I mention in my ‘About Me’ page that I don’t wear taupe eye shadows.  I wasn’t lying the time I wrote it, but it’s officially no longer the case.  I was dead-set against taupe, because I thought the majority of them are too cool-toned and it would never work, so why even bother swatching.  I’ve been dabbling with brown-based taupe shades, but this look includes my first gray-based taupe.  It’s Urban Decay’s Mushroom.  The shade itself is very pretty.  It still isn’t the best shade for my skintone, but I think I made it work; the shimmer in the shade helps too.   This look also features L’Oreal’s Infallible shadow in Smoldering Plum.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I applied a taupe colored base on my lid up to the crease to help mask my warm undertone with a synthetic shader brush by Sigma.  I used a Mac 239 to apply Mushroom on the inner two-thirds of my lid.  I blended out the edges with a clean blending brush.   Using a dampened (Mac’s Fix +) Mac 242 brush, I put Smoldering Plum on the outer corner, concentrating the color at the lash line and blended it up and over.  I used a narrow crease brush (Louise Young LY38A) to apply Cult into my crease.  The narrow crease brush helps to define my crease a bit more, which keeps the shade from creeping too close to my brow. 

I used a dampened angled liner brush (Mac 263) and Smoldering Plum to line my upper lash line and the outer third of my lower lash line.  I used a small shader brush to apply Mushroom to the inner two-thirds of my lower lash line.  I lined my lower water line with Stray Dog, which is a dark grayed-taupe that goes well with the shadow.

Unfortunately, my lightening washes out his look a bit.  Smoldering Plum added a lot of drama that isn’t being picked up in the photos.