Beauty & Wellness · 3 min read
One cool-toned brown, one silver pearl, and every eye look since
By Sukh
Some products earn a permanent spot in your makeup bag the moment you try them. For me, that is the combination of MAC Multistick Matte Liquid Eyeshadow in Espresso and the MAC Dazzleshadow Eyeshadow Stick in Subliminal Spark. I found out about the Espresso shade through a video on TikTok and picked it up on a whim. I did not expect it to become the base of almost every eye look I have done since.
Espresso is a true cool toned brown, which makes it one of the most flattering shades you can wear if you have brown eyes. It deepens the eye without warming it up, and it does the exact thing brown eyed girls are always chasing in the eyesmaxing trend right now, which is making your natural eye colour look richer and more dimensional rather than covering it up with something unrelated to your undertone. That said, this is not a shade that only works for brown eyes. The cool base flatters green, hazel, and blue eyes just as easily, which is part of why it has become such a fixture for me.
What makes this pairing so good is how far it stretches. On a normal day, I sweep Espresso across the lid and slightly into the crease with my finger, blend it out so there are no hard edges, and that is the entire look. It reads as soft, done, effortless. The best part is that it works either way. A quick wipe with your fingers gives you an easy on the go look with no blending time that eats into your morning, or you can go in with a brush to build up shadow and intensity when you want more of a smokey effect.
The transformation happens at night. I take the same Espresso base and build it up, packing more product into the crease and outer corner to deepen it into an actual smoky eye. Then I go in with Subliminal Spark, a cool silver pearl shade, and press it onto the center of the lid and the inner corner. The contrast between the matte brown and the metallic shimmer is what sells the whole look. It catches the light exactly where you want your eye to look brightest, without turning the entire lid into a disco ball.
The formulas hold up their end of the deal too. Both are long wearing and resistant to creasing, which matters if your night starts with dinner and ends several hours later on a dance floor. I have gone from a 9am coffee run to a girls night out on the same eye look, adding the Dazzleshadow only when I am ready to switch gears, and neither product has budged or turned patchy by the end of the night.
A few notes if you want to try this combination for yourself:
- For day, use Espresso alone, applied lightly with fingers and blended so there is no visible edge.
- For night, build Espresso into the crease and outer corner first, then add Subliminal Spark on the lid and inner corner for shimmer.
- This pairing is especially good for brown eyes and the eyesmaxing trend, but the cool undertone in both shades works across green, hazel, and blue eyes too.
- Both products are transfer resistant and long wearing, so they hold through a full day to night transition without needing a touch up.
This is the duo I reach for when I want a look that does not require a second thought, whether that is a quiet morning or a night I do not want to end.
The application, in motion
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