Winged eyeliner has been a trend in the beauty community for decades and is still very popular. It is one of my personal favorite pieces of a makeup look. However, for all the beauty it can bring, it can also bring pain. Pain in the form of a ruined look, or the burning you get when you try to rub it off and reapply it for the seven thousandth time. I have been doing makeup since I was in sixth grade, and still have problems with my winged eyeliner. My wings may be so long they can touch the moon, or so thick that I could be a sassy raccoon. I swear that eyeliner can smell fear and will make my entire arm shake while it laughs at me, daring me to try and accomplish a wing. Trust me, I have tried to brave it with my shaky arm, and it never turns out well. Although every once in a while, I win the game and my eyeliner looks amazing, and it makes me look like I know something about makeup.
I used to be a fan of trying these “hacks” to make winged eyeliner simple and perfect every time. Let me tell you something… only one of them work for me, not one other has made my eyeliner game stronger. The only one that worked for me is the one where you apply tape to the corner of your eye and use it as a stencil. Although my one recommendation with this one, is to put the tape on your hand, and then put it on your eye. This is because it will not tug and pull as much on your eye skin, and if you do your base first it will not disturb the makeup underneath as much. This trick has helped me with making a very sharp, and precise lower line. Overall, this was the only trick that has worked to help my eyeliner game and helps my eyeshadow game as well.
One that did not work for me is the trick where you paint eyeliner on a flosser, and then press it to the area you wish to apply it. It made a mess on my outer edge and moved around way too much because it is flimsy and bled everywhere. The next one was taking a spoon, placing it on the eye, and tracing it with the eyeliner of choice. Again, I had issues with it bleeding, which occurred up and beneath the spoon.
Last, but not least, I tried the trick where you put a bobby pin at the corner of your eye and try to fill in the tip where the two tips part. Just like the other two “hacks”, my eyeliner bled all over my eye and made my wings look so bad. Overall, I am not a fan of these “hacks” to make winged eyeliner easy, I feel like they instead make it harder. The cleanup process after I did these was not fun and really ruined a possibly good makeup day. In my overall opinion, I believe you are best off using tape if you need something to help you along the way.
I am very much a liquid eyeliner gal and have not yet gotten the hang of gel or pencil eyeliner. My favorite liquid eyeliners do not bleed, smudge, or flake by the end of the day. I have a couple of recommendations because I have tried a lot. My all-time favorite liquid eyeliner is the NYX matte liquid eyeliner in the shade black. It makes winged eyeliner very easy because it is extremely precise and does not do any of the things I have mentioned above. I have repurchased that eyeliner three times and have yet to regret purchasing it. My favorite gel is the L’Oreal infallible lacquer liner, again in the shade black. I like to use this one on my tight line because it conceals my pasty pale eye skin. Eyeliner is hard, but I have found my eyeliner game to be stepped up by these products and the tape technique.