Date Night Makeup: Blue + Smokey

I love the idea of a smokey eye for date night, but in reality, I want some color. Sometimes I'll forgo the charcoal color altogether and create a bronzed smokey eye, but when I do use a black liner, I love to mix in shades of purple or blue to give the smokey eye that bit of color. For another lovely date night with Ken, I went with my blue palette from e.l.f.

A smudge pot or highly-pigmented cream eyeshadow is the latest (and best thing) for a quick one-color smokey eye. But for something with a little more dimension and to get that cat eye effect, go with a great eyeshadow quad and a black kohl eyeliner

For this charcoal and blue smokey eye, I used  and the e.l.f. Essentials Flawless Eyeshadow in "sea escape" and the Maybelline New York Eye Studio Master Kajal Eyeliner. The darker blue shades in this palette have a slight purple tint to them, and the lighter blues aren't heavily pigmented; it really is the perfect palette if you're not accustomed to wearing blue eyeshadow and need a little practice. It can be intimidating when you see the bright bold blues, but as you can see from my last pic, those colors don't really show on your eyes as they do in the palette. They simply serve as a subtle base and to help the darker colors really pop. You need this kind of brush to get the crease properly, and this smudging brush for the lash line, but as for the lighter colors, the best tools you could use to apply them are your fingertips.

The e.l.f flawless eyeshadow comes with labels on each color as to where to put each shade, but I mixed it up a little; I always put the lighter shimmery shade just under the brows and on the inner corners as a highlighter. It really opens up the eyes and adds some nice shimmer. I do this technique with pretty much any kind of palette I use. It really elevates to look.

I was very happy with the result, and will definitely be repeating the look for date night. Ken not only said "you look pretty", as he often does, but he said specifically "You're eyeshadow looks pretty." :)

I finished off the look with my e.l.f. blush bronzer duo in "fiji matte" and Maybelline ColorSensational lipstick in "pink wink." What do you think? Would you try the blue smokey eye?