How to: Winged liner

Almost every day at work, I have a customer that asks me how I get my liner the way I do.
I like wearing a winged liner because it makes my eyes appear wider, and I just love the way it looks.

My personal favourite type of liner to use for a winged out look is gel liner. I find you can make a smooth line and you can go over your previous lines with it without it clumping like a liquid liner does. 

You can go as thick or as thin as you want, I like to keep it about half the thickness of my eyelid so that it doesn't cover my full lid.

This is just my way of doing a winged liner, there is no right or wrong way of doing so. Keep in mind that it does take some practice and a steady hand to get it right, so don't be discouraged!

The liner I'm using is Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner ($26 CAD). I love this liner because it comes in a variety of interesting shades, and it lasts all day. And I mean, all day. But you can use whatever gel liner you like best!

The shade I'm wearing today is Cobalt Ink, a beautiful deep blue shade. I like it because it's different than a typical black shade. I find it more wearable for every day. 

You'll also need an eyeliner brush. I'm using the Quo angled liner brush ($13 CAD). For ages I had been using just a basic angled brush, but switching to this style was the best thing I ever did for my liner. You have so much more control over where you're putting it, if you haven't tried it I highly suggest it! (This brush is also great for concealing small nasty zits!)

Starting off with a bare lid (obviously), you can prime it if you'd like but the liner I'm using stays put without any help.

I start off by placing some liner as close to my lashes as possible, not worrying too much about shape starting off. For every day I don't bring my liner all the way in to my tear ducts, I typically start it where the colour of my eye starts. 

I then take my brush and swipe a line outwards as if it were one of my eyelashes. I don't go too far with this line, just until it meets the line of my crease.

Then, I take my brush from the top of the line we drew, and bring it in to the middle of my eyelid. Again, not worrying too much about the shape just yet.

Now is when I concentrate on shape. I start by filling in all of the holes and deepening the colour. When using gel liner you can go over your line as much as you want without the consistency getting weird. 

Basically, you just want to create a smooth line that goes with the natural shape of your eye. Remember, this does take some practice. If you mess it up, just keep a Q-Tip with some make up remover on it close by. You can always smooth out the line that way.

Pop some mascara on and you're good to go! 

Hope you try it out for yourself if you're not comfortable with winged liner!

Thanks for reading!

-ellewar