5 Gifs To The Perfect Smoky Eye Makeup

A smoldering smoky eye is timelessly sexy. It’s the perfect way to pull together a sultry outfit when you want to turn up the heat for a night out. Essential to any party look and sought by girls all around, but all those black and gray (or brown and beige) shadows can get overwhelming if you're not a pro... until now.

Being the ultimate girly girl, I’ve been experimenting with makeup since I was about 13 years old. For 11 years I’ve practiced the art of shadowing, blending and lining, hoping to unlock the secret to an eye makeup masterpiece. After watching countless tutorials, religiously reading all of the top beauty magazines, and practicing in front of my bathroom mirror for hours, I've finally nailed down the course to the ever popular smoky eye we all desire. However if you don't consider yourself to be "artsy" you may be intimated, thinking that no matter how many tutorials you watch you'll never be able to do it on your own. But fret no more! It's actually pretty easy and totally doable for just about anyone.

I've teamed up with the super talented Juliette Perrreux, regular makeup artist for fashion house Marchesa and celebrities like Michelle Dockery and Jemima Kirke, to deliver a step-by-step how-to for the easiest, quickest smoky eye that you'll be sure to master yourself.

Step One: Lining & Smudging

Start by lining the eyes with a pencil or gel liner, right along the lash lines. "Don't worry about applying with precision because you'll be smudging immediately after. Just make sure to really get into the roots of the lashes so the look will pop," says Perreux.

Begin smudging the line you just made with your finger or with a smudging brush, either works just fine. "The great thing about a smoky look is that you can choose how neat or messy you'd like it to be. The more you smudge, the more smoke you'll get and the more you'll achieve that rock-n'-roll vibe characteristic to this look," says Perreux.

Step Two: Shadow

Using a black shadow (can be matte or shimmery) and a shadow brush, start blending into the eye with the smudged liner. "Make sure to apply the shadow from your lash line all the way up to the crease of your eye," says Perreux.

Step Three: Blending

Using a clean blending brush, swipe back and forth along the crease where the shadow ends. "Keep swiping and blending until the edge of the shadow blends seamlessly into the skin," says Perreux.

Step Four: More Lining

Apply liner to your bottom lid, along the lash line. "You can also apply liner to your water line for a more intense look," says Perreux. Smudge the line again to blend, like you did to the top line, using your finger or a smudge brush.

Step Five: Mascara

The final step to seal the deal is mascara. "No smoky eye look is complete without mascara!" says Perreux. Using a deep black mascara wand, apply evenly from the inner lashes to the outer lashes.

And voilà! You're all done! How easy was that?!

Images: May Sofi (8)