I recently received the Huda Beauty Pretty Grunge collection as a PR sample and was so excited to try it for the first time. It has a total of 18 shades, including an array of beautiful cool-toned shades featuring different textures and smooth mattes. I’ve always been a big fan of the Huda Beauty palettes as I love the performance of the eyeshadows, and this palette is no exception.
The colors I used in today’s tutorial applied beautifully, I created a smokey eye makeup look using mostly matte shades and a nice pop of shimmer on the center of the lid. The shades blended nicely and worked well together. Check out the YouTube video above for a step-by-step tutorial on how I created the Smokey Eyeshadow look, which gives a breakdown of this unique look. I will link all product details below for reference as well.
If you’re looking for a lipstick look to pair with today’s full Smokey Eye, check out the lipstick tab on my website. I would pair a classic nude lip with the eye or, for a vampy look, you could go in with a deep ox blood lip look. For a softer look similar to the oxblood, I think the Clinique Almost Lipstick in shade Black Honey would be beautiful as well. I have a swatch of this shade included in this post here.
The Pretty Grunge palette’s color story has some beautiful matte shades made up of brown and eggplant hues with pops of shimmers and multichromatic shades. You could definitely create everyday eyeshadow looks with this palette as well as Smokey Eye makeup looks; there really is a nice variety of shades to work with. I love when eyeshadow palettes offer a variety of shades to choose from that allow you to go from day to night. That way, you don’t have to carry around multiple palettes when traveling. Especially if you are a professional makeup artist, this palette would be convenient to have in your kit as I’m sure a Smokey Eye look is a pretty popular request as it’s so classic. Smokey eyes are definitely one of my favorite looks to do for a night out glam or an event, as it really pairs so well with many outfits. Although you can definitely get some everyday looks, as I said, from this palette as well.
Smokey Eye Tips
I did want to go over some tips I had to create the perfect smokey eye. The first is to make sure you prep your eyelids with an eyeshadow primer or a concealer to prevent creasing. An eyeshadow primer I recommend is the Urban Decay Primer Potion. I have a whole post on prepping the eyes for eyeshadow if you want to check that out.
For the cleanest application, apply your base makeup after you do your eyes. Sometimes darker colors can have a lot of fallout that can make a mess on your concealer or cheek area. I didn’t notice much fallout from these shadows; you can always tap off your brush before applying to your eyes to reduce fallout with any shadow you’re using.
To intensify your smokey eye look, apply a dark cream base underneath your shadows. For example, use an eyeliner or a cream eyeshadow as the base and then blend it out all over the lid to add a background to the darker colors.
Make sure you blend all your colors together, using a clean fluffy brush just to get rid of any harsh edges for smooth transitions between colors.
One last tip that I find helpful for my looks is I enjoy using matte shades to create the base of my look and then applying my shimmers afterward to add dimension and texture. This allows me to shade and contour the eyes and create a neat shape and then deciding where I want to highlight afterward. For a more intense metallic application, try using your finger when applying the shade to your lid.
If you’re looking for more smokey eyeshadow looks this one is my favorite beginner friendly tutorials, you don’t have to use the same shades I did, it’s more of a guide on where to place everything.
Simple Smokey Liner Idea
For a simpler look than applying a full Smokey Eye is to just apply a Smokey Eye liner. I typically start with a brown all over the lid to add some color. Then the easiest Smokey eyeliner hack would be to apply a piece of tape in the outer corner of your eye at the same angle as your lower lash line. Apply the eyeshadow shades of your choosing with a flat brush to the lash line, making the line thinner towards the inner corner and thicker towards the outer corner and creating a wing-type shape in the outer corner. Once your color is placed, gently blend out that top edge with the brush or even go in with a lighter shade to blend it further to create a smoky eyeliner look.
This technique gives a sultry cat eye effect without applying a winged liner to the eyes. You could also apply the same shades to the lower lash line and smoke those out as well. Smokey liner is such an easy look to complete and I love that you can use any color, I have a tutorial here using some warm tones in a gradient order which really gives cozy vibes of fall.
The palette retails for $69, which is on the expensive side but breaks down to about four-ish dollars per eyeshadow. I always get a ton of use out of my Huda Beauty palettes, and I think this one is very versatile and can be used in a lot of scenarios. However, it does have a lot of darker, cool-toned shades, so if you’re more into light colors or warm tones, this might not be the best fit. If you love cool tones I really think you’d enjoy this palette as you have many options to complete the perfect eyeshadow look.
This collection is limited edition and the launch included a few other items, including the Pretty Grunge face gloss, liquid matte lip quad, liquid matte and silk balm duo, and a black lip contour pencil. I’ve only tried out the Pretty Grunge face gloss still alongside the eyeshadow palette and really enjoyed the texture. I was surprised at the pigment the product gave off as it’s clear in the pan and was super pink on my cheeks. I actually had to go in with my sponge afterward to blend it away a little bit. It gives off this pink glow and leaves the skin looking dewy; you can also apply this to the lips as well.
That completes today’s post and look. Let me know what you think of this palette. Will you be picking this one up? Be sure to check out more of my eyeshadow palette review posts. I just did one recently on the Patrick Ta Major Dimension III palette, which has a row of cool tones and warm tones.
