Editor Meredith has never been much of a make-up brush person. She applies foundation with hands and usually dabs leftover highlighter from cheekbones onto her lids. Laura Mercier’s Caviar Stick Eye Colours pitch foolproof application, they won’t crease as other cream shadows can and they’re truly blendable. She put them to the ultimate eye make-up test: sultry smokey lids, no brushes required. Here’s how to get the look using just your fingers:
Step 1. Highlight the Brow Bone
Apply a light colour along your brow bone – Sand Glow is a golden shimmer that will attract the light. Then use your ring finger to gently blend it up towards your eyebrow and down into your crease.
Step 2. Colour the lid
Next, apply a single colour all over your eyelid. This should be darker than the highlighter colour, but lighter than the shade you’ll use in the crease. Feeling adventurous, I used Orchid, a pretty purple, because I thought it would accentuate my blue eyes. If you’re a traditional smoky kinda girl, Cocoa is a rich yet blendable chocolate brown that looks great on all eye colours.
Step 3. Define the Crease
The hardest part about adding colour to the crease is the placement. My trick: create a V-shape at the outer corners of the lids with Sapphire. The top leg of each V followed the crease up to the halfway point of my lid, while the bottom leg was about half that length and extended along my upper lash line. I then used my ring finger to dab and pat the colour in place (rubbing moves the pigments around too much), until I was happy with the look. I did go back and apply a little extra Orchid on top to help blend the colours more seamlessly.
Step 4. Finish the look
No eye make-up look is complete without a little liner. To add some drama, I went with a bold kitten eye using a kohl pencil. Of course, the final touch was a healthy dose of black mascara. Look Mum, no brushes!
– Meredith
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