Brighten Up Your Undereyes With A Pop of Color

Have you ever heard of The Fades? It's a British TV show that aired back in 2012, and it starred some actors that should be pretty familiar — Iain De Caestecker (Fitz on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell!) and Joe Dempsie (Gendry — wonder how he's doing these days?), among others. Oh, and it features some really, really awesome colored eyeliner looks. Like, seriously amazing pops of teal.

Anyway, it caught my eye on Amazon Prime the other day, because I actually saw a couple of episodes out of sequence when I was doing my semester abroad in London — and it was really good. So, I did the logical: I hunkered down for the weekend and binged my way through the first (and only, sadly) season.

There were a lot of things to like about the series, but I couldn't get over Sophie Wu's signature beauty look: winged liner with brightly colored eyeshadow... on the lower lid. It was such a unique look that I just had to try it — so try it I did, and in multiple colors for good measure!

The face:

To keep the look casual and wearable for daytime, I kept the rest of my face fairly natural. I started with my standard base: foundation, concealer, and eyebrow pencil — then, I swirled a little of Benefit Rockateur onto the apples of my cheeks, and painted on some L'Oreal's Caresse Wet Shine Stain in Rose On and On (a mostly nude shade with a sheer pink tint) onto my lips.

The eyeliner:

I painted on a fairly thin line with gel liner (Bobbi Brown Long-wearing Gel Eyeliner in Caviar Ink), winging it slightly down. I've been wearing my eyeliner like this a lot recently, because I've found it's slightly more flattering for my eye shape: it elongates the eye and makes them appear a little wider — a trick I picked up from 3CE's beauty advertorials (it's a very popular look in South Korea).

The eyeshadow:

Now, to the fun part! I tried this in a few color schemes, but in all of them, I applied the lighter shade from my tear duct to the center of my eye, then blended with the darker shade, which I extended all the way to the end of the wing.

Let's take a look!

P.S. Most of the shadows used are from a (sadly) LE Urban Decay palette I scored from Nordstrom Rack for about $15. Some of them are available individually if you're interested (I'll link the ones that are still available) — otherwise, feel free to substitute with whatever colorful shadows you happen to have laying about!

Green and gold:

Inspired directly from Sophie Wu's look in The Fades, I used Urban Decay in Honey (a very yellow gold) in the inner corner, and mixed it with Grafitti (an acid green with a slight teal lean) on the outer edges. I liked this a lot, because it reminded me of the pet parakeet I had growing up.

Blue and green:

This time, Grafitti went in the inner corner, while Peace (a bright cornflower blue, also UD) went on the outside. I accidentally blended a little too well, and lost most of the ombré effect — oops!

Purple:

This time, I used Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour in Orchid as a base, then layered Urban Decay in Fishnet (a bright violet) on the outer edges.

Will you be giving the look a try? It's easy and casual, and it's a great way to get some mileage out of those crazy eyeshadow colors you bought on sale and don't know what to do with (we've all been there, right?).

At any rate, I highly recommend it!

Images: IMDb; Rosie Narasaki (4); Giphy