The Eyes Have It: Red Chilies

The only time I advise putting hot peppers on your eyes.

I’ve been really getting into eye shadow lately. I’ve always been one to favor eye makeup over lip, but it wasn’t really a hobby. For me it has been less about the fun of it and more about putting on my armor. In the past, I’ve even referred to it as putting on a suit like Iron Man. Recently, I purchased of a batch of mineral shadows that I should take time to have fun with it, even if it is still my armor.

Today I was thinking about what I wanted to try. Because the original plan for the day was to put up peppers, I figured I’d give depicting them on my eyes a try.

You need:

• Your basic layer set up you usually use on your face. This tends to vary from person to person, but I use a pressed powder and a concealer stick.
• A primer: this can either be a formal shadow primer, or something like an eyeshadow stick that is either sheer or matches your skin tone. I used a cheap drug store shadow stick in a clear shade with a bit of shimmer.
• A yellow eye shadow (I used Aromaleigh’s Theatrical Melodrama).
• A red eye shadow (I used Aromaleigh’s Initial Bloodbath).
• A dark red or maroon eye shadow (I used Aromaleigh’s Rabid. Feral. Mad.)
• A green shadow (optional, see below; I used Aromaleigh’s Manners & Etiquette).
• A black or dark brown eyeliner pencil. Alternatively, you could use a dark red lip pencil for this; I used a Lancôme eyeliner pencil in Black Ebony.
• A green eyeliner pencil. You can skip this if you have mad skills with a liner brush and are willing to go all powder, but that is not the easiest; I used the green stick from Physician’s Formula Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeliner Trio for Green Eyes.
• Your usual Mascara. I used Lancôme Hypnôse Drama)
• An eye shadow brush. It needs to be a brush, not one of those foam applicator things. I use a Lancôme All Over Shadow Brush.
• A liner brush or other stiff, narrow applicator.

Below are the steps, numbered, and they correspond to images in the gallery.

1. Do your basic layer. This is the stage where you even the skin tone around your eyes, and so on. By concealing dark circles, irregular pigmentation like freckles or what have you, and balancing it out around the eyes it both gives you an even surface and avoids accidentally smearing your edges later. This is only needed around the eye itself at this point.
2. Put down a primer of some sort. You want one that will stick well. You can either use a proper primer product or a creamy shadow stick. The shape should come down slightly over the inner corner in a narrow way, follow the shape of the lid, and then from slightly down the other curve in a wide  rounded square shape. This should be roughly the shape of a chili pepper.
3. Take your red shadow and apply it to the lid especially, but along most of the shape as well. Do not apply to that little swoop in the inner most corner. You can also leave a very narrow edge on the outside of the outer end if you like. The inner swoop is to simulate how chillies ripen — the tips ripen slower and can have an orange or even yellowish tip.
4. Next is your yellow. Start at the inner tip, and pull the yellow up into the red. Focus more heavily on adding yellow all along the upper edge and blending it in. It will make things more orange closer to the inner corner and upper edge, and redder in the center of your “chili” and towards the other end of your lid. You can also add a little to the lash line up to about 1/3 of the way in, blending well, so that the ripening looks better.
5. The dark red or the maroon shadow goes on the outer edge of that shape, and only in a very little amount. You then blend it in that edge, pulling a little bit more on the underside of the outer end. This gives it a little extra depth and ripeness.
6. Using your liner pencil, create the lower edges and ends of the chili. This will look like a tiny curlicue around that inner swoop, a thin line along the lash line, and the edge of the rounded square edge. You can also lightly draw on the stem here as a guideline.
7. Blend lightly over the line enough to smudge it on the inside but not the outside of the line so that it looks more natural.
8. With your green liner (or primer if you are going the shadow and liner brush route) go over the stem line. You can also add a tiny bit to the edge where it attaches to the chili.
9. (Optional) Go over the “stem” with your green shadow using a very narrow brush or applicator. Your goal here is to enhance the stem without making it bigger. If you are, as a friend always mentions, prone to stabbing yourself in the eye or smudging things, you may wish to skip this step.
10. Apply your mascara as usual.
11. You are done, and you are red hot! Compliment it with a red or coppery lip look (I used gloss and copper shadow) or go au naturale, you spicy thing, you!