Why Brown Eyeshadow Is The MVP Of The Korean Makeup Bag

The cosmetics world tends to meet brown eyeshadow with a “meh,” but it’s more versatile than one would think. As the Naked palettes testify, brown is so much more than…brown. Living in Korea, I began to notice a consistent pattern in the way brown eyeshadow was being applied. It’s strategically splayed around the eye instead of the standard beige-tan-dark brown gradient on just the top lid.

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Similar to contouring, in Korea, brown eyeshadow lives up to its function of creating depth and accentuating the eye, but that also involves playing up the aegyosal (fat bags under the eye). This is the exact opposite of how the area is treated in America, where anything under the eye is concealed. This makeup technique plays up that little undereye bulge. If you think that’s weird, check out these Korean celebrities without aegyosal. It’s almost as creepy as celebrities without eyebrows.

As Korean luxury brand Vidi Vici’s senior makeup artist Chaeyeol Lim puts it, many East Asian women have relatively flat, smooth faces. This makeup technique essentially creates a more hollowed-out eye socket. The look doesn’t go full Tim Burton/zombie, but defining and adding depth to this area creates the illusion of deeper, more intense, larger eyes.

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If you’re wondering why anyone would want sunken-in peepers, something a night out on the town would accomplish just as well, you’re right. No one wants that. But, going a few steps in the direction of bad can be a good thing. For people who naturally have a little bit of fat right under the eye (Jessica Alba, Beyoncé), ignoring intuition to conceal the undereye and highlighting instead can mean looking younger and happier. Notice how the bit of fat gets fatter when you smile or laugh?

Creating a slightly deeper socket gives the eyes a smoldering intensity, and using brown eyeshadow to subtly pull this look together without going full smoky-eye makes the technique all the more appealing.

Lim explains, “This brown eyeshadow trend is a basic in any Korean girl’s everyday look. Interestingly enough, the more simple and natural a look has to appear, the more complicated it is.” He demonstrated the trend on me, and it was shocking how much better I looked.

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For a rundown on how you can mimic the Korean girl’s everyday look, scroll through for the step-by-step tutorial.

To create a clean, even palette for the eyes to take center-stage, skin prep is minimal. Last year, Korean girls were all about dewy skin, which at times was a bit much. This year, it’s all about semi-dewy. The secret to the toned-down way to show off well-hydrated skin is in face oil.

Blossom Jeju 100% Camellia Seed Dry Oil, $30, available at Glow Recipe.

Marry a few drops with your favorite foundation for a lighter gleam of coverage. The current number-one foundation in Korea is TonyMoly’s BCDation All Master, which provides lightweight coverage and a natural-looking, matte finish.

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TonyMoly BCDation SPF 30, $16.74, available at BeautyNetKorea.

As with any typically Korean look, the brows need to be straight. First, use a brow pencil to shape arched areas and achieve a flat shape.

Etude House Drawing Eye Brow, $6.90, available at YesStyle.

Then, use a brow mascara to fill in and give texture and fullness.

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Etude House Color My Brows, $6, available at Etude House.

Using a highlighter or ivory shadow with a bit of shimmer, highlight the browbone. This will create contrast with the browns later to make the eye pop.

Stylenanda 3 Concept Eyes Long Wear Eye Crayon in Syrup, $17, available at Stylenanda.

Take a warm brown shadow and with your eye open, lightly stencil the area just above the crease that will be visible when it’s open. With the lid now closed, fill in this area, but concentrate the color to be deepest slightly off-center, toward the outer eye. Blend the edges with your fingers or a brush.

Take the same shadow and line the bottom lashline, concentrating color on the outer corners and barely depositing color as you move closer to the tear duct. At this point, you should look like a blonde panda, and it’ll be more weird than cute. But, the next step will resolve this.

Stylenanda 3 Concept Eyes Long Wear Eye Crayon in Fallen, $17, available at Stylenanda.

Using a black eyeliner, line the top lid with a thin line that extends slightly outward.

Clio Kill Black/Brown Eyeliner, $22, available at Peach and Lily.

To soften the look but still add definition, use an almost black liner with a hint of sparkle on the bottom lashline.

Clio Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liner, $10.98, available at Amazon.

To accentuate the bags under your eyes (a sign of “cute” in Korea), highlight them with a hit of shimmer, concentrating most of the color in the center, right under the lower lashes, and the inner corners of the eye. Then, create a little shadow using brown powder. For this, it’s easiest to use an aegyosal-specific tool like Etude House’s Dear Girls Cute Eyes Maker (that’s seriously the name), which contains a highlighter and shader on opposite ends of a handy stick.

Etude House Dear Girls Cute Eyes Maker, $13, available at Soko Glam.

Mascara. Top and bottom. Wiggle wiggle.

This mascara’s not Korean; it’s Japanese, but it is loved by all. It wields some serious curling power and contains little fibers to lengthen the lashes. It’s really waterproof, which means it’s not fun to take off, but you can apply it to the bottom lashes without any anxiety over it becoming a smudgefest.

Kiss Me Isehan Kiss Me Heroine Make Long & Curl Mascara, $13.25, available at Amazon.

In another effort to draw attention to the eyes, we need to minimize the face, and Vidi Vici’s Small Face Case makes that easy. The name is no joke, and neither is the case. The handy little compact contains a finishing powder, highlighter, blush, and shading powder. In the same year that Vidi Vici launched, its Small Face Case compact quickly rose to fame after appearing in the popular Korean drama, My Lovely Sam Soon, Korea’s version of Bridget Jones’ Diary. In it, Korean Bridget Jones manages to slim down her face via the Small Face Case.

Sweep on the finishing powder along the jawline and sides of the face to subtly contour. Use the highlighter on a small blending brush to highlight the forehead, bridge of the nose, Cupid’s bow, chin, and inner cheeks.

Vidivici Small Face Case, $84.32, available at Gmarket.

Since the face is a swirl of neutral and brown at this point, you need some color to rescue it from looking too sallow. Just a touch on the cheeks and lips is enough. Go multi-purpose with Skin Food’s Lip & Cheek balm, and rub a bit on the inner cheekbones. Avoid spreading it to the outer cheekbones, as that would break up the contouring achieved in the previous step.

Skinfood Fresh Fruit Lip and Cheek in #1 Pomegranate, $4.61, available at KoreaDepart.

To finalize the look, I am in L-O-V-E with Dr. Jart+’s Ceramidin Oil Balm. First of all, it smells amazing. The scent is slightly herbal, but in a pretty, delicate way — like the kitten version of Tiger Balm.

Via a nifty little metal spatula, you can scrape out a pea-sized amount of the solid balm and rub it between your hands, where it instantly turns into oil from the heat. I like to rub for a few seconds, so my hands absorb some of the oil. Then, lightly press your hands on the cheeks and forehead to leave behind a soft, finishing glow.

Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Oil Balm, $35, available at Sephora.

But if pressing an oil onto the high points of your face is a little too greasy for your liking, a liquid highlighter will give a similarly dewy effect.

Too Cool for School Dinoplatz Pearl Bay Invasion Highlighter, $33, available at Sephora.

By: Joyce Kong