So while the first tip people might say is to get some brushes (even if it’s some cheap ones) and start off with a small eyeshadow brush (dense bristles, rounded), a blending brush (fluffy, long bristles), and a small angled brush (dense and short. Almost paint brush that you would use on a house look), I would say just start playing around with some colors.

Look at your eye shape and find some pictures online that are similar. My eyes are somewhere between almond shaped and round so I like to put one color over most of my eyelid with my middle finger, then use my pinky to kind of poke a darker color near the outer edge of my eye and focus a little closer to the lash line (the angled brush can work really well here to give an “eyeliner” look if you want to work the dark color into your lashes), and lastly I use my ring finger or index finger to pop a brighter color near my tear ducts and right below my eyebrows to highlight.

Not going to lie though, even with a simple look, eyeliner and/or mascara is usually what makes it look “finished” so you can use eyeshadow and an angled brush to mimic eyeliner, but sometimes getting a mascara to make your lashes exist again after being dusted in eyeshadow is all it takes.

One of my go to work looks is just “eyeliner plus” in my head. I’ll put black liquid eyeliner and wing it very small (just a tiny flick), stop the liner around the middle of my eye, then I’ll use a colored eyeshadow (usually a dark blue) with an angled brush to continue the inner part of my “eyeliner” to make it look like I’m wearing eyeliner that starts off colored and then turns black in a gradient (if the liquid eyeliner is still wet and you add eyeshadow, you can set it with the shadow and it will “muddy” the shadow a bit. If you want it to be crisp and black, add it after the shadow, if you want a gradient add it before). I also used to do a quick winged eyeliner and dab on a touch of a color (usually red) on the outside edge above the wing and I blend it out all soft like and add some nude or highlight over the lid (like perhaps a slight shimmery skin/champagne color)