Tutorial: dark red smokey eye

I remember visiting my brother in the US when I was sixteen, and going to an American mall for the first time in my life. Obviously, being the special snowflake teenager I was at the time, I was especially excited at visiting Hot Topic. I actually think I remember most of what I bought there: a Happy Bunny baby tee, hair chopsticks and two eyeshadow mono's: one matte black, and one matte burgundy.

Yeah, I was a total badass. 

Anyhow, recently I was thinking "hey, what ever happened to red eye make up?" since I used to be super into the look. It looks kind of subversive, doesn't it? Like the reverse of black lipstick. That probably doesn't make any sense, but let me explain: red is supposed to go on the lips and black is supposed to go on the eyes, so if you swap the two it's a total mindfuck! Okey not really, but it's not a look you see everyday.  

Now, I didn't go for black lips today, but I really love how this first try at doing red eye make up came together. I did a makeshift job at it because I actually haven't bought red eyeshadow in AGES, so what you see here on my eyes is a mix of pink powders, burgundy lipgloss, kohl pencil and a glittery highlighter. Let me convince you that red eyeshadow can look mighty fine!

I think the colours are very flattering against my fair skin and dark hair, and the whole look has a sort of vampire-like glamour that really brings out the green in my eyes. Let's go in for a closer look so you can try this for yourself.

What I did: dark red lipgloss all over the eyelid (also functioning as a primer to make the colour more intense), medium pink in the inner corners, some of the leftover burgundy eyeshadow from Hot Topic (seriously!) in the outer corners, highlighter all over the eyelid and kohl in the outer corners, blended upwards into the crease. On the lips, I'm wearing Wet n Wild Cherry Bomb.

Let me know what you think of the look, and have a lovely weekend!