I need to do more of this makeup in my life. Sure, I love a nice little cat eye, but somehow that seems to be overkill on most days now that I’m progressing more in my career.

Like some days I’m sitting in a meeting and it’s a regular day, it’s casual, I’m wearing a minimal outfit that I’m cool with and is still business. I look around the table at the other people sitting there and I get the feeling my cat eye and whole make up that day is just completely over the top for what is necessary. It’s just too much product and visible effort for the look and vibe and solutions I want to present that day. Does this make sense?

Instead of effortless beauty of the thirties business professional kind I feel like I’m just starting out at my job, went to Sephora and got myself some new eye stuff and decided to load them up all at once. Sigh. In those moments all I want is to hop in a time machine and go back to the morning where I chose my makeup for the day and instead of the heavy cat eye, which took me a solid 15 minutes to execute by the way, I choose something cleaner, easier. Something more like these looks from Tom Ford A/W 2019 are pretty much right up my alley; they’re moody, but minimal, not quite a smokey eye, but still sultry, and most importantly, still incorporate warm tones, which are pretty essential for my make up not to wash my complexion out.

Getting the look

I’m thinking to pull off the Tom Ford looks I’ll probably be told by the New York Fashion Week backstage beauty authorities that they used Tom Ford Beauty products. Duh. But look, just because I like something from one runway show doesn’t mean I’m going to buy out the product line to achieve the one look. I am thinking I can use what I’ve got. So here’s my best guess at getting the look based on product I already know, use, love, and works for my working human skin.

Click the images to buy.

Regarding cat eyes:

The cat eye is a pretty nifty little trick to know because when it is done well it makes the eyeballs look big, doll-like, and pretty. The downside is that they are fickle as fuck to execute, especially for hooded eyes like mine where the eyelid kind of folds over the eye, basically devouring eyeshadow and any attempt at a fine line cat eye. And it’s worse on some days depending what I ate or drank the day before—aka, alcohol, not enough water, crap food, not enough sleep, cried, etc.

If this sounds familiar watch this video and save yourself some time.

If you have hooded eyes, this tutorial will save you time, makeup, and sanity in the morning.