e.l.f. Discovery

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LIQUID EYELINER

By Jeanette Crutchfield

Ask people which makeup product intimidates them the most and quite often they will reply with liquid eyeliner. There are many videos and articles on how to apply liquid eyeliner sharing their stories and frustrations saying liquid liner is messy, hard to use, smudges, and smears. But, with the right products like waterproof eyeliners with precision brushes and the right guidance, liquid eyeliner can become one of your favorite products in your eye makeup arsenal. Read on to learn how.

Types of Liquid Eyeliner

Ultimately, all types of eyeliners are designed to do the same thing: enhance your eyes. Liquid liners in particular are richly high-pigmented and dries smudge-proof to last all day.  Using liquid liners can be more precise than eye pencils making them perfect for intricate eye looks with long-lasting definition to stay put all day. The liquid format also makes for an easy-glide application with no tugging or pulling around the eye area. The main choice when searching for liquid eyeliners is what type of applicator you want to use - a super-fine precision brush or a felt-tip pen.

Brush-tip Liquid Eyeliners

A brush tip liquid eyeliner typically comes in a tube with a wand (similar to a mascara or lip gloss) that screws into it. The brush tip is typically ultra-thin. This type of applicator allows you to create a multitude of looks. You can press softly and get a super thin line or you can press harder to get a thicker bolder line. To minimize this, wipe the brush on the edge of the liquid liner opening to remove any excess product before applying it on your eyes.

The benefit of using a brush eyeliner is the beautiful lines you can make with it. Because the brush is more flexible than a felt tip, you can create looks reminiscent of calligraphy on your eyes. Because you dip the brush back into the liner every time, your brush is always fully loaded every time you use it helping create a more uniform look.

Felt Tip Liquid Eyeliners

A felt tip liquid eyeliner pen is exactly as it sounds. Think of an ultra-fine permanent marker. In this type of liquid liner, the liquid is inside the pen which feeds directly into the felt-tip. The felt-tips can vary in length and flexibility such as a firm felt tip or soft.

For beginners, a liquid eyeliner with a felt tip is much easier to use than a brush. The felt tip doesn’t separate like a brush and can give a nice and neat sharp line every time. Where brushes are better for swirls, felt tip liners are better for straight, graphic lines.

How to Tightline Your Eyes with Liquid Eyeliner

One look you can do with liquid liner is the “tightline” look. The idea behind tightlining is to put a lot of emphasis on defining the lash line without using thick eyeliner. A lot of times, a no-makeup makeup look will use a subtle tightlining to define the eyes without using a lot of eye products.

First, you never want to try to put on one single swoop of liquid liner across your lash line. Even professionals have difficulty making one swoop look uniform. Instead, use small strokes and remeber liquid liner tends to dry quickly. The easiest way to tightline your eyes with liquid liner is to “connect the dots”. Look at your individual lashes and think of the base of each lash as being a “dot”. Using your liquid liner and using very short strokes, connect all the “dots” together. You won’t see a long pronounced eyeliner shape, however, you will see your eyes more defined and your lashes looking thicker. Try it on one eye first and compare the two to see what we mean. You can also do this technique on your lower lash line as well if you want more definition.

3 Steps How to Do a Cat Eye With Liquid Eyeliner

Liquid eyeliner is ideal for creating the famous cat eye look! Every season there seems to be a trend in cat eyes making the tails longer or shorter or making the lines thinner or thicker. Below are some tips to help you make sure your cat eye is at the right angle and even on both eyes. Before you start, decide if you want a thin cat eye or a thick one and decide how long you’d like your tail to be. Always start with small strokes and build up your cat eye as you go. Getting the right angle of can be the most frustrating. To achieve the perfect cat eye look, you can use an eyeshadow brush as a guide. By holding the brush at the side of your nose and through the outer edge of your eye, you can determine the angle that will look best for your cat eye. This technique is commonly used to determine the end of the brow, but it can also help you create a precise and even cat eye shape.

  1. Using your liquid liner, put a few small dots along the eyeshadow brush angle going only as far as you’d like your cat eye’s tail to go from the outer corner of your eye. Then, just as you did with the tightlining, connect the dots with soft short strokes.You can add thickness to your tail if you’d like, but add thickness to the top of your tail, not the bottom. Adding thickness to the bottom will change the angle of your cat eye.

  2. Once you’ve completed your tail, it’s time to connect it to the rest of your eye. You have a few options:

    • Traditional/retro: Connect the tail all across your lash line and into the inner corner of your eye.

    • Modern: Connect the tail to just the outer edge of your eye and leave the rest of your lash line bare.

    Regardless of which look you are trying to achieve, use small strokes to slowly build up the thickness of the line.

  3. To ensure that both eyes match, use the same technique as the other eye. Start with small strokes and gradually build up the thickness of the line. If you're using a brush tip, make sure to wipe off any excess product on the tube opening every time.

Related Article: 5 Colorful Eyeliner Looks