Eye-Lighting is the Latest Strobing Trend You Need to Try

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 02: Rita Ora attends the "Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology" Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

If you've managed to keep up with every recent viral beauty trend, you already know that strobing is the light-handed approach contouring. This technique of highlighting your facial features without creating depth—think in terms of how sunlight would naturally hit your face—has even made its way onto our heads as a method of adding shimmery highlights to hair. Now, eye-lighting is the newest incarnation of the trend, and it's essentially the same concept as its strobing predecessors.

The trend first had the Internet buzzing following the 2016 Met Gala where stars like Rita Ora, Olivia Wilde, and Jourdan Dunn all had metallic silver shadow placed on the inner corners of their eyes that acted like a highlight. Not only were the final looks just as out of this world as the night's futuristic theme, the shimmery shadow made the stars' eyes pop on the red carpet.

To create Ora's shiny lid, celebrity makeup artist Kathy Jeung applied Rimmel London Scandal Eyes Shadow Stick in Witness White ($4; drugstore.com) on the insides of Ora's eyes and blended the shadow pencil out with Rimmel London Scandal Eyes Shadow Stick in Guilty Grey ($4; drugstore.com).

If you think this shadow technique sounds familiar, you're not wrong. Makeup artists have been using this trick of applying a white or shimmery shadow on the inner-corners of the eyes for years as a quick way to make them appear larger and awake—just without the Instagram-worthy label. If you've already been practicing eye-lighting, congrats! You're ahead of the trend. If not, take a mental note of this technique the next time you need to look awake after a late-night.

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