BeautyBijou

TUTORIAL: NATURAL, WEARABLE CUT CREASE

One of my favourite dramatic eye looks is the 'cut crease', because it takes a lot of skill to perfect, but the results look great. It's a great one to make your eyes 'pop', but sometimes it's way too over the top for day to day wear.

I've taken the idea of the cut crease and made it a little more subtle, using muted nude tones and adding a little bit of drama. This does take a bit of practice, but once you've nailed it you can start experimenting!

1. Okay, so you want to start off with a smooth base, and that begins with an eyeshadow primer. We want the colours to really stand out with this look, and the primer will help to show the pigment of the shadow much more than it would usually. Apply a matte, pale vanilla shadow all over the lid and brow bone with a large fluffy brush.

2. Next, take a light nude shadow like 'Buck' by Urban Decay and start to 'carve' your crease. The closer you bring the colour to the lashline the more subtle the look will be, and so for full effect I took the shadow just above my natural crease to really open the eye and create definition. Use a blending brush for this step, however try to use minimal product and build the colour, whilst holding the brush downward to use the tip for definition.

3. Now you have your guideline, we can start to deepen the colour and start creating the contrast with the lid. With a matte dark brown shadow on a short shader brush like the MAC 228, start to softly create a sharper line along the 'crease' - your effect will be better by using a small amount of product, a light application and patience! - buff upward to begin blending the two tones together.

4. Build this up as dramatically as you like, by applying small amounts of the darker shadow, making sure not to smudge the definition you made in the crease earier. Only blend upwards and outwards.

5. Then, using your blending brush and what I call a 'transition shade' (a shadow 2 to 3 shades lighter than your primary colour), blend the two together to create a seamless gradient up towards the brow.

6. Line the eyes with your favourite liquid or gel liner. The trick here is to make sure the angle of the cat eye joins with the outer corner of the shadow, forming an almost 'triangular' shape, framing the eye. To really brighten the eye, apply a small amount of a pale iridescent shade like 'Virgin' by Urban Decay in the inner corner of the eye and dust the leftover product over the brow bone.

With lower lashline lined.

7. If you want to add a little more intensity, add a small amount of black shadow in the very outer part of the cut crease, again blending upwards to join all the shades together. Another way to add 'drama' to the look is lining the lower lashline but don't join this to your upper liner, flick the outer edge out slightly to open the eye.

8. Apply mascara and lashes if you wish, 'clean' the under eye up with some concealer/powder and you're done!