Flipping through a magazine or watching E! may inspire you to mimic the latest makeup secrets of your favorite celeb. But before you attempt to create dramatic or cat eyes, it’s important to learn or refresh the basics of eye shadow application.

Courtesy of Real Beauty

Select your colors.
With hundreds of choices of shades and eye shadow finishes at your fingertips, it’s easy to become a little overwhelmed. But narrowing down which options work best for you gets easier as you take into consideration your eye color, skin tone, hair color and the outfit you want to complement.

But before experimenting with bright, metallic, bold or dark colors, you should practice with neutrals. Brown shades look good on almost anyone. Once you master the art of applying shadow, you can start experimenting with more vibrant colors and let the fun begin!

Apply the shadow.
Step 1: The first step to applying eye shadow is to create a canvas to work on. Apply your foundation and your base makeup to even out the skin tone.
Step 2: Apply a base coat (Motives® Eye Base) to your lids to help give your eye shadow staying power and to make the shadow appear more vibrant.
Step 3: Apply a medium shade over your entire eyelid. This creates the base color for your overall look. You can use a blending brush (Motives® Eye Blender Brush) to smooth out
any uneven coloring or creases.
Step 4: Take your darker shade and apply it above the pupil and sweep it to the outer corner of your eye lid. Blend this color with the medium shade right where they meet then sweep it under the bottom lashes to close the lash line. You want to soften up the lines around the edges and blend them away so there are no harsh, dark lines.
Step 5: Highlight the brow bone with the lightest shade and blend. You can apply the same highlighting shade to the inner corners of your eyes to make them appear larger.

Play around with these eye shadow techniques until you find a look that you like. Once you are used to using neutral colors, start experimenting with pastel, metallic, bright and dark shadow and let your eyes do the talking!

Tell us – What are you own eye shadow application techniques that you would like to share?