Smokey Eyes: Attempt #1 -- Avoiding the Panda Look.

Hello my lovelies! Sorry for the lack of posting again, back at school this week and have literally come home every single day just to collapse onto the sofa into a exicted-pupil-induced-coma. I have been meaning to take pictures of my outfits again, but alas, running late in the morning has not made this possible. By late I mean, dry hair into a fluffy messs and skip breakfast - yes, that is right my friends, me the great lover of food has now missed breakfast two days on the trot! How I have not wasted away to nothing is beyond me... (cough -massive-snacks-when-home- cough)

So today's post is about my most recent attempt at the smokey, sultry eye  make up that is popular with the starlets and just emphasises the eyes.  In all honesty, when I have previously tried this look it has ended up with me either looking like I have just lost a boxing match or that I am some sort of  human-panda hybrid. Not good when trying to look like a screen goddess from the 20s. Therefore when I attempted it for my night out to see Alan Carr at the o2 (hysterical by the way, absolutely recommend the dvd), I was surprised at how well it turned out - for me anyway. So here's the soft, smokey look I went for:

The pictures do not really do it justice, as it comes up a bit lighter, but this does give an idea of the sort of smokey eye look I went for. As this was one of my earlier attempts, I went for a more silver with a hint of darker colours in the corner look, with my usual flicks, rather than all dark colours. This is simply for the reason that I didn't want to end up with panda look yet again, which would scare me off the smokey look for another few months... However, definitely have to give the credit down to the products I used which just had the perfect mix of colours to achieve this:

These are generally my usual every day make up products, especially with the Urban Decay Naked Palette which has become my new number one favourite eyeshadow source, both every day and evenings - though I still do love my Benefit 'Lust Dusters' and Sustainable Shadow Box. However the colours used were 'Sin', 'Gunmetal', 'Hustle', 'Virgin' and 'Darkhorse'. Blending them all together, really created the look I was going for - not too dark and not black, but still adding the shadows look I wanted. Then just used the usual products to finish the look especially with the Benefit 'They're Real' mascara which do make a significant difference in my eyelash length and hold the curl! 

Anyway, enough rambling from me, best get on with lesson planning and preparing myself for the interview tomorrow! Hope you're all having a fantastic Tuesday!

What do you think of the Urban Decay palettes? Do you have a favourite? How do you achieve the 'smokey eye' look?

Love,