day 05 - "when your eyeliner is on point, your life is on point."
Yes I did really steal today's headline from that fake Confucius quote from Tumblr. It seemed fitting.
Jess/empressearwig asked me to talk about eyeliner and tips I have for today.
I started wearing makeup "for real" when I was sixteen or so; by for real I mean things not just like the Smackers lipgloss I bought from the grocery store. My Mom taught me a bit, and I remember my favorite set was this Almay shadow for green eyes. Since then I kind of learned by trial and error and looking at YouTube things; I've found this person here to be helpful in her tutorials because she has the Lorac Palette and that's how I found her, but she also does a lot of other makeups too.
For this post, I thought it would be best if I broke it up by types of eyeliner that I've used. That might be the most helpful and organized way.
Pencil/Kohl Eyeliner:
So this is the eyeliner I learned how to wear makeup from. And it's still probably my favorite even though I'm using my liquid liner pen a lot these past few weeks.
I have two brands that I basically use and recommend:
-One is Clinique's Kohl liner in black coffee.
-The other is Rimmel's liner in their creamy formula. It's got the smudger on the end. I have it both black and brown.
The Rimmel you can get at your drugstore or Ulta. It's cheap in comparison to others, and it works really well. It's got great lasting stay. And the smudger on the end. Plus you roll it up basically to get more.
The Clinique is more expensive, but it's the best pencil I've ever used and I'll never use another now. That black coffee is a perfect brown for my green eyes.
What I love about pencil liners is that you can smudge them and get a more imperfect look. Gel or liquid will give you that magazine editorial perfected look, but a pencil you can blend and smudge more into your shadow. Or even without shadow, so it's a bit of a messier look. Which I like sometimes.
The best way I go about using these is:
1) Relaxing my entire face as best as possible. It sounds dumb and easy, but actually requires more effort and thought than you think. I find blinking and widening my eyes several times helps.
2) I go from my inside of my eyelid to the outer. And for a pencil it's a bit easy for me so I don't do much other than sweep across. As close to my lash line as possible.
3) If I want it wider, then I go over it again.
4) And then I use the pad of a finger to stretch the skin under my lower lid so I can get the waterline there. I only do half of my line on the bottom.
That's it! I do the reverse when I'm doing gel if I'm wearing eyeshadow as well; I'll go over that later. Here, I do my liner and then do my power shadow on with a brush, blending over so that the pencil liner blends in together. It makes it look more messy. If I'm using brown liner I pair it with tans and golds and creams in shadows. It makes a smoky look that's good for my green eyes.
Gel liner:
I got into gel this summer while I was in D.C. The humidity needed something that would stay on my eyes for work. I'd been wanting to try gel liner for a while, but didn't do the push.
The trick I've found for gel liner is all in the brush. A brush matters. How fine you can turn the end matters. One thing I would advocate spending money for if you need to.
OR, you can use what I do is that I bought Maybelline's gel liner and it comes with a brush. That is surprisingly really good. The Maybelline comes in four colors, and I have the black.
Gel liner takes a bit to get used to. And there's two ways basically to do it that I've found works best for me. Both require me to be like on top of a mirror though. Which again looks and sounds a bit stupid.
Method One:
1) You don't want a ton of the gel on your brush. I usually dip into the pot and then wipe/tap on the sides.
2) Then I basically play connect the dots along the lash line.
3) I start from the inside and work my way out. And then connect in.
Method Two:
once I got better I started doing this.
1) Gel on the brush. Then I take the thinner side, and angle the brush so the end is slightly tilted against my lash line.
2) In one sweeping movement go across.
Now, to get the winged takes a bit more effort.
Tape helps! It sounds so dumb, but you can take a tiny piece of tape and put it on your skin, slanted of course, and then you follow the tape line with your brush, and fill it back down in.
To free hand the flick or swoop, you can start at the "tip" of your swoop and draw a line down to connect. And then fill it in how you want. It takes a lot of practicing and I always keep q-tips and my makeup remover on hand. I usually don't get it right, and have to erase some and go again, OR my swoops don't match up on both eyes. SO, IT TAKES A BIT. And it's never perfect.
