Eyeliner
Okay, anyone likely to accuse me of being patronising or writing about inconsequential things should probably not bother reading this, but I did promise I'd do it. :P
There are probably about three main looks you can do with eye make-up, which I will refer to as the "Maybelline", the "Made an effort", and the "z0MG it's the Queen of the Undead Harpies" (because such names amuse me more than the standard natural-evening-Goth classification).
I'm assuming Marita is interested in the evening look, though, so I'll go with that one. :)
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Right...
This may seem strange to anyone who ends up having to redo eyeliner lots of times (and so puts it on first), but when doing eye make-up I start with the mascara. Not only because I have poked myself in the eye multiple times with many different mascara wands over the years, and would therefore probably induce runny eyeliner if I'd put that on first, but also because if you're wearing both mascara and eyeliner you need an idea of how they're going to work together: mascara by itself changes the look of your eyelashes quite a bit.
The point of eyeliner, as I see it, is to help the mascara along in making it look like you have way better eyelashes than you have. :P
After you have mascara on (and on the top set only, trust me on this), take a good look at the top set of eyelashes. If there are any paler gaps showing, use an eyeliner pencil to fill them in along the inside bit of the top lid (the little skin-coloured ridge under the eyelashes - not the pink bit that contacts the eye, obviously).
I think this next bit is what makes a difference: colouring outside of the top set. A lot of people do this, and it's really, really obvious that they have done. I think it's a bad idea to have really obvious lines of make-up - my eyeliner generally isn't subtle, but it's blended in wherever there'd be an "edge" between skin and liner, and I don't draw around the entire outside of the eye with it.
I tend to start the line about a quarter of the way from the outside cornerof the eye along the top set of eyelashes, and just colour from here to the corner. One thing that I try to do is to use this line as a way of reinforcing the mascara - just draw so that it roughly matches where the shadow of your eyelashes would be falling, which tends to mean a very thin line getting thicker towards the outside corner. Don't leave white gaps. If you don't know how you'd colour the top line, you probably don't need to - just at the corner, to accentuate where the eyelashes curl up. Wherever you start the outside line, use that as a marker for where to start an inner line to the corner as well, underneath the eyelashes (same skin as I mentioned for filling in gaps).
All of the above should help in making the top set of eyelashes look fairly full and dark. :)
Bottom set!
Very easy. Draw inside the lashes, on the pale ridge of skin near the eye. This time, stay within the lines and try to draw only on this skin all the way along the bottom of the eye. Build up the colour until you feel it's dark enough. At the corner of the eye, tilt the pencil slightly so that it brushes against and colours the eyelashes at the corner (but not so heavily tilted that you end up blackening the skin of the eye socket as well). Then, if you want, extend the line a bit so that the colour from the top and from the bottom meet at the corner in a sort of chevron shape. The tip of the shape should flick up a bit. Makes you look happier, or something. I dunno, but I prefer the flick up as pointing down makes the eyes look droopy. :P
A few small points:
I use a kohl pencil for this rather than liquid eyeliner; liquid is good if you want a really dark line but even then I usually use pencil first and then highlight the corner and lower lid with the liquid liner.
I don't usually colour the inside corner of the eye near the... pink bit like the dog's third eyelid... God help me, I can't remember what it's called, but the blobby pink thing, you know which one I mean; if you have more than one part of your eye matching that description then eyeliner's the least of your worries. :P But yes, if you look carefully at that "ridge of skin" I keep referring to, you'll notice that the clear ridge that's so nice to draw on actually stops just before reaching the inner corner. Don't colour that bit unless you're going for a very dark, high-impact look, since it also makes your eyes look smaller, and even if you put the makeup on and then change your mind, the skin looks a slightly different colour afterwards for a while. I do recommend that you colour both the upper and lower "ridges" well at their end-point, though.
For more natural (daytime), don't use eyeliner pencil on the bottom lid at all, and use tiny amounts of mascara on the most outer bottom lashes.
For less natural... meh, I don't think anyone really needs my help with that. :D
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Really, the main thing is practice. Find out what works best for you, since that's really all I've tried to do with my own makeup.
2 comments:
what, no diagrams?
and I went and bought eyeliner from m&s today. It's got a felt tip pen at one end and a blender thing at the other, but no instructions.
help!
mammy
There aren't many great things about being male, but no eyeliner/mascara/foundation is one of them... :P
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