How I wear bold bright eye shadow colours without looking too 80’s

I don’t know too much about the 80’s.  Obviously because I wasn’t really around for them, but from photos, movies and shows, I know this much is true.  They liked their electric coloured eye shadows, and acid wash denim.  Also, they liked big permed hair do’s, no, am I right?  Anyways, not that that was a bad look during that era, but trying to pull that off these days is hard because you look like you’re in a time warp.  I noticed today’s make-ups are more neutral in colour.  Lot’s of tans, bronzes and browns. And if there are colours, they are also rather neutral. More like mauves of purple, pink and peach.  Light pastel blues.  But nothing too out there.  Or if they are more visible, it is the smoky grey look.

I recently got tired of this pretty, quiet eye make-up trend and wanted to make some noise, make my eyes pop and wake up a bit so I found this eye shadow set online and immediately wanted it.  It had all the bright fushias, tarty-purples, and electric blues that most eye shadow palettes shy from.  Ironically it was called the “60’s” era collection of colours, but they looked more 80’s to me.  The only bad thing with wearing bolder colours was that if I was not careful, my eyes would look too loud and not classy.  In a retro-prom-queen gone wrong kind of way.  I had to wipe off some of it the eye colours the first few times I wore it to tone it down.  Garish looking is not too desirable in an eye make-up even if I did want to shake things up a bit.  So a better way is this:  Break up the colour on the lid by using a few colours.  I put the neon colour just in the corner, and wear a more neutral shade on the middle and inner lid.  After laying two colours on your lids, erase the lines with a blending brush, smudging all over to to create a gradient.

Finish the look with liquid liner and line eyes subtly.  If wearing bright eyeshadow colours, it is loud enough without big graphic eyeliner on top of it. The bottom lid gets attention too, with a dash of electric blue, just in the corners…and voila, I can wear bright colours and look expressive, not dated.  Add mascara and false lashes for extra drama! (optional)