On a Wing and a Dare: Cat Eyes Tips and Tricks
When it comes to extraordinary make-up, never underestimate the power of a flawless cat-eye to instantly improve your appearance by defining your eyes and making your eyelashes appear thicker. Cat eyes are the perfect choice, no matter if you’re looking for a subtle or bold makeup design, or yea to expand your beauty repertoire to include vintage looks from the 1950s and 1960s.
Flawless Cat Eye How-To
• Before applying your eyeliner, treat your eye area to an eye cream and give it a few minutes to absorb into the outer layers of the skin.
• Using an eyeliner pencil, lightly draw the tail on both outer coers of the eye. Look closely in the mirror to ensure that the tails match. In most cases, you’ll also want the tails to gradually thin to a sharp or soft point. If they don’t, use a slightly damp Q-tip (twist the cotton head to compact the fibers) or the edge of a triangular makeup sponge to correct any imperfections.
Tip: A quality pencil will glide on effortlessly across the skin. If your pencil isn’t cooperating, warm the tip (with the cap on) in your hand for a minute before applying.
• Get close to your mirror, tilt your head back and look down. Still using your pencil, lightly draw a line right next to your eyelashes. The line should be thin when you begin and then become slightly wider as you move across the lid.
Tip: Relax your eye. If you squint, you’ll end up with a blotchy mess.
• If you want to use a pencil liner for the finished look, go back over your lines until they’re the right density and thickness and seamlessly connect with the tail. Make adjustments with light strokes of the pencil.
Tip: The skin right next to your lashes needs to be completely covered. To ensure this happens, use your fingers or your non-drawing hand to gently elevate your lid. If you see skin next to your lashes, fill it in while the lid is still slightly elevated.
• If you prefer the look of a liquid or gel liner, still use the pencil first to establish your design. Then, follow the step outlined above to fill in the lines and even out the color.
Tip: After completing your application, keep looking down until your eyeliner is dry! (usually a few seconds).
Design Tricks
• For a wider eyeliner application, draw the tail and a thin line right along the lash line, then draw a second line where you want the top perimeter line to be. Make sure both lines are seamlessly connected to the tail. Once you’re happy with the results, fill in the space between the two lines.
• If you want a two-tone eyeliner application—e.g. black next to the lashes and lilac on top—draw a black line next to your lash line and draw in the colored liner to establish your top perimeter. Make your colored line super-thin or thick, depending on your end design. Fill in the middle with black eyeliner, being careful not to overlap the colored line.
• For a stronger color application, use a liquid or a gel; for a softer application use a pencil or an eyeshadow powder. For eyeshadow powder, you’ll get the most vibrancy by first drawing the colored line with a pencil and then applying a matching shadow over it, using a slant-cut makeup brush.