How to Wear Eye Makeup Like Alicia Keys
A powerful singer with lots of soul and depth, Alicia Keys accentuates her voice and performances with dramatic makeup, most of which is focused on foregrounding her eyes. Exotic and dark, her eye makeup is characterised by heavy winged eyeliner, and long, curled lashes, to which she sometimes adds small dots or sparkles that run along the length of her eyes. If you are a fan, or simply inspired by the look, try recreating it on yourself using a few key products.
Things Required:
– Cream eye shadow
– Powder eye shadow
– Liquid liner
– Mascara
– Eyelash curler
Instructions
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1
Start preparing your eyes for the look by applying a base of sparkly cream shadow – in addition to adding to the dramatic effect, this will help the powder eye shadow stick to your eyelids more effectively. Choose two shades you will be doing your eyes up in, and then choose the lighter one as the colour for the cream shadow base. For example, if you want to do your eyes in royal purple and gold, make sure the cream shadow base you apply is gold – this will give you a nice shimmery base.
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2
Next, start applying the darker shade in powder eye shadow (in accordance with the example given earlier, this would be purple). Do not sweep this all over the base you applied earlier – instead, use a small eye shadow brush to apply the darker eye shadow in the crease and the outer lid of your eye. Keep it subtle for a more muted effect, or layer it on for a deeper, more vivid look.
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3
Once the eye shadow is done, start with the eyeliner – this needs to be applied to both the top and bottom rims of your eyes, for a fully lined effect. Since this is a look that requires depth, simple pencil liners will not do – use liquid liners like Bobbi Brown's gel eyeliner or MAC's fluidliners. The colour should generally be black, but you can go for coloured liners that match your eye shadow, for an extra dramatic effect. Run the eyeliner in a smooth line over your upper and lower eye rim, keeping it even and dark. You can also sweep it up towards your temples at the corner of your top lid, for a full, winged effect.
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4
Finally, finish the look off by curling your eyelashes with an eyelash curler, and applying heavy amounts of a lengthening and volumising mascara. TGI Bedhead mascara was the preferred product of choice for makeup artist Ashunta Sheriff who did Alicia Keys’ look for a tour, so try getting your hands on a tube of this for an authentic look, if you can manage it. Your Alicia Keys eye makeup is now ready.
