Hello and Welcome!

I hope that you’re having the most incredible week and have achieved all that you set out to! I’m very busy this week and next week, which is exciting – I’ll still be posting though, don’t you worry.

Pretty much every time I upload a selfie or makeup picture to Instagram, someone comments on my winged liner. Therefore, I thought that I would create this post and write about my tips and tricks for how I do my eyeliner.

This is not a post that will tell you the ‘dos and don’ts’ of winged eyeliner – I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to do makeup, it’s completely personal preference. I just thought I’d write this post to give you my tips and tricks for how I achieve the liner that I want, in the hopes that maybe it will help you achieve the look you want to create.

1. Do not fear the liner

I think this is probably the biggest tip that I have. Be confident going into it, the eyeliner can smell fear. If you’re even the slightest big nervous or unsure then it tends not to go according to plan. Whether this is because your hand is shaking slightly or just because you’re unsure where you’re going with it.

Eyeliner can really make or break a look and you don’t want to ruin your eyeshadow by messing up the eyeliner (I’ve been there). So be confident and go slow.

2. Take your time

Going slow leads me into my second tip which is to take your time. If you’re in a rush and you’re not confident doing liner then skip it. If you aren’t really feeling it, then don’t do it.

I tend to work in small sections doing small lines, starting from the inner corner and getting slightly wider going towards the end. I then do a line from my bottom lash line up towards my eyebrow, then do a line coming from that and joining to the top, before filling the whole thing in. This isn’t a particularly quick process.

Doing the liner slowly allows you to be more precise and avoid mistakes, as does doing small sections at a time. Ignore all the videos of beauty gurus putting on eyeliner in one quick sweep! There’s a reason I’ve never uploaded a video of me doing my eyeliner and that’s because it isn’t anywhere near as smooth and fast of a process (but if you do want me to upload this to my Instagram then let me know).

3. Hold your breath

I know this might seem like an odd trick to get perfect eyeliner but it really helps. I tend to find myself holding my breath for a few seconds when I’m doing liner. I find it gives me more focus and allows me to do small lines without moving.

This is only possible because I work in small sections, if you plan on doing your eyeliner in one movement and not taking breaks then please don’t hold your breath!

4. Sit down and rest your arm

I didn’t realise how much of a trick this was until I was at my boyfriend’s and tried to do my liner stood up with no support for my arm – it was a struggle!

I have a desk that I do my makeup at so I am sat down and I tend to rest my arm on the desk whilst doing my eyeliner. This allows me to be more stable and have more control.

If you absolutely have nowhere to sit down then that’s fine, I find I can also do eyeliner stood up. However, resting your arm/hand on something is non-negotiable in my opinion. Having your arm floating in the air makes it more difficult to control, combine this with trying to do eyeliner anyway and you have a disaster coming!

You can also rest your hand on a mirror to do it, I used to do this. However, be aware to move away from the mirror when you breathe or you’ll fog it up!

I’ve definitely found that sitting and resting my arm is the greatest way to have control over where the liner is going.

5. Get close to a mirror

As I said in the previous point, you can rest your hand on a mirror (so you’re close to it too) in order to be more stable.

However, even if you’re sitting down and resting your arm on something, I would recommend getting close to a mirror. I find a free-standing mirror works best for this, but if you’re comfortable then you can use a hand-held one and hold it close to your face (I find it difficult to do my left eye this way though, since I’m right handed).

The closer you get to a mirror, the more you can see exactly what is going on.

6. Erase mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes, so have a makeup wipe or a wet cotton bud (I prefer a makeup wipe) to hand to clean up any mistakes. You can also use concealer and a flat brush to do this, but I find it’s more risky.

I’ve been doing eyeliner for probably around 10 years now and I still make mistakes that I need to erase. I think the way that social media is at the moment, makes it look like everyone does everything perfectly first time and that really isn’t true. Whilst some of you may think that my eyeliner is good, a lot of work goes into that, and if I didn’t erase all the mistakes I make, then I can guarantee that no one would like it as much as they seem to.

7. Choose the eyeliner that works for you

This is so important! If you’re new to eyeliner, or are still unsure what type of eyeliner works best for you, then I’d recommend trying out a bunch of different affordable eyeliners to see what you prefer.

Personally I used to religiously use the Natural Collection liquid eyeliner. Whilst I found this to be amazing when I was using it, I absolutely cannot use it now and find it super difficult. I then moved to using brush pen eyeliners such as the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner or the NYX Epic Ink Liner. These are similar to felt liners but have brush bristles. I am now really into felt tip liners and have been really loving the Collection ‘Extreme 24 hour Felt Tip Liner’ (it’s only £1.99).

When I became cruelty free in January I decided to buy a whole bunch of different affordable eyeliners from Superdrug (including the Collection one that I now use daily) to find one that was good. I appreciate that not everyone has the money to do this, but I think it’s certainly better than buying an expensive liner that everyone recommends (such as the Kat Von D one), just to find that it doesn’t work for you.

Once you find the type of eyeliner that works best for you, things become slightly easier. So if you’re really struggling with liner then it could be that the type you’re using isn’t for you.

Final Thoughts

To summarise, my tips and tricks are to: find the eyeliner type that works for you, take your time, sit down and rest your arm to have better control, hold your breath and work in small sections, and get close to a mirror to truly see what you’re doing. You’re probably going to make mistakes so take a wet wipe to erase those, and be confident in what you’re doing. I know I have an odd number of tips and tricks, so I’m sorry if that annoys anyone as much as it annoys me, but I honestly can’t think of another one and I don’t want to add one just for the sake of it! Plus life, like winged eyeliner, can’t always be perfect and even.

I want to emphasise again that there is no right or wrong way to do eyeliner (or makeup in general), it’s up to you how you want your eyeliner to look. These tips and tricks are just here to hopefully help you get your eyeliner to look how you want it to, if you’re having some issues.

Okay this brings us to the end of this post! I hope that you enjoyed reading it, and if you have any other similar posts that you’d like to see then please let me know and I’ll make sure to write about it in the future. If you enjoyed this post then, as always, please give it a quick like. Additionally, please follow my blog if you aren’t already – you can do so using a WordPress account, or if you don’t have one then you can follow by email. I post twice a week so make sure you’re getting notified!

Love,

Charlotte (Multibendystraw)

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Check out my previous posts!

Korean Beauty Review – Beyond ‘From JEJU’ Mask
The Cruelty Free Beauty Box May 2018 Review
8 Things No-one Tells You About Wearing False Nails