Dealing with eyeshadow fallout

You panic and quickly try to swipe them away, but they end up smearing, leaving you with dark smudges under your eyes. You try to put more concealer over them, but it turns your under-eyes grey and you look like you got into a fist fight.

You throw in the towel, and wash your face. You don’t have time to redo your makeup so you either go bare-faced, or worst case, you don’t go at all. So yes, as I mentioned, fallout is awful. Luckily there are several different ways to prevent or work around the occurrence of fallout.

The best way to minimise fallout would be to use an eyeshadow primer. Priming will not only create a sticky base for eyeshadow to adhere to, making it appear more vibrant, but will reduce the chance of it dropping onto your undereyes or cheeks. If you want to use sparkly eyeshadow, use an adhesive to prevent glitter particles from migrating throughout the day.

Generally, if you are doing a dark or sparkly look, I recommend that you do your eyes first. That way, you can wipe away any fallout before applying your face makeup.

As a precaution, you should always tap any excess eyeshadow off your brush before applying it to your eyes. Remember, whatever flies of your brush could have ended up on your cheeks.

When applying eyeshadows or pigments to the eyelid, pat them on instead of swiping. Patting will help your eyeshadows to adhere to your primer evenly.

Using a flat, firm, synthetic brush to apply shimmery, metallic or glittery eyeshadow will minimise fallout.

Fluffy brushes can send pigment and sparkles flying everywhere, creating a huge mess If you want to avoid fallout altogether, use cream eyeshadows. These will apply beautifully if you have dry skin. However, I would avoid them on their own if you have very oily skin.

To reduce fallout from loose pigments or shimmery eyeshadows, wet your brush with setting spray, skin mist or water. It will make your shadows appear more intense, but be careful doing this with matte eyeshadows, as moisture could ruin them.

You can multitask by using a gel under-eye patch prior to applying your face make up. It will prep your under-eyes and help concealer to go on more smoothly, while also catching fallout. I like Tarte Pack Your Bags 911 Under Eye Rescue Patches.

If you’ve already done your face makeup, use a shadow shield to protect your face from fallout. If you don’t have a shadow shield on hand, simply hold a tissue over your cheeks while you do your eyeshadow.

If you usually apply your face make up first, you can apply a generous amount of loose, translucent face powder to your under eyes, just like you’re baking. I like Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder or Sacha’s Buttercup Powder. This will catch any fallout.

Proceed to apply your eyeshadow, and when you’re done, dust away the excess powder and fallout with a fluffy brush. You’ll see how easily the fall out disappears. This is an old trick used by make-up artists for many years.

If you have mature or dry skin, I don’t recommend using this trick as the excessive powder can accentuate dryness.