How to Make Your Eyes Pop
Miranda Kerr & Kate Bosworth’s makeup artist, Lisa Storey, shares her three-step strategy for a wide-eyed gaze.
Written by Lexy Lebsack
In your eyes, for your eyes only, sorry eyes, sad eyes, lost in your eyes — try listening to a soft rock station for a half hour without stumbling on a song that rhapsodizes about baby blues, or browns, or greens. They’ve inspired lyrics, poems, sonnets. Even VIOLET GREY itself was named for the unique shade of Elizabeth Taylor’s enormously expressive eyes. Needless to say, eyes are one of our most powerful tools of seduction, and, as they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Using an expert strategy based on shading, dimension, and color theory, one may alter their eye’s size to appear larger, wider, and more vibrant. For advice on the subject VIOLET GREY consulted makeup artist Lisa Storey, who uses the aforementioned techniques to play up Miranda Kerr, Kate Bosworth, and Winona Ryder’s gazes for the red carpet. “Making eyes appear bigger is all about how you shade and contour,” Storey says. With little else aside from a palette of warm, and soft brown shadows and mascara (she rarely uses black for day), Storey’s technique yields an enviable wide awake look.
Her eye-enhancing strategy, and The Violet Code-approved products she recommends to pull it off, below.
LESSONS ON MAKING YOUR EYES POP
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HIGHLIGHT
To begin, smudge Laura Mercier’s Caviar Stick Eye Colour in Rose Gold onto the center of the top eyelid and in the inner corners of the eyes using your finger or a small, flat concealer brush. This adds light and opens up the eyes.
LAURA MERCIER CAVIAR STICK EYE COLOUR ROSEGOLD
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CONTOUR
Next, contour the eyes with the top right hue from Tom Ford’s Eye Palette in Cocoa Mirage by lightly dusting it in the crease of the eyelid and along the outer third of the top and bottom lashline with a small eye shadow brush. Continue to deepen the color by slowly adding the bottom right hue, then further amplify just the shading on the top, outer lashline with the bottom left hue. Blend all edges with a clean shadow brush, then dust the palest hue onto the brow bone.
Additional Advice: Avoid adding any dark shadow to the inner third of the eye (top or bottom), which can make eyes look smaller, and leave the waterline bare.
TOM FORD EYE COLOR QUAD EYESHADOW PALETTE COCOA MIRAGE
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DEFINE
Full, black lashes can make eyes appear closed in. Instead, lightly curl the lashes and use Dior’s Diorshow Mascara in Catwalk Brown to define only the outside half of the top and bottom lashes. The warmth of the earthy hue brings out the vibrancy of any eye color. Work the brush into the top lashline and drag it up and out, then lightly comb through the bottom, outer lashes.
DIOR DIORSHOW MASCARA CATWALK BROWN
See the full kit and more at VIOLETGREY.com.
