Whenever I touch a really iconic celebrity or makeup look, I always get a bit nervous. I always want to do the look proper justice and get it right. Adele recently released her new album, “25,” and it is beyond incredible. She was recently in i-D Magazine as their cover story, and the makeup really caught my attention. Adele has a very classic, sophisticated look reminiscent of the 1960’s. She almost always wears eyeliner flicked into a cat-wing and contours her cheekbones, while leaving the rest of her face bare. In this case, the eyes are the center of the attention as usual, and the cheekbones and nose are carved out by contouring. I’ve got the full look inside and some tips and tricks,
Above is the magazine cover. She has a cut crease that extends just slightly above her eye socket and heavy eyeliner all around her eyes. Both the inner and outer corners have a wing, which makes the eyes look super almond-shaped and cat-like. The lips are kept matte and bare, but the face has a chiseled contour along the cheekbones and nose.
Everyone’s eye shape is going to differ. Some of us have deeper eye sockets and more lid space. I personally have more shallow eye sockets than Adele does, so I changed up a few techniques a little bit. Here’s how to get the eye makeup:
- Use a flat, somewhat stiff eyeshadow brush to apply a dark brown or plum slightly above the socket of your eye along the socket bone. Adele is wearing a cut crease and it goes directly where the socket of your eye starts from the bone. You can use your fingers to feel the bone and where it starts and ends. Build the color up lightly at first to get the right shape and keep building upon it. Do not blend out the actual crease when you’re finished, only the end of where the eyeshadow is. It’s meant to look purposely harsh and contoured.
- Apply a light matte eyeshadow shade over your entire eyelid. Adele is rarely caught wearing shimmer eyeshadow. I just did this step so that the eyeliner had a good base to stick to.
- Go in with a black eyeliner pencil and apply it generously to your lower lash-line and water-line. Her eyeliner is very thick along the bottom lashes, so make sure you apply it below your lashes as well.
- Using a felt tip liner pen or gel eyeliner, line your entire upper lash line and flick it out into a wing in the outer corner. My personal favorite is Tarte Tarteist Clay Eyeliner. It comes with a small brush and you can get really great precision with it.
- Using the same eyeliner, extend the inner corner line at an angle toward your nose on both the upper lash line and lower lash line. Connect these two lines together to create an inner wing. If you mess up, keep a makeup remover wipe handy or a cotton swab with makeup remover so you can clean up the line and keep it crisp.
- Apply mascara and false lashes. Adele is no stranger to false lashes. They just keep the eye makeup looking sultry here.
For the rest of the face, keep your foundation natural looking. Contour your cheekbones and nose heavily. Her cheekbones are especially chiseled. I left blush off of my face to stay true to the Adele look. I also filled in my eyebrows to make them slightly darker than usual and kept my lips a matte nude shade.
Again, because every person has a different eye shape, width, and length, this will look slightly different on everyone. I have shallow sockets and semi-hooded eyes, so I had to make my eyeliner a bit thicker to get it to show up and look dramatic like Adele’s.
This is such a timeless look and it would be a great holiday makeup look to try. It’s really 1960’s mod-inspired.
If you decide to try this look out, I’d love to see your version of it!
[ALL PHOTOGRAPHY ON THIS SITE IS TAKEN BY REBECCA KAZIMIR. NO PHOTOGRAPHS ARE TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.]
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