Five tips on how to apply the perfect eyeliner

Applying eyeliner is a skill that needs to be mastered over time (Photo: Courtesy)

A full makeup look isn’t really complete without eyeliner. It’s what brings the whole look together because it draws in subtle attention to your eyes.

The interesting thing about seeing others do their eyeliner in makeup tutorials is that it always looks so easy and seamless. That is until you actually try it for yourself and that’s when disaster happens.

Turns out that doing eyeliner is a skill that needs to be mastered but don’t worry because these tips will show you exactly how you can apply your eyeliner perfectly without the touch of a pro makeup artist:

• Prep your eyes

Our skin has natural oils which keep it moisturized. However, this doesn’t help when you’re trying to do a winged eyeliner look because it will easily smudge away after a short time.

For your eyeliner to pop, prep your eyelids by applying a translucent powder so that the oils are soaked up. The liner will easily glide and stay put for hours.

• Assess your eye shape

Knowing your eye shape is one of the most important secrets of applying eyeliner correctly. Maybe you have been trying to follow a tutorial for someone with an almond eye shape when you have a more hooded structure to your eyes.

If you want it to be as accurate as possible, focus on applying your eyeliner in a way that complements your specific eye shape.

The perfect eyeliner must have some mascara on for some dramatic effect (Photo: Courtesy)

• Start with an outline

A cat-eye is a bold choice that could add a dramatic effect to your makeup. It’s one of the trickiest looks to do because it’s very frustrating when you have to start over after messing up the angle.

An easy way to get you started is by following your lower lash line as a guide, where you carefully draw a faint extended line from the lower lash line on each eye. The lines should be angled towards the outer end of your brow but it all depends on your eye shape too.

Follow up by drawing a line on the top lash line and join it with line you had extended from the lower lash line, then fill in. You can do either a thin, subtle cat eye or a thick, dramatic one where you fill in more on the eyelid.

• Try different eyeliner types

You have the option of trying out gel eyeliners that come with a brush for application, liquid liners that either come in a small pot with a wand or a pen-like eyeliner and finally pencil eyeliners that you can sharpen and reuse many times even for a smokey eye effect.

Everyone has their own preference so you have to try for yourself and find out which one you’re most comfortable with. The best option for a more precise process is the liquid eye liner that comes with a pot and wand.

• Practice!

It’s almost impossible to draw your eyeliner perfectly when you’ve just started. You might have to redo your winged liner a couple of times but that’s okay because you’re still learning.

It will take time before you figure out the correct angles for your eye shape through constant practice.