Satin Taupe

When I first started doing makeup when I was 13, I used blues and greens on my eyes all the time.  I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Nowadays, I realize the beautiful simplicity of neutral eye makeup; but every once in a while, I want to go for something more colorful.  Since my eyes are brown, purple tones look best on me (yellow is opposite purple on the color wheel, so purple eyeshadows make my eyes look more amber than dark pools of despair).  I've come up with this look using cool-toned, veering on purple shadows.  It's a very neutral-seeming, sort of smokey but very wearable eye look.

Excuse the dramatic angle on this one, it just best portrayed the smokiness that I think was lost in the first 2 shots.

I started out by using my Benefit Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow in RSVP.  It's a fairly pink champagne color.  

If you don't already own this or some other champagne base, just go with a normal primer, the shadows will take care of it.

I then put MAC's Satin Taupe eyeshadow on the outer half of my lid.  This color is absolutely stunning and really makes the look sultry.

Here it is swatched next to RSVP and it's really catching the light, but it can look as deep as it does in the pan.  

I used Tease from my Naked 2 palette (if I was going to be able to use the flash, the name was not going to show up in the picture) through my crease.  This is great to bring the shimmer down and it's definitely not a dark shade so it helps keep the look wearable.

Tease is a pretty unique shade.  It's a matte taupe that leans more on the purple side.  I believe that MAC's Quarry is similar, but I don't have it so I can't be sure.

If you didn't use RSVP, you should do this step first.  Depending on my mood and what I'm up to, I will go back into the inner 1/3 of my eye with Sin from my Naked palette.  Sin is the second color from the left.

Sin is very, very pink and looks very pretty with the rest of the purple shades.

I lined my upper lash line with Maybelline's black gel eyeliner and used Rimmel's Scandaleyes eyeliner in 003 Brown on my water line.

This color has a bit of a sheen running through it so I don't look like the princess of Darkness when I wear it.

I think this look is really great, and it's one of the few that I actually go back and do multiple times.