How to Wear Blue Eyeshadow This Spring
By Caroline Goldstein
One great thing about makeup: You don’t have to follow any rules to do it. So talking about seasonal trends—darks for winter, brights for summer—is a little counter to makeup’s independent spirit. That said, there is something satisfying, on a visceral level, about shifting your aesthetic, products, and even application methods with the changing of the seasons. Maybe it’s the same impulse that makes us crave watermelon in the summer and so much bread in the winter; but I just feel more attuned to the environment when I break out the DIY freckles when the sun gets brighter, then my goth matte lipsticks when it gets dark out at 4 PM.
So here we are in early spring, when all the living things—flowers, birds, us—are thawing back into life and color after a season full of naps and smokey eyes. To celebrate this brighter season, consider taking a cue from celebrity makeup artist Lisa Eldridge and swiping on some matte, blue eyeshadow. Yes, blue: the color of eggshells, cornflowers, the sky, those blueberries that are almost in season. That’s the look Eldridge created for model Taylor Hill, but you don’t need to be a model, or have a makeup artist on retainer, to DIY it. Here are some tips.
HOW TO GET THE LOOK
Floral shades? For spring? Not really groundbreaking. But you can’t deny how pretty this powdery pastel blue eyeshadow is, or how happy it makes you feel to look at. Imagine how happy you’ll feel wearing it.
This look in particular is really easy to recreate. It looks like Eldridge used only one shade—that signature, matte blue—and packed it onto Hill’s eyelid, just up to the crease, leaving the lower lid bare. Eldridge might’ve used cream eyeshadow here, but you can just as easily mimic this effect with a highly pigmented powder shadow, either as-is or with a wet brush. (Again: no rules in makeup!)
Eldridge also layered lots of black mascara on both Hill’s top and bottom lashes for contrast and definition, focusing the product on the outer corners. Then she applied a little bit of pinky-white highlighter to the inner corners and underneath the brow bone, which adds dimension and luminosity to an otherwise matte-and-flat effect (not the effect we’d be going for). Eldridge also blended some bronzer into Hill’s inner arches, just between the lid and the front of the brow, but this look would still be gorgeous without that extra step. Leave your brows natural, or cheat some fullness with a swipe of brow gel.
FINISHING IT OFF
To complement the pastel eye, Eldridge warmed up the rest of Hill’s face with a healthy dose of sunny, peachy-toned bronzer, doubling up on the product to contour her cheekbones and temples. She added a touch more highlighter to the tops of Hill’s cheekbones and the bridge of her nose, too. A wash of matte, petal-pink lip color finishes off the look, and gives the whole thing some Twiggy vibes. Never a bad thing.
And there you go: An easy, fresh, modern, and surprisingly wearable springtime eye. This shouldn’t take you more than a couple of minutes to do, so you can get out and enjoy that brand-new sun.
Caroline Goldstein is a commerce beauty writer for Bustle Digital Group, and her freelance writing has appeared in HelloGiggles, Refinery29, Men's Health, and other publications. Based in New York, she received her MFA in Fiction from New York University, where she taught creative writing to undergraduates and wrote her first novel.