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Simple Foiled Silver Eye (How to work with gritty shadows like MAC Lustres)

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I was going through my stash of shadows the other day and rediscovered a few MAC Lustre shadows, which I seldom use because the texture is SO hard to work with. These are some of the least popular shadows from MAC (with the exception of a few shades like Tempting) because they look so gorgeous in the pan but give you TONS of fall-out.

Lustres are made up of lots of large gritty chunks of reflective pigments, very much like glitter but not as shiny. This means the little bits tend to flake or dust off, instead of sticking to your skin as well as finely-milled pigments. (Some of the MAC Mineralize shadows are also very much like these.)

So since I was such a sucker back then and snapped up a few shades before I realised how difficult they were to work with, I figure there might be others who love how they look but don’t know how to work with them. 

You can use either a flat shadow brush or a regular blending brush, but the trick is to always apply them damp. If you are using water, you can just dampen your brush (damp, not soaked!) and dip directly into the pot to pick up shadow. If you’re using Fix+ or any sealant or mixing medium, then you HAVE to pick up the shadow on your brush first, and then spray or dampen your brush before applying.

(If you use anything other than water, do not re-dip your brush back into pot.)

Your shadow will go on a lot stronger and stay on a lot longer.

NOTE: In general, most shadows should work go back to normal when dry (except for some poorer formulas so be mindful). Also, make sure your brush is really clean. Any oils or residue on it might transfer and seal over your shadows when dampened.

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Step 1: I wanted a little dimension and depth to the eye look so I applied a little rich, plum cream shadow to my lids. (Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Stiletto). I picked purple because the shadow I’m using (MAC Idol Eyes) has a slight lavender tone which I wanted to bring out.

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Step 2: Using a brush dampened with water, I picked up a generous amount of MAC Idol Eyes (silvery-lavender flakes with a soft gold highlight), and smoothed that onto the lids. If you want to get a really foiled effect like I did here, firmly brush in a single direction, then go back and repeat. Don’t rub back and forth in multiple directions. This helps the little flakes of pigments to sit lay flat and really shine.

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Step 3: For definition and a twist on the typical grey/silver eye, I am using the same purple base to line. Just use a flat synthetic brush (you can get plenty at the art store for very little money btw) to pick up a little color and then gently rub it along the lash line section by section.

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Step 4: To finish, I merely curled lashes and applied black mascara. (NARS Larger Than Life, which I happen to have on hand. Any black mascara will work.)