Trend to Try Now: Metallic Smoky Eyeshadow

Kat Dennings, star of 2 Broke Girls, lights up the party circuit with metallic lids in exuberant color combinations.

MAKEUP HOW-TO: After rimming Dennings’s eyes with black powder liner, celebrity makeup artist Beth Bender traced it across lids, then smudged it with her fingers. “You want to create a base for the shadow,” she says.  She then applied a *black iridescent shadow over the lids and underneath lower lash lines—and dotted lids with black-silver glitter. “If particles fall on your face, use a piece of scotch tape to blot them off,” says Bender, who kept lips soft with a pale pink hue.

SMOKY EYE NOTE: Not sure about the smoky eye shape?  Try using a smoky eye stencil which does the work for you.  Simply place over your eyelid and fill in with color.  Once you’ve got the desired shape continue by applying your *iridescent black shadow.

Holiday makeup doesn’t always have to match the tinsel. At the Trevor Project’s Annual Benefit in Hollywood, Dianna Agron turned heads with her sleek pompadour and rust-colored eyeshadow.

We loved the departure from the traditional gilded hue, and how the unique shade made her green eyes pop.

If you don’t have a rust colored eye shadow in your beauty arsenal you can sweep a warm brown shadow over your lids to create a similar look, and be sure to blend out any harsh lines. Apply mascara, but use a minimal amount of eyeliner so you don’t take away from the shadow’s effect. The result is effortless and unexpected—not overdone.

Check out the Beautiful Browns Smoky Eye Quad and SGB Smoky Eye Shadow and Eyeliner Kit.

The Girls in the BSW Beauty Dept.

Let’s talk about a really easy makeup trick, shall we? See if you can spot it on Nicole Richie here.

What we’d like for you to pay attention to is what’s happening in the creases of her eyes.

American designer Rachel Roy enters the realm of beauty today with the launch of an eye shadow palette containing ten shades that let you create a variety of looks ranging from natural to super sultry. Like everything that Roy touches, the shades are refined, luxe, and completely wearable. For day, the palette holds five neutral and bronze tones, four shimmery (chocolate, bronze, yellow gold, and orange-gold), and one beige with a satin-finish. For night, Roy went with cooler tones including a satiny sky-blue, navy blue, iridescent teal, forest green, and rich sparkly violet. The perfect combination of satin and shimmer, pale and dark, means you can come up with multiple looks appropriate for both the office or an evening out—all season long. My favorite shade in the palette is Evil Eye, an iridescent blackened-green which is ideal for a smoky finish.

So why did Roy decide to venture into makeup, when she already has such a full plate? “Makeup is such a part of who I am, from the Indian side of me that always loves a smoky eye, to the love of experimenting and trying new things with color,” she says. Roy even included QR codes on the back of the palette that direct you to online tutorials on how to create some of her signature looks. Personally, I’m glad she felt the need to share her love of makeup with us—there’s not one color inside the paint-splashed foldable palette that I wouldn’t use (something I can’t say for every palette I’ve ever purchased) and it’s slim enough to slip into any purse—at a price more on par with her diffusion collection for Macy’s, a reasonable $32.

Oh, so you think you’ve tried every smoky eye combination in the entire world?  Well, maybe you have, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out this one Keira Knightley wore to the premiere of “A Dangerous Method” in London.  It’s not one you see everyday, but this girl rocked it all the way down the red carpet.

All you’d have to do is line your inner rims with a black pencil, we love Too Faced Perfect Eyes Waterproof-Tearproof Eyeliner, dust your pewter eyeshadow along your bottom lashline and on your upper lids up to the crease, and then add a soft plum in the fold and up slightly toward your eyebrows.  Simple enough.  Any of you feeling inspired?  Well we hope so!

Scarlett Johansson can’t live without hers, Nicole Richie has one in every bathroom, and Angelina Jolie gave a stencil kit to each one of her assistants last Christmas.

To win you must be a subscriber, and leave a comment below telling us why you need this collection.  The contest ends on Friday October 28th at midnight, so run, don’t walk and be the lucky winner to be sporting gorgeous eyes like a pro.

Good luck!

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about the Do’s and Don’ts of shimmer in the BSW Beauty Dept,  so we thought it was pretty super of Emma Stone to step out in an eye makeup look yesterday that demonstrates how to wear a lot of it without looking like a beauty mess. This happens to be a look she is frequently seen sporting on the red carpet, and one that suits her real fine.

We could get bogged down by many things in this picture of Katy Perry coming out of a taping of the X Factor in London.  We could talk about her pink hair color, her retro hairstyle, the fact that her roots are showing, her pink nails.  But then we’d be ignoring the most important and awesome thing going on here, and that’s her eye makeup.

These smoky eyes totally knocked us out!  Come see the hotness that was Ciara’s smoky eye makeup at an event for The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project: