TINA: All about eyeshadow

Well, it’s time to get to the fun stuff, namely eye shadow.  The three principal parts of the drag look are eye shadow, lashes and lips.  You can make a huge impact with eye shadow.  First, let’s start with materials.  For a classic drag look, you’ll need:- pure white eye shadow- pure black eye shadow- a highly coloured eye shadow of your choice, probably one of the shades of pink (my favourite).  Now you could also do some other colour themes.  A particularly effective colour theme that I’ve seen before is a sunset colour theme, meaning shades of yellow, orange and a touch of red.  Another effective colour theme is to use a striking purple that has a touch of pink in it (don’t use a blue-y purple as you’ll end up looking bruised — but then again, maybe that is the look you’re going for)Kryolan article number 5330 is the one you want.  You can get them in a huge range of shades.  The good thing about Kryolan eye shadow is that it is not very expensive and it is highly pigmented, so you only need a little if you want a soft effect, but if you want a very strong effect, you can achieve it.Now you can also use street makeup (Revlon, L’Oreal, Maybelline) if you want, but you’ll find that street makeup has much less pigment and the colours are not as vibrant as the theatrical range from Kryolan.  If you want a more subdued effect, then street makeup will suit you well.  If you want a flashy drag look, then go for the Kryolan colours.In terms of equipment, you’ll need the sponge-tipped eye shadow applicators.  You’ll need at least one for each colour that your going to use, so have three on hand.  I keep a whole bag of these applicators close to hand.  You’ll have to experiment with what works well for you.  Try the ones with short handles (that you can find at pharmacies and supermarkets).  I find these okay to work with, but I much prefer the long handled ones that you can buy at specialist suppliers or good department stores.  Of course you’ll need to have prepared your ‘blank canvas’ on your face.  So that means blocked eyebrows, full foundation application and full powder application.The theory of eye shadow is to apply white eyeshadow under the intended brow line, then blend that into your chosen colour, then blend that into black.  This is really something that I have to draw cute pictures for, so I’ll tackle that in a future post.In the meantime, if you have any questions please email me at tina dot fanning at yahoo dot com dot au.