Brown Smoky Eye Tutorial- Maybelline Chai Latte Quad

Photo Tutorial: Dark Brown Smoky Eye Using Maybelline Chai Latte Quad

I bought the Maybelline Chai Latte Eye Shadow Quad after reading rave reviews of it all over the Internet. But to my disappointment, 3 out of 4 colours of the quad don’t work for me. The beige highlighter is hardly pigmented enough to show up on my skin, so all it does is litter shimmer particles over my eye area. The light brown matte lid colour does nothing for my eyes. If at all, it seems to dull down my natural eye lid colour (in my opinion). The coppery crease shade I could use, but not in my crease. Somehow I could not digest the idea of using a shimmery shade in the crease. This was also confirmed by one of Rashmi’s posts where she mentioned how a MAC MUA told her not to use shimmery eye shadow in the crease (thanks Rashmi!). I find the copper shade too shimmery to use all over my lids. The matte dark brown I use for filling in my eye brows.

I’m rebuilding my makeup collection and this quad is my only eye shadow palette in this innings. I wanted to make this quad work, but only one shade seems workable for me – the matte dark brown. So I thought of creating a smoky eye using just this eye shadow.

The tools needed for the job are:

• Maybelline Chai Latte Eye Shadow Quad
• Lakme High Definition liquid eye liner
• Maybelline Colossal Volum’ Express Mascara

Step1: Prep your eyes by applying an eye shadow primer on the lids. Apply concealer around the eyes. I’m not using either in this tutorial.

Step 2: Pack on dark brown eye shadow using an eye shadow brush or the applicator that comes with the quad all over your lid and slightly above the crease. Blend. Extend the shadow slightly outwards, towards your temples. Blend. The shade looks very dark in the pan, so I was apprehensive of using it all over my lids, but it turned out fine.

Step 3: Starting at the outer corner of the eye, sweep a thin line of the eye shadow below the lower lash line and stop before the tear ducts. Reduce the thickness of the line as your move inwards. Smudge it a little bit.

Step 4: Apply a liquid eye liner along the upper lash line. Keep the line thin and wing it upwards ever so slightly at the outer corners of the eye. I’m using my Lakme High Definition eye liner (price Rs. 165). As much as I hated it when I bought it, it has grown on me. It has a hard felt tip applicator that does not pick up much of the product, but it does give a very precise application and very thin lines. I’ve found it especially useful to line my lower lash line. It is water resistant and stays put on the upper as well the lower lash lines for hours without smudging or cracking. Also, it is very black.

Step 5: Using the liquid eye liner, line the lower lash line only up to about three quarters of the lash line, steering clear of the water line. I’ve been seeing a lot of looks lately where they don’t take the liner all the way to the inner corner of the eye. Lining the eyes corner to corner on both upper and lower lash lines can make smallish eyes look tiny. Leaving out about a quarter of the lower lash line seems to create some space and prevents the eyes from looking caged inside the eye liner. Also, keeping clear of the waterline helps to open up the eyes, in my opinion. I love kajal, but since I’m using a dark brown eye shadow here, it is easy to drown my small eyes in a sea of black and brown. Hence, thin eye liner and no kajal. 🙂

Step 6: Correct any errors using an ear bud dipped in baby oil or Olive oil. The gap between my crease and brows is plenty and in this look, I don’t want that area to stand out even more. So I’m avoiding any highlighting of the brow bone. Some highlighter to brighten up the inner corners of the eyes would look nice though, given all the matte shadow flying around the eye area.

Step 7: Apply mascara. In this look, I’m aiming more at creating thickness along the lash line and not so much at lengthening the eye lashes since dense lashes would go with the smoky look better.

Step 8: Complete the look by applying a nude lip stick or lip gloss. My recommendations for lip sticks would be Maybelline Color Sensational Autumn Rush (pinkish brownish nude), Revlon Colorburst Peach (true peach) and Revlon Colorburst Soft Nude (erase your lips nude).

This dark matte look need not be restricted to night outs alone. I call this my “overcast day” look. The days in Bangalore have been dark and cloudy lately, with no rain. Something like Sleepy Hollow, for those who have seen the movie. I’ve found this dark and cloudy (smoky) look to go well with my surroundings. 🙂

Have you used Maybelline Chai latte Quad? Please rate in the Box below?

Sleepy Hollow Image Source