One of the beautiful things about makeup is the versatility that comes with it. It’s like a magic wand of sorts, hiding away our imaginary “flaws” , creating structure and even adding depth to parts that we might want to add depth too!
In particular today, we’re looking at how to create a gorgeous high cut crease with the help of a professional makeup artist, Shillat Nambooze.
A high cut crease is a way of applying shadow that creates depth and dimension to your eyes. It’s a makeup technique that defines the line where your eyelid skin deepens into a crease using eye shadow or glitter. If you have smaller eyes, large, slanted or hooded ones, a cut crease will open them up for a beautiful, doe-eyed look.
Creating a high cut crease is not as hard as it seems, in fact, with the help of Shillat, you’ll find out that’s it’s as easy to create as it is to apply lipstick! All you need is an eye shadow palette (we’re using the HudaBeauty Nude Palette), concealer or eye shadow base and patience !.
So without further ado lets get in to it!
1 . PRIME THE EYES
To start off , Shillat recommends prepping the eyes using a concealer in a lighter shade as compared to your skin tone . The essence of the concealer is to hold the eye shadow together in place and to create a background for the shadows to stand out more.
Then set your concealer using a translucent powder in order to avoid having the concealer settle in the lines of your eye lids.
2. CREATE AN OMBRE TRANSITION
The next step involves creating an ombre transition in and above the crease . Begin by spraying your brush with a makeup fixer before taping it in the eye shadow. Then start placing the soft pink eye shadow between the eyebrow bone, right above the crease and towards the inner corner of the eye .
The shade Shillat used here is called “Spanked” from the HudaBeauty nude palette.
Blend it out using a soft fluffy brush in feathery motions .
“You’re creating a gradient here, as you have a lighter shade of colour transition into a darker shade, just like a sunset would, ” Shillat explains.
In order to create the depth, Shillat added a dark shade of purple which is called “love bite”. This shade was placed above the crease and towards the inner corner of the eye .
“Blend the two shadows well enough to create a transition between the two shades with no harsh lines in between them,” – Shillat says.
3. CUTTING THE CREASE
The third step is cutting the crease! If it’s your first time trying out a cut crease, this step may seem a little bit intimidating but here’s a simpler technique that Shillat recommends.
“Place a dab of concealer (one that’s preferably three shades lighter than your skin tone) on your eye lids right above the lash line. Then look up at the ceiling with the concealer still on your lids. After blinking once or twice, look at a mirror and see where the concealer crossed over and dabbed your crease. It’s at this point that you will cut the crease, ” she explains.
Go on and curve out a semi circle using the concealer on your eye lids, it’s this carved out area that we’ll use as a canvas for the brighter eye shadows.
As always whenever you use concealer, don’t forget to set it using a translucent powder or lighter shade of eye shadow. For example from Huda’s nude palette, you could use the shade “Play” to set your concealer.
4. SMOKE OUT THE OUTER CORNER OF YOUR EYES
After curving out the crease, go on and “smoke” out the outer corner of your eyes using a dark eye shadow. For this look , Shillat opted for the shade “love bite” from the palette.
5. FINISHING UP THE LOOK
The last step involves applying eye shadow to the inner and middle parts of the eye lids.
Place the shade ” Crave” on the inner corner of the eye and blend it towards the middle lid.
Transition the shade ” Crave” with the shade “Daydream” by placing “Day dream ” on the middle lid of the eye. Blend these two shades together to create a transition from a lighter sparkly colour on the inner corner of the eye, to a dark sparkly colour on the middle lid and eventually to the darker purple placed earlier on the outer corner of the eyes.
Once it’s all blended out nicely, you’re good to go !
Here’s a summarized photo tutorial of the steps we’ve gone through.
And there you have it, a perfect high cut crease as served by Shillat and modelled by Jesca Muhebwa!
Follow Shillat on Instagram here.
Truly ,
Humura Ruth
