PHOTO: COURTESY @Nikki_Makeup VIA INSTAGRAM
Gold eyeshadow is a trend that has been around about as long as properly pigmented eyeshadows have been, and yes, it’s beautiful. It’s a classic look for a reason, and we love it about as much as King Midas did! You can use gold eyeshadow to create about a million different looks, and honestly, you can’t go wrong with it. Whether you use a little gold to accent other colors (such as with a sunset-toned creation) or a lot of it (to create a foiled look), the gold eyeshadow trend is as timeless as the element it resembles. I’m not really one for chemistry humor, but “Au” can’t go wrong with it!
Gold Eyeshadow Ideas
Golds, Reds and Oranges, Galore!
I don’t know about you all, but I love seeing gold eyeshadow masterpieces that utilize reds and oranges to complement the gold. They are some of my favorite versions of gold eyeshadow, and also some of the most popular right now! Here are some of the best versions to inspire your gold eyeshadow looks.
New Jersey-based makeup artist, Yami Angelina (@yamiangelina on Instagram) created this stunning red and gold, sunset-esque look in early June, and I absolutely love it! She uses the Juvia’s Place Zulu eyeshadow palette to achieve the bold colors in her look, and while it is more yellow-toned, I think the golden look is beautiful. Get the palette at Ulta Beauty, and create a golden look like Yami’s!
Nikki (@nikki_makeup) is a makeup artist and Beauty Columnist at Glamour Magazine UK in London, and her talents are nearly indescribable. She has painted the faces of countless celebrities and models, and I particularly enjoy her glowy looks. That’s why this gold eyeshadow look caught my eye. She uses a deep red base on the lid and blends it up towards the crease. Over the red, she painted a foil-looking gold to resemble the shape of an oil spill. Her “gold oil spill” is both eccentric and wearable, and I can’t get enough of it.
Ana V (@anavmakeupp on Instagram) has a particularly sunny version of the gold and orange eyeshadow look. Her take on the trend uses a rusty-orange shade on her crease, which is the cut and overlaid with a soft yellow-gold. Her blending is flawless, and I love the eyeshadow used as winged eyeliner. Some of the palettes she used to create her look are available at Ulta Beauty. Get BH Cosmetics’ Take Me Back to Brazil palette here for $20.
Shannon Harrison (@shannonharrisonmakeup on Instagram) is a UK-based makeup artist who works with P Louise Makeup Academy. Her warm orangey-brown and gold look honestly gives me the warm-and-fuzzies. The way the colors blend so smoothly across the model’s upper eyelid is perfection, as is the yummy yellow-gold of the cut crease. If I had to describe this look with one word, I’d say I’m obsessed.
Ashleigh McCrum (@ashleighmccrummakeup on Instagram) is a talented MUA based out of Australia. She uses matte shades to create this golden look! McCrum starts with a warm cocoa brown smoothed over her entire eyelid, just barely grazing the edge of her upper lashline. She then blends a summery orange on the outer corners of her lids and defines her cut crease prior to packing on both a bright yellow and the same orange as the corners to the center of the lid. Her last step is adding a soft white to the inner corner of her eye, and blending it out into a delicate ombre! I think this matte gold eyeshadow look is impressive. She uses Morphe’s The James Charles palette to achieve her look; get it at Ulta Beauty for only $39!
UK-based makeup queen Dami (@thatgirldami on Instagram) deserves some special attention for her gorgeous golden looks, in my opinion. The way she paints her lids with the gold eyeshadow and other red and orange pigments, courtesy of the Juvia’s Place The Saharan Blush Palette, is incredible. The brilliant glow of the gold is unparalleled; I really haven’t seen a brighter glow captured in an eyeshadow look before. If you want to achieve the same, get the Juvia’s Place The Saharan Blush Palette at Ulta Beauty for only $18! An actual steal!
Ling K. Tang (@ling.kt on Instagram) is a cute, Instagram makeup guru whose videos are fun and super inspiring for makeup looks. Tang utilizes the Anastasia Beverly Hills Soft Glam eyeshadow palette to create her gold eyeshadow look, and it’s beautiful. She first takes an orange shade and blends the color over her upper eyelid, before covering the base of the lid with an orange-toned brown shade. Then she takes a tiny pot of what appears to be a molten gold (not literally, but it is intense) and applies it to the center of her lids to create a foiled, cut-crease. I think this golden look is fantastic! Create a similar look of your very own with the Anastasia Beverly Hills Soft Glam eyeshadow palette, available at Sephora for $42.
Romanian makeup artist Vivian Marie (@vivianeirismarie on Instagram) has a knack for gold eyeshadow that is about as real as a 14k gold wedding band. She uses a darker shade of yellow on the crease of the eyelid to give her look some dimension and achieves a cut crease by painting most of the lid with a lighter and more golden shade of yellow. My favorite part of this particular style of gold eyeshadow is how she ties the shadow on the lid to that on the lower lashline. She lines the inner part of the eye with a light yellow eyeliner pencil and paints gold across the lower eyelashes. The effect is stunning, and it kind of looks like the lashes are dripping in gold.
Black and Yellow...No, Gold!
Gold eyeshadows look incredible with nearly any color, but why keep it safe all the time? One of the more trendy gold eyeshadow color combinations uses different versions of gold and black! The duo creates a mesmerizing, smoky gold look that I can’t get enough of. Here are a couple of the best black and gold looks I’ve seen!
Mackenzie Lauren (@macklomua on Instagram) is a makeup artist who enjoys sharing her work on Instagram, and I am H-E-R-E here for it! The simplicity of this gold eyeshadow look makes me breathe a sigh of contentment because every blend and line is so precise, it actually makes me relaxed. The crease of her eyelid is softly defined with a natural-toned brown, and her lid is entirely coated with equally soft gold. The gold is one of Stila’s Little White Lies Liquid eyeshadows, in the shade Yellow Tales. This liquid (and I cannot stress this enough) is incredible. The thick, black cat-eyeliner completes the look, giving it a sort of sultry appearance. You can achieve a similar look to Mack’s with the liquid gold eyeshadow by Stila, available at your local Ulta Beauty for $24!
Mellie Sanchez (@thefashionfreakk on Instagram) is a remarkably stunning Instagram makeup guru and influencer, and I love basically every makeup look she has ever created. Her bumblebee-esque, gold-and-black eyeshadow look is incredible on her. The palettes she used to create this look are mostly limited edition, but never fear, we have a perfect, similar palette available to achieve your own version of the look! Morphe’s 35M Boss Mood palette contains all of the colors needed to create a dupe for Sanchez’s look.
Sanchez starts by defining her crease with a deep, red-brown color (which she achieves by mixing orange, brown and pink shades) and paints a cut-crease along the inner part of her eyelid before painting it with a neon yellow shade before coating it with shiny gold eyeshadow. She blends the inner corner with a brighter gold before adding her liner and lashes. If you want to try this look for yourself (or something similar), get the Morphe 35M Boss Mood palette at Ulta Beauty for $24!
Do we love gold eyeshadow?
We love the gold eyeshadow trend and believe it will be around for quite some time. Gold is a powerful color, and its elegance is something to strive for. Gold eyeshadows are incredibly versatile, and while the mentioned looks are some of the most common, don’t forget you can do literally anything with the color- combine gold eyeshadow not just with sunset shades or black, but with any color you can think of. Gold goes with everything, no matter what you are wearing, and the only thing that can make gold better is more gold!