All About Eye Liners and Tips

Eyeliner Types
Eye liners come in pencil, liquid or powder. Pencils liners can be found in an assortment of sizes and colors. The fatter the pencil, the more smudged look you'll get, the smaller and harder the pencil, the more precise a line you’ll get. Pencils are versatile since you can use them for sharper, defined lines or create a smudged, smoky look and any combination in between. Liquid liners are a bit tricky to apply, but once you master a perfect line, you will probably love the look. Liquid liners will give a more dramatic, defined look. Powders go on softer but when mixed with a liquid, can go on darker. They must be used with a good pointed brush to apply a thin line.

Liner Application
Top Lids
Apply liner as close to lashes as possible-you don’t want to see any skin color between your lashes and liner. For pencils and powders you can scrub the color right into your lashes so you don’t see the skin tone-particularly useful for very fair complexions with sparse lashes. Smudging pencil liner will help avoid a harsh look. To make eyes look longer or wide-set, start mid-lid and extend liner just past the end of eye, tapering upward.
Bottom Lids
Apply pencil or powder liner sparingly as close to lashes as possible then smudge to avoid a harsh look and help balance the eye shape. To make eyes look longer or wide-set, start mid-lid and extend liner just past the end of eye, blending upward, or just add a small smudge under eyes at the outer corner and smudge upward. For most people, lining the entire bottom lid looks very unnatural, heavy, throws the shape of eyes off balance and makes eyes look smaller so stick with lining no more than half way in on the bottom. Liquid liner doesn’t usually look good on bottom lids since it can look too harsh and can be difficult to apply, but if you do want to try it, hold outer corner of lid taut and apply using quick short strokes if you have trouble making an even line in one thin stroke because of lashes in the way.

Eye Lining Tips
-The thicker the brush for liquid eyeliner, the thicker the line will be and the harder it is to manage a perfect line. Wipe excess liquid liner off on the rim of the tube when you pull the brush out. If the skin on your lid tends to crinkle, the line will not turn out straight.
-To help you get a fine straight line, hold eye lid taut at the outer corner of eye and apply in one long, smooth stroke starting at the inner corner. Always apply liquid liner after shadow application and allow to dry before applying mascara.
-Using oily or slick pencils to line the lower lashes will smear and smudge. Most pencil liners wear off easier, so set it to last longer and prevent smudging by softly brushing some powder shadow over it in black, brown or charcoal.
-Don’t use eyeshadow as eyeliner unless you use a brush with a small, precise, fine-tipped point. And mixing the shadow with water or Visine before applying will give you a better line and a good substitute if you don’t have any liner.
-Don’t use really bright colored pencils or eyeshadows to line the eye. It’s distracting and automatically looks like too much makeup. All you see is the makeup and not your eyes. Also don’t make liner the most obvious part of your overall makeup.
-Never circle the eye with dark or bright color. Both are too obvious and create an eyeglass-style circle around the eye.
-Don’t line the inside rim of the lids, between the lash and the eye itself unless you have really large eyes. It makes eyes look smaller, it’s messy and can be unhealthy for the cornea.
-Over-blending and spilling your eyeliner onto the skin under the lower lashes will make dark under eye circles look worse. Go easy with liner on top lids as well since it will bring attention the dark circles.-Never apply thick or heavy eyeliner to small or close-set eyes or eyes with small eyelids.
-To help correct droopy eyes (your eye shape droops downward at the outer corners), line upper lids starting at the middle of the lid in a very thin line and getting thicker at the outer corners and wing it upward and outward to visually lift eyes and don’t line bottom lids.
-Extend liner past the outer corner of the eyes and upward for a cat eye look, but be careful not to extend too far or you may look like an Egyptian Pharaoh.
-Soften the tip of a freshly sharpened pencil by gently rolling it across the back of your hand or between your fingers. You can also bring a dull, flattened pencil to more of a point without sharpening it by gently pinching and rolling the tip between your thumb and forefinger. You can also salvage a tip broken off a pencil by placing it back onto the pencil, gently pinch, push back toward pencil and roll between fingers to meld them together.

See other categories for “Makeup Tips” and “Eyes” for more ideas and for thousands more tips and information: Beauty and the Budget at VirtualBookWorm