Until recently, thoughts of blue eye shadow conjured memories of Mimi from The Drew Carey show, a stylish boss I had in college who paired hers with a bold red lip, and the frosty sky blue cream shadow that my best friend and I were partial to in high school (it was a jumbo shimmery pencil from the drugstore and we applied it generously to our lids every morning through most of sophomore year).

Lately though, my favorite makeup artists are playing with blues across every shade and texture for amped up evening glam and pretty everyday looks, and it’s making me think I should branch out from the neutral browns, bronze and golds I always wear and add a little color to my eye shadow collection before spring arrives.

I first considered that I may be able to pull off blue eye shadow when I watched Allana create a glittery blue holiday look that she styled with a slicked-back low bun and simple black outfit. We share a similar makeup aesthetic (bronzed skin, easy neutral eye looks, “no makeup” makeup, etc.) so seeing Allana step out of her comfort zone to try something bold made me think I could consider it myself. She used the Huda Beauty Sapphire Obsessions palette and Stila Glitter & Glow liquid eye shadow in ‘Into the Blue’, both of which are now officially on my Sephora wishlist.

After watching Allana’s video, I started to pay attention to blue eyeshadow looks on my favorite makeup artists on the ‘gram. Then I was fully obsessed.

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Exhibit A: Blown-out blues paired with a nude lip from two ladies I always turn to for wearable real-life makeup inspiration: Sam Chapman and Katie Jane Hughes.

Katie created her look exclusively with drugstore products from Revlon! *Keira goes to Walgreens and tosses everything blue and violet in her basket from the Revlon section, including this pretty $10 palette.*

This video of Katie doing a glossy violet eye on Estée Lalonde officially pushed me over the edge of wanting to play with color this spring. I would skip the eye gloss step in the tutorial to keep it wearable all day, but Katie’s blending tips and color selections here are ahh-mazing. Check it out!

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Exhibit B: A brighter pop of color, but still wearable for daytime.

Violette is the queen of making bold/glittery eyes look unfussy, effortless and cool. Her ‘La Dangereuse Blue Dahlia‘ palette in collaboration with Estée Lauder is sold out nearly everywhere, so I pulled the trigger on the purchase while it’s still available at Neiman Marcus; the bronze and gold shades make my neutral-loving heart happy and helped me justify the purchase. I just received it late last week, and can’t wait to play around with it! (I’ll keep you posted.)

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And finally: Bold and smoky teal for a night out. I love this so much it makes me consider leaving my couch on a Saturday night so I’d have somewhere to wear it. (That iridescent inner-corner highlight tho!) Viola is stunning and does incredible makeup art with color.