest point sits just outside the outer corner and fades in every direction from there.
Tip
Hold the brush at the very end of the handle. You physically cannot press too hard, which is the main cause of blown-out smoky eyes.
Bring it under the eye
Smudge the same brown along the lower lash line and connect it to the outer corner so the eye is wrapped rather than topped.
Keep the lower line softer and lighter than the upper. Matching them exactly closes the eye and reads as tired rather than sultry.
Tip
Tightline the waterline with the kohl too. It is the difference between a dark eye and a genuinely smoked-out one.
Lashes up, everything else down
Curl hard and apply two generous coats of volumising mascara top and bottom, wiggling at the root.
Then pull the rest of the face right back: light contour, barely-there blush and a muted rose lip in a satin finish.
Tip
Do your eyes before your base for this one. Fallout is guaranteed, and cleaning it off bare skin is much easier than off foundation.
See it on your own face first.
Two minutes of questions, one optional photo, and this look gets rendered onto your own colouring before you spend anything.
Common questions
Do the eyes first, before any base, and tap your brush off before it touches your lid. Whatever lands can then be wiped away with no damage.
Very well, because it has no crisp lines to disappear into the fold. Take the blend higher than feels right so some of it stays visible when your eyes are open.
Brown for most faces most of the time, and black when you genuinely want the drama. A charcoal sits neatly between the two and is more forgiving than either.