Cat Eyes on a Random Summer Day

So I had some time to myself today... and nothing pressing to do... which is rare these days, as I'm sure you can tell from the embarrassing infrequency of my blog posts... so I puttered around for a while, read a book, took a leisurely bubble bath, threw some stuff in the slow cooker for dinner, and then I decided, I'm going to play with makeup!!!

And this happened.

I had no plans of doing cat eyes, in fact I was originally planning on something more colorful, since it is summer, after all, and I have so many colorful eyeshadows that are begging to be used. Well, they'll just have to suck it up and wait for another day, I suppose (maybe tomorrow?  ;-) ).

This look actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, it just took a good bit of time and patience.  (I'm usually absolutely terrible at looks that require more precision, but somehow the stars aligned for me today... at least more or less... ask Lotus, perfection is not my thing :-) ).

Unfortunately I wasn't taking pictures as I did it, since I was just playing around, so I can't really make a tutorial out of it. Here's a quick and dirty how-to though.

Products Used:

• Eyelid Primer - Too Faced Shadow Insurance
• Black eyeshadow - BareMinerals Penthouse from The Finer Things palette (reviewed/swatched here)
• Gold eyeshadow - BareMinerals Truffle from The Finer Things palette (reviewed/swatched here)
• Champagne eyeshadow - Smashbox Champagne from Focal Point palette
• Black Eyeliner - Urban Decay Perversion
• Black Mascara - Too Faced Size Queen

Brushes Used:

No, I don't normally store my brushes in a shoe, just thought it would be a fun photo op. =)

Left to Right:

1. e.l.f. professional eyeshadow brush
2. Ulta Professional pointed flat eyeliner
3. Sonia Kashuk eyelash/eyebrow comb
4. Sonia Kashuk eyeliner brush #202
5. Sonia Kashuk eyeliner brush #122
6. Eyeshadow blending brush (can't remember the brand, sorry!)

I know it seems like a lot of brushes, but that's mostly because I have precision issues, as mentioned above, and I need lots of help.  :-) Most of you could probably get away with just one eyeliner brush (#4), one eyeshadow blending brush (#1 or #6), and an eyelash comb.

How to do it:

1. Dip your eyeliner brush in the black eyeshadow*. Close your eye, gently stretch your lid out with one finger, and starting slightly outside your eyelid (I chose a spot on the line between the outer edge of my eye and the tail of my eyebrow, about halfway up), trace a line (slightly winged on the outside if you like that shape) into the edge of your eyelid, following the outside of your crease. (brush #4)
2. Use a little more black eyeshadow and build up the line a little to the desired darkness. Try to be as precise as possible, but you can always fix it with eye makeup remover at the end. (brush #4)
3. With more black eyeshadow, trace the line of your crease into about the center of your eyelid. I find this step much easier to do if I place the brush at the edge of my crease line with my eyes closed, then open my eye so my brush gets wedged in the crease, and then trace the color into the crease. I'd also use the thinnest, most precise liner brush you have for this step. (brush #4 and brush #2)
4. Connect the outer edge of the black eyeshadow to your lower lash line. You can use more eyeshadow if you'd like for this step, but I had enough already built up to just be able to pull the color down. If it comes out too light, you can always build it up. (brush #4 and brush #2)
5. You should have a nice strong outline of the shape you want now. If you want to keep the sharp outline, you can leave it this way and move on. I didn't want it so sharp, so I ran a slightly fluffier eyeshadow brush (brush #1) along my crease to lengthen and soften the line a little.
6. Fill the outer V ("<") with more black shadow. There might be a good bit there already that you can just blend out, but be sure to fill in any open spots. (brush #4 and brush #2)
7. Dip your eyeshadow blending brush in your gold eyeshadow, and press/blend it all over your lid up to your crease, from the inner corner almost to the edge of the outer V. The gold should be blended over some of the black in the outer V. (brush #1)
8. If there's too much gold in the outer V and it overpowers the black, add some more black and a little more gold and blend a little. I like it when the black shows through the gold a little bit. (brushes #1, 2, and 4 as needed)
9. Use your eyeliner brush to line your upper lash line with black shadow. (brush #4)
10. Clean up the edges a little if need be with a Q-tip and some eye makeup remover. Be very careful  not to mess up the rest of the shape. I usually dip just one side of my Q-tip in the remover and then squeeze out any excess before using it so that there's no danger of drippage. 
11. Sweep champagne eyeshadow from crease to browbone. (brush #6)
12. Line your lower water line with black eyeliner.
13. Dip your eyeliner brush in the gold shadow and trace it over the black eyeliner on your lower waterline. It'll brighten and open up your eyes. (brush #2)
14. Apply black mascara to your upper lashes and comb them out. (brush #3)

*I cheated on this part a little, I used a light matte brown e/s to trace the outline of the shape I wanted first, and then followed up with the black e/s. If you're artistically challenged like me, I'd recommend this step.  :-)

Done!! Woohoo!!

You could probably play around with this look a lot and make it more or less dramatic with different colors... a dark matte brown for the outline and a shimmery medium brown on the lid for a less dramatic, more neutral look... black for the outline and silver/gray for the lid for a more smokey look... but I think black and gold is always a good go-to combination for us brown-skinned chicks. Although tomorrow I might play around with some of those colors I mentioned... maybe dark green and gold? Or navy and gold? Ah, the possibilities are endless...  :-)

Enjoy your weekend allz!!