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Face it, girl; your eyes do all the talking! Stop hiding behind those oversized sunglasses and play up your pretty peepers. Though the name won't win any creative awards, "almond" is an accurate description of your almond-shaped beauties that start out round in one corner and narrow down as they reach the opposite corner. With the right eye shadow tricks, you can play up the dramatic party look or tone down a sleek look for the office.
Prep Work
Your eyelids are a magnet for oils, so unless you want your eye shadow careening out of control, do a little prep work to clean up those oil slicks before dabbing on the eye makeup. Start the morning with a freshly washed face, and dust a sprinkling of powder foundation over your closed eyelids. It will soak up any extra oil and act like instant superglue for an all-day perfect look.
Embracing Eye Shadow
The tried and true trick for almond-shaped eyes is surprisingly simple: light colors advance and darks recede. What does that mean for your personal style? To create that sexy, wide-eyed look fit for any occasion, start with a nearly neutral sheer above your eyelids up to your eyebrows. Stumped on how far to go? Hold your makeup brush until it creates a line from the side of your nose to the outer edge of the eye (on the same side of your face, of course!) and spread the eye shadow to there. Follow up with a dark brown or black along the crease of each eye, and top off your stunning style with a playful pop of color along the lid itself.
Eye on Eyeliner
Eyes come in more alluring shapes and sizes than there are eye shadow colors, but when makeup artists target the "ideal" eye shape, they're most often thinking almond. When you apply your eyeliner, just follow the contour of your eyelids; it's nature's road map. Thanks to the rounder look of your eyes, you can get away with thick, smokey looks, but if you feel your eyes are on the small or narrow side, tone it down with lighter hues and thinner lines.
Playin' It Up
When night falls, it's time to crank up the drama -- in your makeup at least. Turn an ordinary daytime look into extraordinary nighttime style by brushing off your colored eye shadow and replacing it with smokey black. Instant allure in five seconds flat. Want to keep the color and still play up your flirt factor? Intensify your look by thickening your eyeliner near the center of the eye and tapering off at the outer corner. Give that pencil a flick upward at the corner of each eye for a cat's eyes look that would make a model jealous.
