Tutorials

Tutorial: Soft purple smoky eye with the Laura Mercier Artist Palette

I had a few days off for the holiday, so that means I had time to photograph another tutorial – again with the LM Artist Palette since I know a lot of people got it. FYI it’s sold out on the Sephora website, but it’s still in stock at some stores. If you didn’t grab one yet, you can always substitute similar purple shades, obviously. So first off, the finished look:

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

1. Base

Apply the primer of your choice and cover your whole eye from lashline to brow with a sheer layer of Vanilla Nuts.

Laura Mercier Neutral Eye Tutorial

2. Lid

Using a flat lay-down brush, cover your lid from lashline to crease with Plum Smoke.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

3. Crease

With a dense crease brush, apply Kir Royal in the crease and on the outer half of the lid. As usual, I went above my natural crease so you can see it when my eyes are open.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

4. Lashline

With a pointed brush, apply Kir Royal to the outer half of your lower lash line

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

5. Blend

Use a large fluffy brush to blend all around the edges. If you blend off too much of the color, just add more. It doesn’t have to be super-perfect yet.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

6. Transition

Use a fluffy brush and Vanilla Nuts to blend out the edge a bit more, easing the transition from purple to skin-color.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

7. Lashline, part 2

With a pointed brush apply Violet Ink to the outer third of the lid and outer half of the lower lashline, making sure it meets up at the outer corner.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

8. Blend more

Use a small fluffy brush to blend it out a bit.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

9. Inner Corner

Using a small pointed brush, apply Primrose to the inner corner of the eye, the inner third of the lid and the inner half of the lower lash line.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

10. Lashline, part 3

Using a pointed brush, apply a tiny bit of Espresso Bean to the outer third of the upper and lower lash lines.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

11. More blending

Use a small fluffy brush to blend it a little.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

12. Tightline

Use a small push liner brush and the tightlining product of your choice. I used Laura Mercier Tightline Cake Eyeliner in Black Ebony, but you can also use the brush to pick up the product from a pencil liner. Coming from below your lashes, wiggle the brush to push the product into the roots.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

13. Eyeliner

Use a black pencil liner to line your waterline. Using a small brush, or straight from the pencil if you prefer, smudge a thin line on the outer half of the upper and lower lash lines. I used Marc Jacobs Highliner in Blacquer.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

14. Add shimmer

I felt like it needed more dimension, so I used a fluffy brush to add a sheer wash of African Violet in and just above the crease.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

15. Curl those lashes.

I used the Shu Uemura regular curler, and then went through again with the Shu S curler to get all the way down to the very base.

16. Add mascara

If you’re going to stop here, use something lengthening and preferably at least a bit volumizing on the upper and lower lashes. I used Laura Mercier Full Blown Volume.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

17. Add false lashes

I thought the look called for slightly more dramatic lashes than I can achieve on my own, so out came the falsies – which, by the way, I’m terrible at applying. But I did it anyway, just for you. I used Ardell Fashion Lashes in style 110. Even though they have a clear band, I felt like the clusters made the band a bit visible, so I went over it with a little more pencil liner on a brush.

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

18. Finish your makeup and admire the end results

Laura Mercier Purple Smoky Eye

Laura Mercier Dramatic Purple Eye

 

As always, feel free to give me feedback. If you have any particular requests, please let me know in the comments!

4 Comments

  1. sandra

    December 6, 2013 at 6:41 pm

    so gorgeous …all those layers and masterful blending …I love the look.
    I am on a long business trip overseas and the LM artist palette is the only thing I brought for eyeshadows…hopefully I will have some time to play with it over the weekend…
    re African Violet …did you also experience lots of shimmer fall outs?

    1. niccigilland

      December 8, 2013 at 2:02 pm

      The LM palette is definitely great for travel! I’ll be taking it with me when we head out for holiday travel. I haven’t had much fallout from African Violet, actually. Using denser brushes and patting it on instead of swiping it on seems to help though, I think.

  2. Amalia

    August 3, 2015 at 7:30 am

    How can I subscribe? I pointed the ” Notify me of new posts by email ” it is enough? Thank you

    1. Nikki

      August 4, 2015 at 3:09 pm

      Hi Amalia! You can either do that, or you can sign up for the newsletter to get notified of new posts either daily or weekly. There’s also a sale alerts list! Thank you for subscribing <3

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