By Hifsa Khan

Hifsa is an exceptionally talented makeup artist, running a beautiful salon by the name of Hifsa Khan, where the top priority is always hygiene. She is a revolutionary in her approach towards makeup, skin and hair care. Brides & You has engaged her to give the readers, some excellent advice and tips in this column.

Eyes are essentially the focal point of our make-up and indeed tricky but if done right using the basic rules of constructing the eyes can surely create the desired look, through the ages women have tried countless ways of creating that perfect look for themselves only a few have managed to achieve for most the struggle continues. So when evening calls for a glamorous look, and you want to focus on making your eyes amazing.

Here’s how to apply eye makeup in only 8 steps:

1. PREP YOUR EYES:

Wash your skin and put some cold compresses on the eyes for 10 minutes to reduce puffiness. Cold tea bags are great because they contain caffeine (which tightens capillaries, reducing blood flow to the area).

Once you’ve cleaned and prepared the skin, apply a very light moisturizer around the eye. Even oily complexions need this, because the eye area has almost no oil glands. Let that set while you fix your eyebrows.

2. PREP YOUR EYEBROW:

The most underrated element of a successful look is a good eyebrow: “They are the frame of the face, and particularly of the eye area. Do not follow trends; always go for the shape that is best for your features, using brush, (an old mascara bush will do) apply a little bit of color (never use black) on the whole brow, brush the hair into place. Fill in any bald spots if necessary.

3. PREP YOUR EYES WITH CONCEALER:

Concealer is used for covering up under-eye circles. It should be selected carefully, always opt for 1-2 shades darker to your skin tone, applied in dots under each eye in a patting movement, it should never be rubbed. Use your ring finger as this finger tends to have the softest pad. Be sure to blend carefully. This will hide any discoloration around the eyes and help “set” the color you’re going to apply.

4. APPLY EYE-BASE TO YOUR LID:

The eye base acts like a primer for the eyes and keeps the shadow in place for hours. Without properly priming your eye shadow will likely end up as a greasy line in your crease or otherwise will disappear after a while.

5.APPLYING THE EYE LASHES:

It is advisable to apply the selected lashes before starting the eye makeup, any mess that you make can be cleaned before the eye make-up starts. Cut the lash from the outer side as per the length of your eyes; apply the lashes after applying glue (preferably black) with the back of a brush. Keep your eyes closed for a minute.

6. APPLYING THE EYE-LINER:

Hence creating the required area to be worked on, Line eyes as close to the upper lashes as possible from the inner corner to the outer corner.

7. APPLY SHADOW:

It’s great to use three-shades allowing them to blend into each other like a rainbow is gorgeous, sweep the desired color from the inner lid towards the outer lid (silver shade). Follow with a medium color across your socket line (pink shade). Build on this with a darker color in the outer corner and crease area (black shade). Blend the colours well. Apply a kohl pencil on the lower water line and lightly lining with the silver shade around your lower lashes blend well.

8. APPLY MASCARA:

Use smudge proof mascara otherwise the fibers cling to your lashes and can give a very gloppy look. It’s also prone to flaking and falling off, which makes women look tired. The best way is to tilt the chin up slightly and the head back slightly and lift your eyebrows up. That makes it easy to run the mascara brush along the length of the upper lashes from the base to the tip without smearing.

So ladies follow these basic steps, and no matter how difficult it seems you will be able to create a glam look for your eyes. Until next time…