EOTD: Basic smoky eye makeup with Urban Decay Smog and Darkhorse shadows

At long last, my first smoky eye look! While I firmly maintain that theBalm's N*de'Tude (see here) is the more versatile neutral eye palette (I find that the Urban Decay N@ked palettes - both one and two - have either too many darker crease shades or too many lighter lid shades and not enough medium shades), here is a very basic smoky eye look I've done with Urban Decay's N@ked palette 1, using the eyeshadow shades Smog and Darkhorse. Smog and Darkhorse are my favourite combination from this palette and can be worn in the daytime, even to work, without your eye makeup looking over the top.

While I still haven't gathered enough courage to do an out-and-out dark smoky eye or wear khol owing to a traumatic panda-eye incident two years ago, I have been growing into neutral eyeshadow of late, over my usual blues, greens, pinks and oranges, despite fears of dark brown shadows overwhelming my dark eyes. So this is only a "sort of" smoky eye and not a proper, traditional smoky look. All photos in natural light.

I first hit the crease - lightly - with Darkhorse using theBalm's Crease, Love And Happiness brush (reviewed here). I didn't do an outer "v" or darken it much on purpose. One step at a time! And then I hit the lid with Smog - my favourite shadow from the Urban Decay N@ked palette 1. Finally, I added a spot of Sin to the inner corner. I used theBalm's Give Crease A Chance for blending the lot.
The eyeliner used is Make Up Forever Aqua Liner in shade 11 (see here for swatches and review). And I used my favourite mascara - Lancome Hypnose Doll Eyes (reviewed here), which is the only mascara that makes me look like I have eyelashes. No eyelash curler, I'm afraid. I have used theBalm's Time Balm concealer and their Put A Lid On It as the eyeshadow primer.

Smog and Darkhorse are the seventh and eighth eyeshadows from left in the palette. This photograph was taken with the flash, so the colours look a tad different. Sin is the second eyeshadow from left. Oh, and the scar on the bridge of my nose is from when I went to look too closely at a classmate sharpening her pencil with a pen-knife, in the kindergarten....

This is my submission to the ongoing Smoky Eye Friday series run by Leticia of Cosmetics Aficionado. You can get the InLinkz code for this post here and add your own between Thursday and Friday midnight!