Liquid Liner Pen:
This is my new favorite thing.
I got it when I purchased the Lorac Pro Palette. It was a black pen that was part of the set and came for free. This is another type of makeup I've wanted to try but because of the price of them I've been hesitant. I can say I was not disappointed at all though. I've asked for the Stila set of four colors for Christmas as a gift, so hopefully I'll have those to play with as well.
For me, the pen is so much easier than the gel. I don't have to worry about a brush or clumps or anything else like that. I find it super easier to use for winged tips also. This is the ultimate way to get that straight line look that even with the gel and a brush I couldn't get always.
But for a pen, it's more in the wrist.
1) Just relax your eyes and face.
2) Tilt the pen so it's above your eye and lash line.
3) Press down with the tip and trace across. You can do the connect the dot method as well, but it's not as necessary with the pen because it's easier to do.
4) The amount of pressure that you put on the pen creates the thickness. More pressure = thicker.
5) The swoop is easier here too because all I really have to do is position the pen and then press down sideways. It basically fills it in for me and I just touch it up a bit.
I do the reverse here when I'm using shadow than I do for pencil liner. Here I put down the primer, let it dry. Then I blend my eyeshadow how I want it. Finally, I do the liner. It makes for a nicer effect against the Lorac or Naked3 palettes.
Eyeshadow as a liner:
I've done this a bit before, but more recently since I started using the Lorac and Naked3 palette. The darker colors in the palettes can be used themselves.
Actually with the Naked3 I like to use that blackheart last color as a liner. I use it in the crease as a shadowing effect, and then use it as a liner itself. It says all day and is really nice because it's a bit muted. But it has those sparkles in it. I use the smaller end of the brush that came with the Naked3. And just tap it out across the lash line and blend it in.
Which if you want to know what blended looks I've done and liked with the Naked3, I'd be happy to share those too. Or what others I use to blend.
I hope this helps you or helps someone! Or was just an interesting read. I'm happy for any questions if something's confusing or I didn't cover something you wanted to ask.
Jess/empressearwig asked me to talk about eyeliner and tips I have for today.
I started wearing makeup "for real" when I was sixteen or so; by for real I mean things not just like the Smackers lipgloss I bought from the grocery store. My Mom taught me a bit, and I remember my favorite set was this Almay shadow for green eyes. Since then I kind of learned by trial and error and looking at YouTube things; I've found this person here to be helpful in her tutorials because she has the Lorac Palette and that's how I found her, but she also does a lot of other makeups too.
For this post, I thought it would be best if I broke it up by types of eyeliner that I've used. That might be the most helpful and organized way.
Pencil/Kohl Eyeliner:
So this is the eyeliner I learned how to wear makeup from. And it's still probably my favorite even though I'm using my liquid liner pen a lot these past few weeks.
I have two brands that I basically use and recommend:
-One is Clinique's Kohl liner in black coffee.
-The other is Rimmel's liner in their creamy formula. It's got the smudger on the end. I have it both black and brown.
The Rimmel you can get at your drugstore or Ulta. It's cheap in comparison to others, and it works really well. It's got great lasting stay. And the smudger on the end. Plus you roll it up basically to get more.
The Clinique is more expensive, but it's the best pencil I've ever used and I'll never use another now. That black coffee is a perfect brown for my green eyes.
What I love about pencil liners is that you can smudge them and get a more imperfect look. Gel or liquid will give you that magazine editorial perfected look, but a pencil you can blend and smudge more into your shadow. Or even without shadow, so it's a bit of a messier look. Which I like sometimes.
The best way I go about using these is:
1) Relaxing my entire face as best as possible. It sounds dumb and easy, but actually requires more effort and thought than you think. I find blinking and widening my eyes several times helps.
2) I go from my inside of my eyelid to the outer. And for a pencil it's a bit easy for me so I don't do much other than sweep across. As close to my lash line as possible.
3) If I want it wider, then I go over it again.
