For too long, lips have hogged the spotlight as the end-all solution for livening up an otherwise boring beauty look. But this season, we’re seeing the eyes peak as an alternative canvas for bold, vibrant color: Enter the “eye pop” trend. According to the Saks Fifth Avenue New York Flagship beauty concierge, the eyes have it for spring — in saturated, glittery shades of electric violet, fuschia, and the like, applied generously to lids. Watch the video above — shot at the store’s second-floor beauty destination — to find out how to recreate two different versions of the big-payoff look, in just a few easy steps. Then shop the products to get each version of the eye pop look below.
Purple Power Lids
Step 1: Cover With Color
NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base
Start with an eye primer that’ll help your eyeshadow glide on smoothly and evenly, and will keep it in place for longer, truer wear.
Tom Ford Shadow Extreme Eye Shadow in Tfx7 Deep Purple
Apply a vivid, highly pigmented purple shadow to lids, using a dense, flat brush. Stop at your eye crease, or where a crease would naturally be.
Step 2: Blend It Out
Trish McEvoy Tapered Blending Brush #29
Looking straight into a mirror, use a fluffy, domed brush to blend the edges of your shadow outward and upward.
Step 3: Up the Intensity
MAC Dazzleshadow in Can’t Stop, Don’t Stop
Add dimension by pressing a sparkly, sugarplum-like shadow onto the center of your lids.
Step 4: Define and Perfect
Diorshow Mascara
Define your top lashline with several coats of volumizing mascara, wiggling your wand from root to tip. Apply a lighter coat to your bottom lashes to give them a tint.
Laura Mercier Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20
Even out your skin tone with tinted moisturizer for a natural, radiant finish. (Apply post-eye makeup to avoid powder fallout while applying your shadow.)
Decorté Cream Blush Moisturizing Cheek Glow
For a subtle flush of color, add a bit of natural-looking cream blush — like this Saks-exclusive option, in a shade that complements your complexion — to the apples of your cheeks.
For a different take on the Eye Pop look, try this rosy alternative.
Two-Toned Pink
Step 1: Build Your Base
Estée Lauder La Dangereuse Amour, Amour Eye Shadow Palette
Apply a medium-pink shadow, like the bottom-left shade in this limited-edition palette to your lids’ inner and outer corners. Blend gently into the crease but keep the center of your lids bare. Also blend under the bottom lashline at all corners.
Step 2: Color In Corners
MAC Art Library: It’s Designer
Use a small domed brush to apply hot pink shadow like the version in this limited-edition palette to a small area of your inner and outer corners, on top and bottom. Blend slightly, but keep intensity in the corners to add dimension.
Step 3: Sparkle and Shine
NARS Hardwired in Firenze
With your ring finger, press a glittery, bubblegum-pink shadow onto the center of your lids, and into the center of your bottom lashline. Lightly blend any harsh edges, but maintain contrast with the existing shadow layers for a two-toned halo effect.
Decorté Eye Glow Gem Glossy Eye Color in Pk885
Then, tap a pearly, shell-pink eye gloss, such as this one that’s exclusive to Saks, onto the center of your lids.
Step 4: Lash Out and Light Up
Lancôme Monsieur Big Waterproof Mascara
Complete the look with several layers of mascara on top and bottom lashes.
Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation
Perfect skin with a satin-finish foundation — after there’s any chance of eye product falling onto it during application.
Giorgio Armani A-Line Highlighter
Finally, press liquid highlighter onto the high points of your face.
This is paid content produced for an advertiser by New York Stories. The editorial staff of The Cut did not play a role in its creation.