We love a smokey eye, but as warmer weather nears we’re looking for ways to lighten things up. This simple, and totally non-toxic step-by-step tutorial from celeb makeup artist, Katey Denno, pares down the darkness with washes of steely gray in place of black. The result is a look that’s ultra-wearable and can last all day. Get the look, shown here on the lovely Halston Sage (Neighbors, Goosebumps)…

Smokey eye makeup doesn’t have to be dark and heavy or intimidating to do on yourself. Pairing two sheer, shimmery gray shadows – one powder and one cream – with a perfect, skin-toned, ray-of-light shadow is my go-to for nearly all eye colors and skin tones. It’s far less time consuming and requires next to no clean up – unlike the black smokey eye! My favorite thing about a sheer smokey eye is that it doesn’t look overdone when paired with a rich lip and cheek! Here’s what I used to make Halston‘s eyes smolder.

how to achieve the sheer smokey eye:

STEP One: Using a medium-sized domed eyeshadow brush, I pressed ‘Glow’ from Alima Pure all along her lid, blending the remaining shadow on the brush upwards, just slightly above the crease. I pressed a good amount of the same powder under her bottom lashes and into the inner corner or her eye, following the application with a few light swipes of a cotton swab to blend the edge seamlessly.

Step Two: I used a light-to-medium gray shadow called ‘Divine’ from Kjaer Weis to add depth to the look by pressing it in with a tapered, domed shadow brush along her upper-lash line and along her crease, blending the two together to meet very sheerly in the center of her lid. I went back in with the brush to densely press more ‘Divine’ along her lash line and into the outer corner to really define the outer edge of the lid.

Step three:  To finish the look, I swiped ‘You Spin Me Round’ – the creamy gunmetal gray eyeshadow stick from Ilia Beauty – along her upper lash line and blended it in with the same domed brush I used in step 2. I then used the excess that remained on the brush to lightly blend more of a gray tone into her lower lid – the skin directly behind her lower lashes.

Step four: I curled her lashes, making sure they created the perfect fan shape around her eye, and coated them with a few layers of very black mascara.