4) And then I use the pad of a finger to stretch the skin under my lower lid so I can get the waterline there. I only do half of my line on the bottom.
That's it! I do the reverse when I'm doing gel if I'm wearing eyeshadow as well; I'll go over that later. Here, I do my liner and then do my power shadow on with a brush, blending over so that the pencil liner blends in together. It makes it look more messy. If I'm using brown liner I pair it with tans and golds and creams in shadows. It makes a smoky look that's good for my green eyes.
Gel liner:
I got into gel this summer while I was in D.C. The humidity needed something that would stay on my eyes for work. I'd been wanting to try gel liner for a while, but didn't do the push.
The trick I've found for gel liner is all in the brush. A brush matters. How fine you can turn the end matters. One thing I would advocate spending money for if you need to.
OR, you can use what I do is that I bought Maybelline's gel liner and it comes with a brush. That is surprisingly really good. The Maybelline comes in four colors, and I have the black.
Gel liner takes a bit to get used to. And there's two ways basically to do it that I've found works best for me. Both require me to be like on top of a mirror though. Which again looks and sounds a bit stupid.
Method One:
1) You don't want a ton of the gel on your brush. I usually dip into the pot and then wipe/tap on the sides.
2) Then I basically play connect the dots along the lash line.
3) I start from the inside and work my way out. And then connect in.
Method Two:
once I got better I started doing this.
1) Gel on the brush. Then I take the thinner side, and angle the brush so the end is slightly tilted against my lash line.
2) In one sweeping movement go across.
Now, to get the winged takes a bit more effort.
Tape helps! It sounds so dumb, but you can take a tiny piece of tape and put it on your skin, slanted of course, and then you follow the tape line with your brush, and fill it back down in.
To free hand the flick or swoop, you can start at the "tip" of your swoop and draw a line down to connect. And then fill it in how you want. It takes a lot of practicing and I always keep q-tips and my makeup remover on hand. I usually don't get it right, and have to erase some and go again, OR my swoops don't match up on both eyes. SO, IT TAKES A BIT. And it's never perfect.
Liquid Liner Pen:
This is my new favorite thing.
I got it when I purchased the Lorac Pro Palette. It was a black pen that was part of the set and came for free. This is another type of makeup I've wanted to try but because of the price of them I've been hesitant. I can say I was not disappointed at all though. I've asked for the Stila set of four colors for Christmas as a gift, so hopefully I'll have those to play with as well.
For me, the pen is so much easier than the gel. I don't have to worry about a brush or clumps or anything else like that. I find it super easier to use for winged tips also. This is the ultimate way to get that straight line look that even with the gel and a brush I couldn't get always.
But for a pen, it's more in the wrist.
1) Just relax your eyes and face.
2) Tilt the pen so it's above your eye and lash line.
3) Press down with the tip and trace across. You can do the connect the dot method as well, but it's not as necessary with the pen because it's easier to do.
4) The amount of pressure that you put on the pen creates the thickness. More pressure = thicker.
5) The swoop is easier here too because all I really have to do is position the pen and then press down sideways. It basically fills it in for me and I just touch it up a bit.
I do the reverse here when I'm using shadow than I do for pencil liner. Here I put down the primer, let it dry. Then I blend my eyeshadow how I want it. Finally, I do the liner. It makes for a nicer effect against the Lorac or Naked3 palettes.
Eyeshadow as a liner:
I've done this a bit before, but more recently since I started using the Lorac and Naked3 palette. The darker colors in the palettes can be used themselves.
Actually with the Naked3 I like to use that blackheart last color as a liner. I use it in the crease as a shadowing effect, and then use it as a liner itself. It says all day and is really nice because it's a bit muted. But it has those sparkles in it. I use the smaller end of the brush that came with the Naked3. And just tap it out across the lash line and blend it in.
Which if you want to know what blended looks I've done and liked with the Naked3, I'd be happy to share those too. Or what others I use to blend.
I hope this helps you or helps someone! Or was just an interesting read. I'm happy for any questions if something's confusing or I didn't cover something you wanted to ask.