Welcome to the third and final installment of the Alice Lane trilogy, wherein the makeup artist shows you four looks to bring out your eye color (with a little wayside zen thrown in). Seeing that they're still making Star Wars films after the three original, the three prequels, AND a couple of Lego versions, we doubt this will be goodbye forever. But let's make this a good one while we can. The last and final eye color showcased: green.
Starting off with an easy one, Alice takes on the obligatory smoky brown shadow job. “Brown and green to me are like earth and grass…it’s perfect,” Alice said. She whipped out two products for a simple, earthy look, one of them being Eyeko Me & My Shadow Waterproof Eyeshadow and Eyeliner in Chocolate—“a lovely soft formula”— lined all over and around, set off with 100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Mascara in Dark Chocolate (following a theme) on the upper-lash line. The mascara smelling like chocolate was just a bonus. Never one to stop at the expected place, Alice pushed the look a little more, adding MAC Clear Lipglass on top of the lid to give a little smolder and shine. This is her take on old-Hollywood style. (Pro tip: remember to highlight the inner eye.)
The first look became the base for the second, after a little strategic demolition. “I wanted to show transition—how you could move from one look the other,” Alice explained. She took off the top layer of brown lid-color—whatever came off with a swipe of a makeup-remover-soaked cotton pad. A little brown left on the lid is preferable. Over that residual brown, Alice applied Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eye Color in RS 318 Konpeito— a formula that appeals to her magical nature for its ability to go on like a cream and dry like a powder, and how, when it’s freshly applied and still moist,it makes a great base for other products. In this case, Make Up For Ever Star Powder in 921 Red Copper clung like a dream on top. The look retains the brown mascara and lower-lid liner from the previous look, so you’re finished early with this one.
For the third look, Alice was inspired by purple. “They say it's the best color to show off green, so I did a really rich purple all the way around the eye, but close in—it’s like a smoked [eye], but it’s quite tight,” she said. To get that not-too-pastel, not-too-muddy shade you see here, Alice started dark and worked her way bright. First she used the Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Plum, which earns its name—it feels creamy and luxurious and it pairs well with vodka. Alice tried a few other hard purple pencils that dragged and pulled at the model’s eye before reaching for the Mercier. “If you like the feeling of it on your hand, you’re going to like it on your eyes,” she said. Then she followed up with the purple hero shadow in the middle of the Marc Jacobs Beauty Style Eye-Con No.3 Plush Shadow in The Punk 104 . Keeping the color tight is what keeps the look modern, wearable, and as restrained as possible (or as restrained as you can be while wearing purple eyeshadow). “If you wear the color very tight to your lashes, you can wear any color,” Alice said. Get bold.
Finally, a graphic black look made with one product. It’s just Gucci Power Liquid Liner in Iconic Black swiped above the crease of the eye. Use the crease of your eye-line as a guide, and in Alice’s words, curve the color into your eye-line. “It’s arty and strange but still makes sense with the rest of your face,” she said. If you follow that line, you’re also following the line of your eyebrows too, accenting the green and the bushy at the same time. Alice encourages a little cleanup with a Q-tip (as always), a few seconds to fully dry, and you’re set.
Alice also wanted to let all the hazel eyes out there know they’re not forgotten—these looks work for them too. After all, “It’s the same family!” And always look to the juxtapositions of the wild for inspiration: “If it occurs in nature, it makes sense. Look at a tree—it’s green and brown—or look at a butterfly. Look what things have hazel in them in the world, and then look what sits next to it in a field,” she said. Leave it to Alice to tie up a run of lush, vivid, editorial-yet-wearable makeup looks with a pastoral reference. Look to the green all around you, hazel people.
Ada Roth (Major) photographed by Tom Newton.