Tutorial - Bold Blues

A very bold, very FUN tutorial – SO BLUE!

Skill Level: Beginner-Moderate

Start with a makeup-free/clean eye area, and then gather the following items in order to copy this look: MAC’s water-based mixing medium, Gold Dusk pigment, Blue pigment, Sky Blue e/s, Electric Eel e/s, A Bluer Blue e/s, Deep Truth e/s, Freshwater e/s, Gorgeous Gold e/s, and Blue Horizon liquidlast. Feel free to use whatever face and lip products you want to complete the look; I chose Foolish Me blush, Strawberry Blonde l/s, Petit Four l/g, and a bit of Hot Chrome! chromeglass.
Using just a miniscule amount of MAC’s water-based mixing medium, pick up Gold Dusk pigment and place the brush flat against your inner lid. There is no need to be precise or slow about this, this is only going to act as a base, and don’t worry if the placement isn’t exactly the same as me. Bring the color all the way up to your brow or just below it. You want to cover about half of your lid with this pigment.


This is how it should look when your eye is closed…

and how it should look when your eye is open.

Repeating the same technique, we use Blue pigment to do the outer portion of the lid. Again, bring it far up, but not quite to the brow bone, and make sure that it slightly overlaps with the Gold Dusk pigment. Not much, but don’t worry if it does. Again, the pigment acts as a base to hold together the rest of the shadows we will use for the duration of the tutorial.

I usually do the lid portion first, and then I will extend the color up and above my crease. It’s more important to get the lid to be a very smooth, solid piece, rather than above the crease, simply because the color is going to be most potent on the lid.

Results with your eye closed…

and results with your eye open.

Taking Sky Blue e/s on your eyeshadow brush, hold the brush flat against your inner lid (much like how you applied the Gold Dusk pigment!), and you want to cover most of the Gold Dusk pigment, only leaving a bit at the brow uncovered.

I’ve concentrated on packing it on in the very inner third of the lid, and now, I hold the brush angled vertically and brush the color outwards to cover the remaining portion of the Gold Dusk pigment.

To ensure evenness, I hold the brush right under where the Sky Blue e/s ends and pull it outwards and downwards into the remaining Gold Dusk pigment.

This is how your eyelid should look at this point.

Now, pick up Electric Eel e/s and place your brush in the middle of your eyelid flat against it, prepared to make a downward stroke; the same place where the two pigments met.

Slowly pull your brush down the middle of your eyelid. You will most likely need to pick up more Electric Eel e/s in order to get the right color brightness, but you merely repeat the process. You can start later on in the middle of lid to even out any coloring.

This is how it should look right now. You can see the two stripes, can’t you? The way Electric Eel e/s interacts with the Sky Blue/Gold Dusk pigment is different than Electric Eel e/s on Blue pigment.

Holding your brush vertically against your lid, start where the light blue meets the slightly darker blue and brush light into dark.

Repeat this technique, only start where the slightly darker blue meets the medium blue and pull outwards.

Taking A Bluer Blue e/s, place the brush vertically against your outer lid and gently tap it on. Then, pull it outwards slightly to cover the remaining portion of the Blue pigment.

This is what you should have thus far.

Are you getting the idea of how it should look? The main effect we are trying to achieve is a creating a gradient from light blue to dark blue.

Taking Deep Truth e/s, place the brush horizontally into the middle of your crease and pull the color outwards along the crease.

Then, bring the brush back and gently pull some Deep Truth e/s into your inner crease – but not too much. You want it to be a very subtle fading dark blue.

More Deep Truth e/s is needed to darken up the outer lid/crease/corner area, so place it slightly above your outer crease and then pull the brush downwards to darken the very edges of your eye area.

This is how it should look.

Picking up more Deep Truth e/s, hold your brush horizontally against your outer lower lash line, starting from the corner, and slowly brush the color on the lower lash line.

Pull it until you reach the middle of your lower lash line.

Do the inner lash line by using Gorgeous Gold e/s and the same technique as we used previously. Go a little past the Deep Truth e/s, so perhaps two-thirds of the lower lash line.

This is what we have right now.

Gorgeous Gold e/s is going to be the only highlight color, and there are many photos for just this step because I know that eliminating that harsh blue line may be daunting for anyone not a pro at blending yet. Pick up a generous amount of the shadow and place it under your inner brow.

Pull your brush outwards and upwards to the area directly under your eyebrow’s arch.

Continue to pull the brush along the underside of your eyebrow until you reach the end of your eyebrow.

If you noticed in the last picture, it looked like we ran out of shadow to cover the area, so again, repeating the process, start directly under your eyebrow’s arch and pull it outwards and downwards, using your eyebrow as a guideline.

Now, this is where the actual blending occurs. From the position you finished in during the previous step, pull the brush upwards and inwards just a little bit lower than when you applied. You want to capture more of the blue when you pull the brush away from it in order to merge the gold and the blues together.

Continue pulling the brush and finish at your inner brow.

Any area that is not yet blended, go back and repeat the same technique. Around the middle of the brow area, you can see that it wasn’t quite soft enough, so I pulled the blue into the gold with my brush.

Repeat the same technique, only from the other side, pull from outside to inside and upwards.

You would call this blended, wouldn’t you?

To even out the blues in the crease area and above it, take some Freshwater e/s and place it slightly off of center (closer to your outer lid) and above your crease.

Pull the Freshwater e/s above your crease towards your inner crease. You do not want to bring it all the way to the inside, only part way, and ensure that the pressure starts out harder at the starting point and tapers off so that it is gentle at the end.

Much more even now, isn’t it?

Using a very stiff and flat brush, I picked up some Blue Horizon liquidlast and will now line my lower lash line with it, starting from the outer corner moving to the inner corner.

Messy, ain’t it? Freshwater e/s would be a great alternative to Blue Horizon liquidlast if you can’t or don’t want to use it.

Using the same brush, I picked up some Gorgeous Gold e/s and am lining directly underneath the Blue Horizon liquidlast to give it more depth and to sort of create an illusion of even liner!

And so you finish with this liner. I went back over and darkened the liner so it stood out more. I document my looks step-by-step, but anything that looks unfinished or not quite right, at the end, I will go back and add or touch-up as needed.