No matter how hard you try, I’m never going to look the same on both eyes. (Your eyeliner).
When applied properly, eyeliner is able to change the entire makeup, bring it together by accentuating the eyes, giving them the extra definition and even make them look large and more alluring. But, when your eyeliner skills aren’t on point yet or if your hand gets particularly stubborn sometimes, your eyeliner may appear quite tragic, if not disastrous, and ruin the entire look.
However, you don’t have to be a professional makeup artist to apply your eyeliner somewhat acceptable. If you practice enough and use some of the eyeliner hacks and tricks mentioned below, you’ll be able to up your eyeliner game, learn how to apply it as evenly and flattering as it can be, use it to draw attention to your eyes and avoid major liner application mistakes that destroy your eye makeup.
10 winning eyeliner tips and hacks
- Pencil liner is not the easiest to start with. As the teenage me was convinced, using a pencil eyeliner is the easiest way to learn how to draw different liner looks and fix up the flaws every beginner can’t avoid. But, as it turned out, I managed to do a much better job at my liner once I transitioned from an ordinary pencil, which always made my eyeliner look dull, unsmooth and uneven, to a gel liner and a thin angled brush, which made the application much more precise and allowed the eyeliner to glide on quite easily. So, don’t torment yourself with a pencil and start with a gel liner or a liquid eye marker with a thin tip.
- Start from the wing. If you’re desperate to get your winged eyeliner right, make sure to start from the tip. Draw the bottom line of the wing by connecting the outer corner of your eye with an imaginary dot on the bottom lash line-end of the brow tail line (‘position it at the desirable angle), create the cat-eye wing by drawing the top line of its ‘frame’, bringing it onto the top eyelid to right to the eye pupil point, fill the wing in and finish it with a thin line ending at the inner corner of the eye. You may make the upper lash line appear a little thicker, and your eyes – bigger and rounder, with the technique shown on the right.
- If you have a marker eyeliner, you may align its tip with the lower lash line, point it at the and on the brow tail, push it onto the skin and end up with a cute wing just like that. Takes some practice, but saves a ton of time when perfected.
- If you’re a complete eyeliner beginner, try to stick a piece of tape to the outer corner of your eye to create the bottom line of the wing or use a credit card to trace the flick. Draw the wing toward your eye instead of starting from the outer corner to make the application easier and smoother.
- Don’t attempt applying your liner in one single move of a brush. Do the overlapping strokes to draw it as close to the lash line as you can and avoid hand slips and shakes that destroy the liner and make you start over when you have to time for that.
- Prevent your hand from shaking and creating a mess of the eyeliner. To ‘stabilize’ your drawing hand, set the elbow on the table, rest the pinkie and the outer edge of the palm on your face while you put the liner on. The level of precision will surprise you.
- Make it last. If you want your eyeliner to stay on all day long without moving around the eyelid and turning you into a crying panda, make sure to ‘seal’ it with the strong-pigmented eyeshadow of the same shade.
- Don’t hurry to rub the whole eye makeup off if your eyeliner turned out imperfect. Use a small brush and your foundation to erase the mistakes and ‘shape’ a perfect wing. Cover up the spot with eye shadow if the latter rubbed off.
- If you have hooded eyelids, never close your eyes to put your eyeliner on, but keep them open as you always do to ensure that the liner will show up exactly how you put it on. And, don’t direct the wind too high not to make it too pointy and angled, as it will only draw attention to the overlap and appear uneven. Aim for a less curved top line and the long wing that ‘extends’ the eye and doesn’t get trapped by the ‘hood’.
- Women with mono lids should try creating a thick eyeliner arch and let it dry with their eyes closed, so that when they open it, they end up with the perfectly shaped eyeliner that doesn’t transfer onto the rest of the lid.
Get your special occasion makeup done by a professional makeup artist from HireRush.com and ask him to give you some advice on which kinds of eyeliner shapes suit you best and how to draw them on your eyes.
Your article is very helpful.
But whenever I try to create a winged eyeliner, It always creates a messy look on my eyes.
Please guide me?
Thank you for your interest. I wonder, maybe it’s better to try some other makeup type? I mean, winged eyeliner is not the only one, and if you see it doesn’t look as you expected it to be, go on and try something new!