Beauty Tricks by Balsam

Hey beautifuls!

The world of makeup is a never ending work of art, and many makeup artists and users around the world have established several ways to perform some 'beauty tricks' using makeup to achieve the desired final look. Such tricks include bringing out your natural beauty features and making them seem more noticeable, contouring and highlighting the face, and even making your eyes appear larger/smaller! which is exactly what I will guide you through today. I will be sharing with you my personal favorite products that enable me to make my eyes larger or smaller - according to occasion and preference, along with super easy steps that you can follow at home!  Note that under each step I will write two alternatives to give you both larger or smaller looking eyes

One: Trick using colored eye pencils

For larger eyes: use white or skin-colored eye pencil on your lower waterline to give the illusion of having larger eyes.  For smaller eyes: use darker colored eye pencils - such as black or dark brown - on your waterlines to make your eyes appear smaller, easy right? My favorite products for this step: 

'Natural glaze' by Max Factor

White Kohl by Clairs

Black kohl pencil by Dior

Two: Contouring the crease of your eye

For larger eyes: Contour the crease of your eyes using matte shade of brown that is a little darker than your original skin color. You will need a basic eye brush (I use the M.A.C 239 to apply the color directly onto my crease, then change to a fluffy brush to blend the color to give a natural finish - the two brushes I usually use for this are shown on the image below) For smaller eyes: you simply skip the contouring of the eyes, and carry on with your usual makeup routine. I personally tend to contour my eyes for almost every makeup look that I do, but it is your personal choice :) I usually use several eye shadows from M.A.C, M.A.C 239 brush and a fluffy eye brush from flormar for this step. The way I do this is by applying 'Malt' by M.A.C or any light colored matte shadow all over the eye lid, followed by 'Espresso' by M.A.C on the crease to contour. 

'Malt' by M.A.C

'Espresso' by M.A.C

Three: Eye shadow color choice matters!

For larger eyes: Use pastel/lighter eye shadow colors for your eyes to open up the eyes and thus make them look larger than they actually are! For smaller eyes: You can predict this!! ... Yes, use darker shadows on your eyes because they will make the eyes seem smaller. Here is my demonstration of how the shadow can make your eye appear as if it has changed in size - note that the shadow used on the right image is 'Carbon' by M.A.C, and on the left image I used 'Malt' and 'Espresso' by M.A.C:

Four: Working with your lashes

For larger eyes:  Curling your eye lashes before applying your usual mascara makes so much difference! if you perform this step your eyes will appear much larger than usual. For smaller eyes: just skip curling the eye lashes! The following image shows my eyes without curling or Mascara, and after they have been curled and coated with one layer of Diorshow Iconic Curl Mascara

My favorite Mascaras for this are by Dior, specifically the Diorshow Iconic Curl Mascara!

In the end, I would say there are so many other tips that generally enable a makeup user to change the shape of the eyes, including the way you draw your liquid liner - which is a very broad topic that needs plenty of explanation - as well as the highlighting of your brow bone which really lifts the eye area, making it seem larger too! These tricks also tend to vary according to the individual.  I hope you found this useful. lots of love,   www.albalsamlife.com