Very recently, chat buddy from over the oceans LeGeeque asked if I had any tips for day to night makeup, because she had an evening event to go to after work. My answer to her then was imbecilic at best because I don’t usually do these day to night transitions 😛 I think I might have mentioned touching up the base, making the eye colour stronger and perhaps a bright lipstick, because that’s how I’d have done it. Actually I’d have only changed my lipstick to something brighter 😛

Not long after that, I received some tips for day to night makeup from Lisa Yap, Chief Makeup Artist at Shu Uemura Malaysia so I thought it a good time to share it, so hopefully it helps someone else too 😀 If its not obvious, the eye on your left sports darker night/evening makeup while the one on your right sports a lighter day look.

Here are some quick tips you can take away and practice with 🙂

Shu Uemura Colour Atelier Urban Chic eyeshadow palette : ME996 (charcoal black), ME471 (metallic grey-green), ME935 (metallic silver), ME 906 (metallic white)

The products used here are from Shu Uemura but you can easily modify with whatever you have at your disposal. What you need for the eyes is a palette with a good combination of light and dark shades. The palette featured here is a grey-black palette to create an Urban Chic eye look, as Shu Uemura calls it.

You do not need a gradational palette, but gradational colours help because they are easier to transition from day to night, and they are also easier to work with from my personal experience. I’ll premise the tips based on the palette above but you can transpose it onto any palette you currently own. I have tried it myself at home, and it works very nicely with almost any palette on hand 🙂

Tips for Day eye makeup

For the day, the colours used were the light ME935 and medium ME471 shades.

• Apply the light shade on the eye lid 2/3 of the way from the inner lid to the outer lid.
• Apply the medium shade on the eye lid 1/3 of the way from the outer lid inwards. For the daytime you don’t want it looking too smokey yet you want definition.
• Blend away harsh lines
• Line the upper lid and apply mascara.
• Line the lower lid 1/4 of the way from the outside inwards, use the medium shade and soften the line. Use the light shade on the rest of the lower lid.
• Done!

It was surprisingly quick. Brows, a light peach-pink blush and a rosy pink lipstick completed the look.

Tips for Night Eye Makeup

To transition the day look to the evening or night, you whip out the same palette and this time, concentrate on the medium ME471 and dark ME996 shades. You don’t have to clean off your earlier makeup. Treat it as your base 🙂

• Apply the medium shade over the existing light shade, 2/3 of the way from the inner corner outwards.
• Apply the darkest shade on the 1/3 outer part of the lid, blending inwards and upwards
• Blend away harsh lines.
• Take the lightest highlighter shade ME906 and touch to the inner corners. This opens up the eye and creates definition. Brush a little under the brow to create a lifted look.
• Line the whole lower lid with a dark pencil, taking it all the way inwards
• Take the darkest shade and blend over the pencil, about 2/3 of the way from the outside inwards
• Dab some light sparkly white on the tear duct area.
• Line your top lashes and tightline. Apply false lashes, or more mascara.
• Done!

As you’re working on a base colour already, some color from the day will naturally be blended in. It does create a complex sort of look that isn’t displeasing really.

Finish off by touching up your blush and applying a deeper shade of lip colour.

And here’s one we made earlier 😛

The left is the first day look, which you can see is light with defined yet not overly strong eyes. A bright rosy pink lipstick brightens up the complexion as does a light peach-pink blush. A perfect little “off to the office” sort of look.

The picture on the right is after the day look was transitioned to night. The eyes are darker and more defined and the lip colour is a deeper berry shade. The cheeks had been touched up but aren’t bright so you don’t have eyes, lips and cheeks clashing with each other.

And finally, some pictures of the Color Atelier eyeshadows which have been recently reformulated by Shu Uemura.

They now come in smaller pans and do not need to be glued into the palettes as the palettes now employ a slide-in mechanism. Each long slim palette (RM50) fits 4 eyeshadows or 2 eyeshadows and 1 blush or 2 blushes so you can mix and match to your hearts content.

I hope you found the tips useful 🙂 This was my first time checking out the new Color Atelier eyeshadows properly. They do feel quite different from the previous formula and for someone who still has the formula from 2 reformulations ago, I will say its even more different from that one. The one plus point I can pick out is that I’m not allergic to this new formula. My eyes don’t feel uncomfortable when I wear the shadows unlike the previous 2 incarnations. I’ll bring some thoughts on these shadows later.

Have you checked the Color Atelier shadows out for yourself? Or would you avail of the Shu Uemura Passport to Beauty service? I do find it helpful as its useful to learn something new everyday! 🙂

Paris B

Shu Uemura Color Atelier eyeshadows retail at RM60 each. Long palette case (4 eyeshadows, 2 eyeshadows + 1 blush, 2 blushes) retail at RM50. Duo palette case (2 eyeshadows or 1 blush) retail at RM28. Single eyeshadow cases retail at RM15. Glow on blushes retail at RM76 each.