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Refinery29
  • 9 minutes ago
We've long been fans of white shadow. Dabbed daintily on our Cupid's Bow or in the corners of our eyes, it creates a subtle brightness that gives our look a little extra oomph. But, after observing how the pros made white work all around the eye at spring shows like Tibi and Kate Spade, we knew it was time to put our creamy-colored makeup to work.

Armed with white eyeliner (check out this one by Pixel for a similar look) and some carefully curated complementary products, makeup pro James Vincent showed us that white-washed eyes can (and should!) look far from ghost-like. Our beauty director Megan is living proof — white eye makeup is officially wearable.
Transcript
00:13I really love the white liner looks I saw on the spring runways at Tibby's show and Kate Spade.
00:18I'm hoping that James can show me a way to make it more wearable. You love the
00:21black and white eye look this season as much as I do. Oh yeah. Let me show you
00:25some really simple tricks that you can use to make it wearable for every day.
00:29So white is a fantastic color for any woman to wear. A lighter color is going
00:34to open up the eye make it look larger. So I'm starting with a white pencil and I'm
00:38going to bring that in right along the waterline. So just look right up and I'm
00:41going right inside the eye. For darker skin a lemon yellow or a cream color will
00:47also have the same effect. Then I'm going to hold the pencil just like a pencil and
00:50using the same color I'm going to go right in along that lash line. The next step
00:55I'm taking the same white pencil and I'm just smudging it right along that top
00:59lash line. You put a little brown liner on there work it right in. So it's okay to
01:03mix? It's always okay to mix and what I'm actually going to do is take a little
01:07smudge it and bring the two together and that's going to give me some depth along
01:11the lash line. Next trick I'm going to take my black pencil and I'm smudging that
01:15right over right along the lash line blending that white and that black
01:20together so that we get kind of gradation of grays and I'm just bringing
01:24it up and out towards the brow. And to finish it off a white powder shadow. The
01:30firmer and denser our brushes the more color it's going to apply so I'm going to
01:34use a shimmer shadow on a dense brush. So I'm taking this color right on the
01:39center of the lid and bringing it right up to the brow. What we really want to do is
01:44pull this color all the way up to the top to create a kind of old Hollywood
01:48showgirl effect. Super simple easy three-step eye. I'm gonna do the other eye
01:54and then I'm gonna let you take a look. Sounds good. It's a super subtle white
01:58look. I want you to take a look. Okay. Let me know what you think. Oh that's so
02:03great. If you want more of a wow build that white up. It's never gonna look hard
02:08it's never gonna look heavy but it might look bold. An easy white look for a night on
02:12the town or a long day in the office. Hopefully it's a night on the town.
02:15Let's hope so. Thanks so much James. Thank you.