What’s your best eyelining trick or tip? Share the wealth!
I still love this tip, which I know I’ve repeated at least half a dozen times: take a pencil eyeliner and dip it into a gel eyeliner for the ease of pencil application with the payoff of gel.
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Something I never, ever skip- going over the liner with a matching eye shadow. Makes any line smoother, less harsh and gives it staying power.
Waterline your eyes and line in between the lower lashes to make them look full.
Never expericenced this “ease of pencil application” thing you’re describing. I hate using pencils!
get a bent eyeliner brush. it’s amazing.
That’s a good tip, Christine! When I do very graphic eyeliner, I sometimes use measuring tape. One millimeter can make the difference!
I like that tip Christine!
I don’t wear eyeliner much because I have extra oily and hooded eyelids. When I do, I always set my eyeliner with a like eyeshadow. For special occasions I use Benefit’s She-laq to seal the eyeliner. I don’t think I will repurchase it again but it was a good investment for myself.
For me, it’s finding an eyeliner, whether pencil, gel, liquid, etc, that works for me and just sticking with it. I’ve spent so much money trying “new” products, only to find myself going back to the same old products. I will “stray” from time to time if a color really stands out, but for my basic, everyday black, I stay true to only one.
Use a gel liner instead of liquid is waaay more easy to apply and you can use a thin liner brush or a bent one 🙂
MAC Blacktrack became my HG liner instead of liquid liner 😀
MAC Blacktrack is great. I use it mostly on my lower lash line with a square brush (similar to MAC’s 212), just pressing the tip of the brush again my lashes. It leaves a very smooth and precise line that doesn’t move all day 🙂
Use a slanted brush and work from the outside in. It never works for me to load up the brush and line in one swoop; I start in the middle to do the outer half (so the heaviest line is to the the outside) and then when the brush has a little less product, work towards the inner corner in a series of light taps. This way I get a perfectly straight line every time.
I just started doing that thanks to your tip, Christine. Gel liner always baffled me, but I pretty much have it down now. I just purchased a very cheap pencil liner (any will do, really) and use it just for applying the gel liner.
Yay!! 🙂 This tip was life-changing for me, too!
Plus, it’s one less brush to clean, LOL!
That is definitely a perk 🙂
For me, it’s to find the right brush for you. So many people suggested a slanted brush-but it turns out that I really struggle with a brush like that. I much prefer very small, thin, narrow brushes (for gel liner).
For liquid liner, I like the brush on the UD. Again they are thin, so I feel like I have a lot of control.
When I line my upper lashline, I always line it with my eye partially closed. I then draw the line from near my inner corner to my outer corner. When I reach the outer corner, I open up my eye all the way. The pencil follows along (going all the way to the outside of my eye), and ends up lining the outer corner really nicely. After, I take the pencil and put it near my inner corner, and do the same thing. (This time, the pencil should be moving towards the inner corner.)
Mine is find 2 liners that work for you in color and formula – make those the stables of your liner wardrobe. For me it’s Bobbie Brown gel liner with an angle brush from BE. Then my other fav right now is a gel pencil by Tarte – Amazonian clay liner. once you find one or two that work for you, stop wasting $ trying others. Stick with what works for you until you find it’s discontinued.
I visited the doctor today and the nurse and I talked for 20 minutes about how I got my cat eye liner so precise. She really wanted to learn. That morning I didn’t have very long to do anything other than the basic foundation, setting powder, slight contour, Vex all over the lid, MK lenghtening mascara w/ their primer (LOVE) and just Coastal Scents new Divine Line that doesn’t move at all. I used a small tiny angled brush from Senna did the usual come out, create the mini triangle then fill it in. It is what I do afterward that makes such a difference. I use a “cosmetic” q tip (the pointed end) and use non oily makeup remover to ever so slightly go along the very bottom just outside the lashes where it gets a little thicker. It makes it so precise. I hope this helps for anyone the struggles and may get it a bit too thick just at the edge of the top lashes or on it way out. Just use that q tip with non oily makeup remover as you don’t want an oily face that will ruin your makeup. Hope it helps:)
Thirty five years of eyeliner – It is all about the right brush. Gel is a big improvement over liquid in my book, but it’s always been about the right brush, and another girls Perfect may be your racoon eyes.
I’ve done some trial and error, inexpensive brushes are fine. I prefer synthetic, short short handles, but you may not. It’s no Holy Grail trudge, out of three or four one will be hangover fool proof! That’s the one.
Lip brushes do great liner quite often, but dedicate it, don’t mix. I’m using an inexpensive lip brush for fat lines in gel, it’s fool proof for me.
I love to wing out my eyeliner. If I use gel or liquid eyeliner, I use the outer corner of my bottom lash line as my guide, starting point. Draw the line up to how high I want my flick, make a triangle, fill it in. Then I start lining my upper lid in short strokes from the inner corner of my lid to meet the fick, wing, triangle whatever you call it. I get a lot of requests on how I wing out my eyeliner. I may try out some of the other techniques listed below.
From Kevin Aucoin–RIP!
Slanted brush (sometimes used for eyebrow fill-in or gel liner), “swatted” on your mascara wand and used like a gel liner.
Awesome question is awesome. It’s not very helpful, but let me share my one and only tip that works for me, and one more I learned in a YT tut. Pencil. I know, I know. But I cannot make gel/liquid/cream to work. Draw the line with pencil (Nanos are best,) sharpen it again once I’m done and then the wing. Simple as that. I might draw with liquid over it, or finish with a liquid sealer. After giving up on everything else, this is the only thing that works. And I just can’t do without my cateyes! (Retro chic FTW.)
The second one is, draw the wing with a light-colored pencil, or something like Benefit’s Eye Bright. See, if you make a mistake, it’s easier to erase. Once you get it right, you can line over it.
Just realized it’s almost the same as Christine’s tip (which sounds a lot better!) *facepalm*
It’s all about the brush. My personal favourite is a very very thin one with a bent barrell. So from bottom to top it’s handle, silver barrell and the brush hairs. It looks like you maybe sat on the brush and bent it or something but it’s so worth it for the most carefree, thin line you’ll ever get! Sonia Kashuk makes one for target. I think it’s called the bent liner brush. I also like the angled liner brush for thicker lines.
my tip: When you’re doing the bottom line, subtly drop it a little lower than your lash line in center. I mean VERY subtly, but you want there to be a gentle curve that ends up with the dead center of the line being a little bit lower than it naturally would be. This gives the eye a very rounded and open look, and really gives the eyes that whole Zooey Deschanel vibe. Make sure you put mascara on your lower lashes, too.
nice tip, i’m going to try this!
People ask me a lot about my eyeliner and the only thing I can say is:
Practice, practice, practice!
Try every method, find out what you like and practice until you get the hang of it. A few things are helpful: a good product, a good brush (if you’re going for gel or liquid) and tons of q-tips ;).
i have been marking out the bottom of wing shape with a quick tap of black eyeshadow on a flat definer brush by sigma. i find the brush is a perfect length for a wing, and i can line it up evenly extending from the outer corner of the eye. Then i draw over it with a liquid liner marker from outside in. then i can just fill the wing in, usually with my eyes open. If the bottom angle and length is somewhat symmetrical, the wing + line pretty much looks the same, even if it is a little off.
OMG you changed my life! I am using Pen Eyeliner for 2 years now and the line is always very light, no deep black 🙁
I have tons of liquids and gel liners, but they never worked for me. Also tried different brushes…
now using gel liner with my Pen just worked by doing it the first time. Thank you SOOO much!!!!! 🙂
YAYYYYYY!