Most of us think of emo and remember mounds of black eyeshadow, thick, heavy eyeliner, skull tights, and plaid skirts. However, through the years, emo looks have grown to include a wide variety of styles and aren’t pinned to the early 2000s Emo trends we remember. Emo looks are all about expression and self-exploration, showing your innermost feelings on the outside through your hair, makeup, and clothing choices. If you have always been an emo girl at heart, or you want to explore the world of emo trends, this article is for you! We have compiled a list of the 18 hottest emo makeup look ideas and tutorials to give you tons of inspo!
18 Hottest Emo Makeup Look Ideas And Best YouTube Tutorials
1. Go Bold With Purple
If you’re looking for something with a bold pop of color, this is it! We love the combination of heavy purple eyeshadow and bold black lips! Don’t be scared to go heavy under your eyes. The drama is what makes this look pop! Check out this tutorial for smokey purple eyeshadow! You will also want to find a good pair of wispy eyelashes to complete the look.
2. Soften it Up
This look is perfect if you are looking for a softer emo makeup look! The key to this look is blending out the edges of your eyeshadow with a brush and smudging your eyeliner so you don’t have any harsh lines. Finish the look by lining your lips with a darker nude shade to create a pout, and fill them in with a lighter one.
3. Contrast With White Eyeliner
Take your emo makeup look to the next level by contrasting your dark eyeshadow with white eyeliner. The white eyeliner adds depth and opens up your eyes, which pairs perfectly with the black shadow and winged liner. Smudge your black eyeliner along your bottom lashline, making sure you go heavy.
Related: 15 Easy Step By Step Smokey Eye Makeup Tutorials for Beginner
4. Make Your Eyes Pop
This makeup look will really make your eyes pop, especially if you have hooded eyes! Focusing the darker makeup toward the outside of the eyes and keeping it lighter on the inside will open up the inside of the eyes and create the illusion that your eyes are bigger than they really are. Lightly apply black eyeshadow to the creases of your eyes, starting in the middle, and blend outward with a very light hand. You can add more eye shadow as needed if you want to go darker. Apply a lighter shade to the inside lid and the corners of your eyes.
5. Play With Neutrals
We love the neutral brown smokey eye in this look paired with over-the-top cat eye winged liner! Make sure you smudge the liner on the bottom and keep the eyeshadow lines soft with a blending blush. You really want the winged liner to stand out here, so think soft for the rest of your makeup. For the lips, go with a pretty nude or an orangy brown to balance it out.
6. Go Dramatic With Sharp Edges
If you want to really make a statement, this look will do it! Start off with a traditional smokey eye, then apply a heavy layer of white eyeliner under your eye close to your lash line. Line your eyes under the white liner with liquid black eyeliner. To get the straight edges featured in this photo, do your eye makeup before applying the rest of your makeup. Apply tape where you want your sharp edges to be, then use concealer and a concealer brush to cover up any residue left behind from the tape. Here is a quick video tutorial on how to use tape for perfect wings!
7. Go Heavy With Winged Liner
The key to this look is using soft, nude-colored eyeshadow to let the heavy winged liner shine! The shimmer in the inner corners of the eye and subtle highlight on the nose create a perfect balance! You can go bold with ombre brows like the picture shows or keep your brows simple for a softer look. Here is a tutorial to show you how to perfect this eye shadow look! Don’t forget to add a pair of long, wispy lashes to set this look on fire!
8. Stick to the Roots
If you are looking for a more traditional emo look, this is for you! All this look requires some black eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara! Of course, you will want to stick to the true emo roots with pale skin, so make sure you choose a shade that is slightly lighter than your complexion. Check out this video to learn how to put this look together!
9. Line Your Inner Eye Corners
If you aren’t a fan of the softer, smudgy looks, you may love this one! You can pull this off with some light eyeshadow and liquid eyeliner, lots of liquid eyeliner! The key to pulling off this look is to bring the liquid eyeliner all the way to the inner corners of your eye and don’t leave any space between the top line and bottom line! Add a bit of mascara, and you’re ready to go!
Related: How to Blend Contour Makeup
10. Be Green With Envy
Pick your favorite shade of green eyeshadow and go to town! This makeup idea screams emo! We recommend taping your eyes off and doing your winged liner before you apply your eyeshadow. That way, you don’t mess it up in the process. You also want to find the biggest, whispiest falsies you can find! Finish the look off with a dark plum shade of lipstick.
11. Rock Red and Black
There is something about red and black together that is alluring and mysterious. This look requires only a little bit of blending to soften the sharp lines of the shadows, but it’s meant to be bold. Cover your entire eyelid with dark, red eyeshadow. Then, apply a deep black eyeshadow on your brow, dragging it into the inner corners of your brows. Use an eye pencil to line the top lid and create a wing on the inside corner.
12. Be a Baddie With Purple Lips
Forget purple eyeshadow! Go big, or go home with bright purple lipstick! Keep the rest of your makeup soft to not take away from your lips. We recommend using a smokey eye palette with neutral browns and soft blacks. Check out this video tutorial on how to do a soft smokey eye!
13. Go With Classic Pink and Black
What is more emo than pink and black? This look is smoking hot and lets off the ultimate emo vibe! We recommend pairing it with a light nude or pale lipstick so the focus stays on that gorgeous eyeshadow!
Related: 10 Best YouTube Haircut Tutorials That Make DIY Haircuts Look Super Easy
14. Line Your Lips in Black
This makeup look is sure to make a statement, and you don’t have to be an eye makeup expert to pull it off! Keep the eyes simple with some lightly smudged liner along the top and bottom. You want all the focus to be on your lips. What sets this look apart from the rest is the black-lined lips! We think they are absolutely stunning. Check out this video tutorial on how to pull off this lustrous lip look!
15. Stun With a Cut Crease
A cut crease eyeshadow look may not usually fit into the emo makeup genre, but we think this look is too hot to leave out! If you aren’t sure how to do a cut crease, don’t worry! We got you! Check out this video to learn how to do a perfect cut crease. Don’t forget to add the ultra-dark plum lipstick for a vampy look!
16. Rock Pale Lips
To pull this look off, you need to go ultra heavy on the eye makeup. We were talking about full-on black eyeshadow and eyeliner. Soften the harsh lines with a blending blush to soften it up slightly, but you don’t want to lighten the shadow, so make sure you keep the blending strictly to the outer edges. Next, apply pale lipstick to your lips. If you don’t have any, you can add concealer to achieve the same effect. The whole idea is to create a major contrast.
17. Be a Doll
We love any doll eye makeup looks, but this doll eye emo makeup look takes it to a whole new level! To pull off this look, you will want to line your inner rims and the inner corners of your eyes with white eyeliner, then line the bottom and top lash lines with liquid liner, dragging it from the middle of the eye into a wing. Apply black eye shadow to the outer corners of the eyes and blend it slightly into the crease. Finish the look off with some wispy falsies! Here is a video tutorial that will walk you through the process!
18. Get Funky With Orange
If you have swore off ever trying liquid eyeliner again but still want to try out an emo makeup look, you should definitely try this one! These gorgeous orange eyeshadow hughes contrast against pitch-black lipstick to create an allure. Make sure you blend the eyeshadow well to keep the look soft, and lightly line your lower and upper lash line with a soft black eyeshadow.
Final Thoughts
Whichever makeup looks you decide to try, we know you will totally rock them! Remember, emo is all about your self-expression, not perfection, so feel free to play around to create a look that expresses how you feel.
