How to Blend Blue and Green Eyeshadows

Blue and green are a harmonious duo if you blend well.

The iridescent feathers of a peacock's tail showcase how beautifully blues and greens can mesh. Blue and green eyeshadows can look arrestingly lovely with any eye color, but blending the colors is essential to a polished look. Blending with your fingertips leaves oils on your skin that can cause powder-based shadows to clump, so use brushes to feather one shade into another.

Things You'll Need

• Translucent powder
• Mirror
• 1/4-inch makeup brush
• 1/2-inch makeup brush
• 1-inch makeup brush

Instructions

1. Dust your under-eye area with translucent powder. The extra powder will catch any grains of heavily pigmented eyeshadow that fall and make your finished look neater.

2. Apply the lighter shade of eyeshadow over your upper lid with the quarter-inch domed makeup brush, starting at the outer corner of your eyelid and working toward the bridge of your nose. The eyeshadow should cover your upper eyelid from corner to corner and up to the crease, but not beyond it. Repeat this step with the other eye.

3. Knock any remaining eyeshadow out of the quarter-inch brush and use it to pick up a brushload of the darker shade of eyeshadow. Tap excess shadow from the brush and sweep the smaller brush into the crease of your eyelid, starting from the outer corner. Repeat for the other side of your face.

4. Move the brush with the darker shadow in a V shape with the point of the V at the outer corner of your eye. One side of the V will fall into the crease of your eyelid; the other will skim along the base of your upper lashes. Continue working the darker shadow into this V-shaped zone of your eyelid until you reach the desired intensity, then match your other eye to the first.

5. Sweep the half-inch domed makeup brush along the lines of demarcation between the lighter shadow on your eyelid and the darker shadow in the crease. Using a wider brush for blending feathers the colors over a wider area, creating a more thoroughly blended surface. Blend the blue and green eyeshadow on your other eye to match.

6. Compare the two sides of your face closely for overall symmetry and intensity. Correct your eyeshadow where needed to make your eyes match. Use the half-inch brush to feather the colors if you apply more shadow to correct an imbalance.

7. Brush the excess powder from beneath your eyes and apply the rest of your eye makeup as usual.

Tips & Warnings

• Experiment with different shades and placements of blue and green. A navy eyeshadow in the crease and seafoam green on your eyelids will look strikingly different from powder blue eyelids and forest green in the crease.

• If your two shadow colors are similarly light or dark, choose the eyeshadow with more shimmer for your eyelids and fill in the crease with the matte eyeshadow.

• Set off the finished look with black eyeliner and mascara.

• Work with clean brushes to avoid muddy colors and possible eye irritation.

• Bold colors and metallic textures look their best on smooth eyelids; if your lids tend to crinkle, choose muted hues and soft shimmer or matte eyeshadows.

References

• Allure: Look Now - Bright Eye Makeup
• Western Beauty Institute: Makeup Tips By WBI
• University of Kansas Medical Center: A Dermatologist's Guide to Cosmetics