The New Neutral: Mauve Over Brown!

Berries, plums, and silvery mauves are THE hot shades on the runway this season.  The reason that everyone from celebrities to makeup artists goes nuts for these shades is because they are universally flattering and wearable.  No matter your skin tone or your eye color or hair color, purples and particularly the more neutral variations like plum and mauve look divine.  They can be soft and subtle for day or dark and smoky for evening.  They can even be bright and wild for a night out when you're feeling daring.  Sometimes, all of these looks can be accomplished with the same shade depending on wear you apply it, how much, and whether you use it wet or dry.  Here are a few of my favorite "new neutral" eyeshadows and ways to wear them.  And here's a picture of Eva Longoria rocking a smoky eggplant eye at a recent event.

NARS Tokyo Eye Duo
This is a beautiful soft smoky mauve duo that is perfect for everyday-wear, even at a conservative office.  The light shade, a pale silvery mauve, makes a lovely base for the lid.  Apply it dry for a soft day look or wet on the lid for a bolder evening look.  Choose a soft shimmer or bone color for a highlighting shade on the brow bone.  Then sweep the darker shade from the NARS duo, a medium mauve-taupe into the crease.  You can easily transition this soft, subtle look to evening  by applying a little black eyeliner and "smoking" it up by using a thick eyeliner-blending brush to run the darker mauve shade over the eyeliner, blending it into a smoky plummy haze.  Expert purple eyeshadow tip:  keep the purple concentrated on the top lid rather than below the eye.  Purple eyeshadows underneath the eye, unless they are very bright, tend to make the eyes appear bruised or tired.

Estee Lauder Berry Ice and Pale Moon Eyeshadows
Estee Lauder makes two of my all-time favorites, my go-to eyeshadow look for all occasions.  These are wet/dry shadows, but I really like to use my base shadow, Pale Moon, wet and the contouring shade, Berry Ice, dry.  After applying your favorite eye primer, wet a flat-shadow brush and apply Pale Moon (a light silvery mauve-pink) all over your lid and blend out into the crease.  Then take a fluffy crease-brush and sweep the Berry Ice (a medium berry-plum) shade into the crease, creating a half-arc around the eye and sweeping down toward the lash line.  Add mascara and you're good to go for the office.  For an evening look with a little extra pop, take a wet angled lining brush and dip it in a deep matte violet shade like NARS Daphne.  Line both the upper and lower lash line with this one.  It's ok to line the lower lash line with a shade like this because it's both dark and bright enough in color to not make you look like you have a black eye.  Blend it outward at the outer corner of the eye for a gorgeous smoky finish.

Bare Escentuals Eye Glimmer in Soul Sister
Sometimes, a very special eyeshadow comes along that stands alone.  For me, those are typically loose pure pigment eyeshadows like those by MAC and Bare Escentuals.  This one is a gorgeous rich and dark plummy aubergine with a shimmery finish.  After I prep my eyelids with some eye primer, I like to take a flat eyeshadow brush and sweep this sexy shade over my entire lid, using a blending brush to blend it into the crease.  That and some mascara, and you've got a sexy and simple date look.  If you want to, you can always add a smoky coat of black or charcoal eyeliner, but please, stick with the top lid only.  This eyeshadow is so great at making your eyes sparkle and stand out without anything else, you don't want to go too heavy with the eyeliner.  I wear this look with a little bronzer and neutral tawny cheeks and some light plummy-nude lipgloss.

MAC Purple Haze
This is a bolder brighter medium violet shade for those who want a pop of color.  It's easy to incorporate.  Just start with your favorite natural eye look (taupes, golds, bronzes, and champagnes, whether matte or sparkly are all great for this look).  Then, simply wet an angled eyeliner brush and use it to apply a thin line to the lower lash line and inner eye-rim of the lower lash line.  Then, wipe the excess shadow from the brush and use the brush to blend a little bit around the lash line.  The key to keeping bright shadows like this looking fresh instead of like an 80's explosion is to concentrate the color on an otherwise neutral eye, which is why you don't want any eyeliner on the upper lid.  So you want to keep that line really thin but slightly blended for a hazy eye worthy of the Purple Haze name.  Just add mascara, preferably a softer brown or black-brown instead of black so that the drama is all focused on that lower lash line. 

Expert tip: you can use this runway secret with ANY bright color for the same effect.  Just remember to keep that line of color as thin as you can and concentrated more on the inner rim than the lash line, and keep the rest of the eye and face very soft and neutral.

Eye Shadow by M·A·C