Give Yourself a Black Eye!

Maybe your character has been in a barfight... or maybe you need to lie about getting into a barfight. Either way, I'll show you how to create a believable black eye!

There are several different ways to simulate a black eye. In this tutorial I'll be using creams, which are very blendable and gentle on the skin. I'm using bruise wheels from both Kryolan and Ben Nye as well as Ben Nye's rainbow wheel. You can also use alcohol-activated paints, which are more vibrant and last longer, as long as you are VERY careful and do not use them in the waterline. If you don't have either of these, you can use lipsticks, lipliners, eyeliners, cream shadows, or wetted powder eyeshadows; just don't use anything with red pigment in it too close to the eye (unless it is specifically made for that purpose). You will also need some sponges-- I prefer orange sponges and black sponges, available at makeup supply stores such as Frends, Naimie's, or Kryolan. I forgot to bring my orange and black sponges home for the weekend so I made do by picking apart with my fingers a white cosmetic sponge and a regular kitchen sponge.

I began by stippling the light violet color from the Kryolan bruise wheel all over the eye socket area with my cosmetic brush. Then, using a pencil brush, I brushed the dark violet and mahogany colors directly into the socket to define it.

Using my textured white sponge, I stippled primary red all over the eye area. I then dried the waterline with a Q-tip and applied primary red to simulate irritation.

Using another textured white cosmetic sponge, I stippled the yellow and green colors around the outer edges of the black eye.

Using my fingertips, I blended the creams together slightly and cleaned up any areas that looked fake or strange. I deepened the dark purple and mahogany in the socket line and then powdered with RCMA No-Color Powder to set the makeup. You can use any translucent powder for this step.

Using a Q-tip, I applied some Karo syrup to the cheekbone area for shine-- there's a reason they call a black eye a "shiner"! Usually I would use either glycerin or Transparent Jelly from Kryolan but I also forgot to bring these home (oops).

Now you have a marvelous fake black eye! Thanks to my mom for modeling and letting me make her look ugly while I had a sensitive skin situation!