Friday, 7 August 2015

Eyeliners - Shaken, Not Stirred

Talk about love/hate.  The following are things I have to take into account when using eyeliners:-

I have hooded eyelids.
Growing older is a privilege but I am not loving my newly hooded lids.  This has made it impossible for me to do a fab wing or flick now.  I literally have to draw a lightning bolt shape on the outer corners so when I open my eyes, the line looks all joined up.  What a palaver.

  
The best I can do with hooded lids

I have oily eyelids.
Even though I use an eye primer on my oily lids, my skin becomes like blotting paper when I use an ink liner for my wings and flicks.  I get a blob instead of a point.  Sigh.

I have small eyes with small eyelids.
My eyes are tiddlers (even my favourite eyeshadow brush, MAC 217, is a little too big) so I do need a liner to enhance them but I have to make sure that my upper lash line is done thinly with a gel liner or pushed into the roots with a pencil.  If the pencil is too fat then the line practically covers my tiny lids, which in this case looks daft on me.

I have watery eyes.
I can never get my lower lash liner to stay put due to soggy eyes (they’d win the London Marathon if I let them run) and once I get to my destination, I swiftly need to check the mirror in the Ladies to make sure I haven’t got a gap where my liner once was.  And yes, I normally do have a gap even with a waterproof pencil eyeliner (my tears must be corrosive).

With pencil eyeliners, I find them either too hard or too soft (OK, so I can add ‘Goldilocks’ to that list then).  Even after warming them up with fingers, some pencils create a hard line that looks like one’s stepped off a Human League video set, not to mention you can’t smudge to soften them.  The pencils that are too soft continue to smudge throughout the day so I’m left with panda-eyes (I’d much prefer looking like I’ve had a romp on the beach…with Daniel Craig as James Bond, to be honest).

Anyhoo, what I have at home is a lovely green liner bought from KIKO last year, Glamorous Eye Pencil in Forest Green #413 (€4.20) and I was really surprised that it stayed on for the whole day and I’m even talking about my squelchy waterline. Admittedly, it did smudge underneath my lower lashes a bit (which is normal for me) but it didn’t stop me from buying 3 more Glamorous pencils (in blue, black and plum), a Smart pencil (taupe, half price €1.20) and a gel liner (€8.90) in Lisbon.   Oh and I bought one of their Crystal Pencils too in a fab glistening grey colour #06 (it was in the sale at the till and now it is out of stock).  I wasn’t thinking when I sharpened it recently - turned out it wasn’t encased in wood but in plastic and I got a shard of plastic in my eye when I used it so I will pull it out of its casing and mash it down in a pot so I can apply it with a brush instead.  I still have to touch up with these pencils but compared to a load I’ve tried (cheap and pricey), they stay on as well as they can do on such a person as me.

 KIKO Pencils 

Another product I bought is in fact a stick eyeshadow but can be used for lining the eyes too; Long Lasting Stick in Black #20 (8 Hour No-Transfer Eyeshadow, €6.90).  This is a matt shade and different to the metallic colour I bought last year (in Rose Brown #5).  Actually, #5 went into my pro-kit as it was too shiny and the colour disappeared into my own skin tone so it didn’t look great on me.  I haven’t yet worn the #20 properly (only tried it in the comfort of my own home) but it smudges nicely and if it is anything like the #5, it will stay put.  A good thing for me is seeing as I have hooded lids, I can concentrate more on my lower lash line and these sticks don’t need to be sharpened so you can get a great grungy, smoky look going on with them with a flatter nib.  Note to self: I need to organise a night out (with Daniel Craig obviously) so I can wear it.

After doing a Make Up For Ever course and trying their gel liner and liking it, while I was in KIKO, I bought their black gel liner and have been applying it as a very thin line on the upper lashes with my Sigma E11 brush.  I like it.  It's a black, black.

I have my Catrice Made-to-Stay Inside Eye in Nude which is nice to brighten my small eyes and I recently bought a Barry M Bold White Waterproof pencil for the inner corners seeing as the nude one quickly disappears into my skin tone.  Also I have the Maybelline Big Eyes too which I like due to the consistency and the size of the pencil for my lower lashes.

I do like fine felt-tip liner pens too.  Got given a Catrice one (very fine nib) in green and loved the finish and it lasted all day.  Topshop also do a great fine nibbed one.



Last but not least, the best thing for my watery, hooded, small, oily eyes is eyeshadow powder (and if I use an angled brush, I am able to do a small winged look too).  Whatever I am wearing on my lids, I bring it down onto my lower lash line as well.  Sometimes, I might use a pencil and then go over with the eyeshadow to set it and voilà!  It can last the day although I can’t blame Daniel Craig now, can I?  



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