Sunset Eyes Tutorial

May 11, 2018

Sunset Eyes Tutorial

When warm-toned browns started becoming more popular in the beauty community years ago, I couldn’t understand why and I never saw myself straying away from my favorite cool-toned taupes. Now here we are a few years later and I don’t bother even looking at my cool browns anymore. All I ever want to wear are the warm shades. I’m happy this change has set in, though. I know I’ll look back years from now and appreciate that I finally mixed things up a little bit. With Summer quickly approaching, I have a few shades that remind me of a beautiful sunset and it’s just too good not to share. I do switch back and forth through two palettes in this tutorial, but obviously feel free to just use whatever you already have in your collection!

I started by priming the lids with my favorite Milani eyeshadow primer. This is a great option at an affordable price if you have extremely oily eyelids like me. Once that dried, I used the Sheer Joy shade in the It Cosmetics Naturally Pretty eyeshadow palette as my base. Adding that neutral shade all over the lid will conceal any veins that might be showing through and will also help the other colors blend more easily.

Keeping in that same eyeshadow palette, I went in with the shade called Soulful as my transition shade to bring some slight definition to the crease. Adding a soft shade like this that’s a little lighter in tone than the darker colors that will be layered on top of it creates a beautiful, effortless transition and provides more depth to the look.

Then I took the Sunrise shade and placed that on the outer half of my eye, blending up into my crease as well. This is a more orange brown and will act as the background to the sunset image we’re trying to create. These are nicely pigmented eyeshadows, but I did make sure to pack this color on a little bit more to make sure it still shows behind the next shade.

Next I brought in the Sunrise shade and placed that almost in the exact same area as where I placed Sunset, although I made sure not to cover it up completely. I wanted to be able to see the different shades and really just focus Sunrise in a smaller area of the outer corner.

Once I placed enough of the Sunrise shade where I wanted it, I had gone over Sunset a little bit more than what I wanted so I just wiped my brush off and added a little bit more until I started to see the gradient of the two shades that I was looking for. Then I went in with a separate loose-bristled, empty blending brush and blended everything even more. If you wanted to, you could also bring in a little bit more of Soulful and blend that on top as well.

For the rest of the lid, I dipped into another shade called Sunset. This one is in the Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Volume II palette. The texture of the shadows in this palette is completely different, but they’re still amazing quality. I packed that shade onto my lid with my finger first to get the most intense application and then blended out the edges with a small shader brush.

To highlight my brow bone, I switched back to the Naturally Pretty palette and used the same Sheer Joy shade that I used as my base. That worked as the perfect brow bone highlight because it’s almost like a bone shade. It’s not too bright white, but it’s not too dark either. It’s perfect!

I wanted something a little brighter than Sheer Joy for the inner corner, though. So I used Transforming Pearl, which is the only shimmer shade in the Naturally Pretty palette. I applied that with a small smudge brush and it brightened everything beautifully.

I skipped pencil eyeliner for this look and just used the Siren shade in the Tarte palette. The texture of those eyeshadows makes them great for eyeliner. They’re a little thicker, so they really stay in place all day. I love the way this deep purple compliments the warm sunset shades that are on the lid.

Then all there was left to do was apply mascara to tie everything together. I used three coats of the Tarte Tarteist Lash Paint mascara. I’ve really been enjoying this one a lot lately because it provides enough length and volume on it’s own for me to be satisfied enough without having to pair it with anything else.

Here’s a close-up of the final look:

And a quick, more condensed guide recapping every step for easy reference:

I could stare at this eyeshadow combo all day, I love it so much. The combination of the shadows from the Naturally Pretty palette are gorgeous on their own and even look beautiful when finished with the Transforming Pearl shade instead of the gold, but I love the extra sparkle and warmth that the gold brings into the look.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please feel free to share it using one of the buttons below. If you recreate this look or get inspired to create something similar, don’t forget to tag me on social media -- all of my links are at the bottom of the post. I’d love to see how this works for you!