Purple is the color of Prince, royalty, wealth, creativity, spirituality, and imagination (among other things). It’s a vibrant and rich hue that is the perfect marriage of red and blue, and translates beautifully to makeup.
Purple eyeshadow is great for enhancing green, hazel, and brown eyes, and will turn up the volume on a classic smokey eye. We want you to reach for fun colors like purple next time you sweep on some eyeshadow, so we are sharing five different purple eyeshadow looks that will have you reaching for your eyeshadow palette ASAP.
Daytime Purple Eyeshadow Look
Daytime eyeshadow looks don’t have to be boring. All you have to do is add a little pop of color. Try sweeping a purple eyeshadow along the crease of your eye after first adding a medium shade across the entire eyelid. Then, finish with a sweep of the lightest eyeshadow color you will use, across the brow bone, and the lash line/lower lid, for a highlighting pop. Our The Violets and The Nubian Royal Palette eyeshadow palettes are perfect for achieving this sweet day look.
Dramatic Purple Eyeshadow Liner
The next fabulous eyeshadow look you can recreate using our pigmented eyeshadow palettes is the dramatic purple eyeshadow liner look. It’s great, because you get the drama of an eyeliner, but with a softer, more smoky finish. To achieve this, you’ll want to use an angled eyeliner brush, which you’ll lightly wet with water. This will help turn your eyeshadow into more of an eyeliner form.
Apply the eyeshadow along the lash line, as you would eyeliner. To really create drama, sweep a bold purple along both the top and bottom lash lines, extending it beyond the outer corners of the eye to make a wing. You’ll find intense purple eyeshadow shades in our The Nubian Royal Palette, The Zulu, and TheWarrior3, and The Masquerade palettes.
Nighttime Purple Smokey Eye
A smokey eye is timeless, moody, and sexy. And it gets a fun makeover when done in colors other than black, brown, and gray. You can achieve a purple smokey eye by first sweeping the entire eyelid with a medium-tone eyeshadow. Then, line your eyes using a purple eyeliner. You’ll want to take a dark purple eyeshadow and smudge from the eyeliner up (this will include smudging the eyeliner), and out. Finish by sweeping the lightest eyeshadow across the brow bone, and in the inner corner of the eyes. For a bit of purple shimmer to layer over your purple smokey eye, check out the eyeshadows in our The Nubian Royal Palette and The Violets eyeshadow palettes.
Lilac Eyeshadow with Purple Eyeliner
Layer color on color with this easy-to-achieve lilac eyeshadow and purple eyeliner look. Sweep a pretty lilac eyeshadow over the entire eye, or limit it to the lower eyelid only for a more controlled look. Finish with a sweep of darker purple liquid, gel, or pencil eyeliner; you can smudge the pencil liner for a more artsy smokey look, or keep the wing sharp and precise. Or anything in between!
Painterly Purple Eyeshadow Look
Speaking of artsy, a trend for 2020 was to let our eyes be the canvas and our eyeshadows the paint. This means applying the eyeshadow in a more haphazard, abstract, and painterly way. To not to be so “perfect,” and let the colors do what they will and go where they’ll go, such as in a watercolor painting. You can do this by using your fingers to apply purple eyeshadows in various shades to the eyes, in a flattering, artsy way. Have fun creating cool shapes and dreamy washes of color--and don’t be afraid to color outside the lines!
