The Twuestion comes care of one Miss CHELSEA PREEN @chelspreen who says/asks: yay! Love twuestion time! What’s the best way to use eyeliner? As in, inside lid or on top of lid??

And here is my Twanser:

Regarding the “yay” – Yes! It IS exciting, isn’t it! I agree. Eye liner is a real marvel.

Elegant, top lashline liner only for Miss SCARLETT. Delightful.

Regarding the best way to use eye liner, it depends on what look you want. And for the sake of brevity and keeping things simple, I will JUST be focusing on traditional pencil eye liners, not gel ones and not shadow-used-as-liner either, because I will end up writing too much and boring the haggis out of you all.

Handy hint! When applying (any) eye liner, I find it best to tilt your head back on an angle and look down into the mirror. You can see more of the lashline this way.

1. For a gentle, I’m-not-really-wearing-eyeliner, and you want your lashes to appear fat and luscious-as, look, dot eyeliner between the lashes on the upper lash line. This is a Very Old Makeup Artist Trick and they all swear by it.

2. When you are a bit rubbish at getting it right on the lashline, do the line first in a light brown pencil. Then go over it with black. Like tracing when you were in Year Two.

3. For an ANGELINA JOLIE style wing, do your usual line, then when you get to outer corner, stop. Now start a new line at the very end of the bottom lash line, and follow the exact angle that bottom lashline would follow if it kept going up to meet the end of your eyebrow. Just go a cm or so. Fill in the little triangle between the two lines. (Or, cheat with that aweso winged eye liner trick.)

Another handy hint! For massive staying power, follow your eye pencil line with a gel liner (the ones in the little pots, such as MAC Fluidline) or a wet liner brush dipped into eye shadow. Go troppo and do a metallic shadow over your black kohl, for example. TROP. OH.

4. For a profoundly flattering look that will confuse everyone because they will think you’re wearing liner, but not be able to see it, waterline. Waterlining is when you apply liner to the inner lashline. We often do it on the lower lashline, by pulling down the bottom eye lid and lining in that fleshy bit between the lashes and the eyeball, but when you do it up top, it’s even better-er-er. The trick I find, is to use a soft, gentle kohl texture and to gently pull up your top lashline with your pinky, and then line. It will be VERY STRANGE when you first do it, and your natural instinct will be to blink like a crazed fool, but persevere, man! It takes some practice. But then you’ll nail it and you’ll wonder how you ever did without it, and why you would even bother with liner on TOP of the lashline. As well as looking dainty and making your eyes look bigger with just mascara, it looks smashing when you’re doing a smoky eye and you waterline the top and the lower lashline, too. And if you find it’s smudging and fading quickly (which can happen), just line your eyes as you would regularly and then when your waterlining disappears, you’ll still have those lines in place.

Handy hint! Keep your pinky in place when you’ve done your waterlining for a few seconds to allow the eye liner to set. And, use a waterproof eye liner to extra staying power.

Important hint that is more of a rule! Do NOT use liquid liner or glittery eye pencils when you waterline. You’re begging for irritation.

Sweet liner prodz I like:

Rimmel Soft Kohl
Maybelline Unstoppable eyeliner
Revlon Colorstay Liner
Chanel Crayon Yeux (waterproof)
Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-In-Place Eye Pencil

Do you waterline?
Do you have a super giga awesome eyeliner we need to know about?
Do you think less of me for eating pizza twice today? You shouldn’t. You would have done the same thing in my position. (“Hungry.”)

Posted by: Zoe Foster

Comments (30) Print Send to friend Share

Tags: classic, eyeliner application, how to, kohl, simple eye liner, waterlining, waterproof eyeliner