Every Day Eyeliner

I’m participating in BlogHer’s Life Well Lived series, and this week’s question is:
What do you think is the hardest makeup trick to master and what are your tips for achieving it?

For years I had the hardest time applying eyeliner without putting on so much I looked like an angry rock star. Using a pencil I just seemed to draw harsh lines around my eyes that only ended up making them look smaller. Now I use a gel eyeliner and an angled eyeliner brush. The brush makes all the difference in the world, allowing me to get a feathery line instead of a harsh one, and making it easy to apply just a touch of liner under my lashes for a casual every day look.

I picked this technique up a million years ago when I appeared on QVC. The makeup artists there taught me a great, everyday, look that still defines my eyes. First, line the top of your eyes as normal. You can see in this closeup that you can still see a thin line of peach through my lashes and liner, which makes my lashes look thin. Just putting on more eyeliner would start to look like too much for a morning running errands, so the answer is to put the eyeliner somewhere else.

I use the angled brush to line the waterline. “The waterline” is a term I’d only heard from makeup artists, it was totally new to me, but it refers to the thin line of eyelid in between your lashes and eyeball. With a small brush you can get in there without fear of stabbing your eye with a pencil.

You don’t need to use a lot, you just need a little tint so that your lash color blends in better than against your skin tone, which in my case is quite a contrast. A small swipe on the top and bottom waterline will make your lashes look twice as full, but without the heaviness that may look a bit much when you’re dropping your kids off at school.

The only makeup I’m wearing in this picture is eyeliner. Not even a swipe of mascara. That’s how big a difference a little eyeliner on the waterline can make.

For more tips, check out the BlogHer conversation, where you can share your best tips too. Also at BlogHer, you can enter to win $250 in their latest sweepstakes.