how to get the perfect wing

Here’s a fun fact for you: The shape of your eyeliner wing can completely change your face. Seriously! Don’t believe me? Let me show and tell you :)

I started practicing eyeliner in May 2018. It took about 8 times to get it right and it wasn’t even that amazing. But as with everything in life, practice made better. I improved and learnt different ways to transform my face with eyeliner.

This picture is the first-ever winged eyeliner I ever put on my face. I remember that specific night very well. It was about 8 pm… I was bored and procrastinating the many assignments that were due soon. I stumbled across an eyeliner video on youtube and decided to give it a try. So I rushed to the bathroom, grabbed my sticky tape and my liquid eyeliner brush that I never touched and got to it. It can be embarrassing to look at. I mean between the bad concealer job, the clumpy mascara, the untamed eyebrows and the not so great eyeliner I could mock my past self forever. It’s almost funny to remember how excited I got when I did this. But I’m glad my year 9 self decided to take a photo because I get to reflect on how I’ve immensely improved!

It’s not been an easy road. In fact, even to this day, I have to rub a messy wing off from time to time and try to apply it again. But here are my top 10 tricks to get your eyeliner from ehhh to jaw-dropping:

Tip 1 – Setting

There are various ways to assist you in applying eyeliner to make it easier, especially for those starting out. Having good lighting is essential, fun fact: you need to be able to apply your eyeliner (shocking right?!) It can also be helpful to see the small details in applying eyeliner with a mirror that has a close up of your face.

Tip 2 – Right product

I personally find that starting out with a liquid eyeliner instead of a pencil eyeliner is like learning on a manual car – although a lot more challenging, it allows other products to be easier to learn and adapt to applying in the future. But there are different options such as gel eyeliner, eyeliner stickers, eyeshadow liner, and pencil eyeliner. [if using a liquid eyeliner brush make sure it is as thin as possible]

Tip 3 – Less is more

This is sort of a metaphor that applying eyeliner is just like baking. When baking it’s always better to add less of the ingredient – same as eyeliner. You can always add on if you don’t have enough, but it can become difficult if you have too much. Make sure to start with super thin and soft lines to fill in later.

Tip 4 – Dot to Dot

This is a super cool trick and method, especially if you are just starting out on the tricky liquid liner. Draw dots along the lash line, then connect them, and fill it in, just like a colouring-in book!

Tip 5 – Sticky tape

As ridiculous as this sounds just hear me out. When starting off I could not give my eyeliner that gorgeous flick to line it up, so I used sticky tape. By sticking it on really tight and then tracing a line from there, it helped with my confidence to eventually get comfortable in drawing my own line.

Tip 6 – Flick up!

On the same note as the sticky tape, it’s essential to start from the corner of your eye and flick the eyeliner up rather than work your way down. This can allow for a pointer end of your wing which allows a more neat and dramatic wing.

Tip 7 – Steady hand

Having a steady hand is really important when applying eyeliner. It is a delicate sport and your hands can’t shake (I’m very guilty of this). To help me out, resting my elbow on a flat surface and leaning it on the wall that my mirror is on helps keep my arm balanced and steady. Another quick tip is to rest your pinky on your cheek to keep your hand super steady.

Tip 8 – Watch tutorials

I’m no makeup expert, but there are people on youtube that are! They can help you by identifying your eye shape and assist in finding the best-shaped wing to accentuate your facial features. I personally recommend “Tina Yong’s 12 common Eyeliner Mistakes” https://youtu.be/mXfYZXRQZ3o

Tip 9 – Experiment

Experiment with different shapes, lengths and thickness in your eyeliner to find your desired shape. For me, I prefer more of a straight than my past very dramatic flick up. You can also experiment with different eyeshadows and different eyeliner colours like pink, blue, green, go nuts!

Tip 10 – Practice

I know this sounds super annoying to say, but I found my largest and fastest improvement in myself when applying eyeliner every single day in quarantine out of pure boredom… also to look good in my tiktoks. The more I practiced, the more it became second nature to me, and eyeliner became something that took 20 minutes to 2 minutes.

Hope these tips help you ♡

– lauren