Winged Eyeliner aka Cat Eyes...How To

After the "Put Your Face On" Party over at The Stories of A to Z, I was asked to do a tutorial on how to do a Winged Eyeliner aka Cat Eye.  I'll be using black pencil eyeliner for the eye with the shimmery tan eyeshadow and black liquid eyeliner for the eye with the blue eyeshadow.    

 

Tip:  I apply eyeliner to my top lids with my eyes open.  This is especially important when you extend the eyeliner to the outer edge - when you close your eyes, the lid is a straight line but the actual shape is rounded.  Keeping the eyes closed will distort rather than follow the natural shape of the eyelid.  Make sense?  Also, don't draw a hard, line in one swoop.  Starting with the inner part of the lid, I use gentle strokes to slowly draw the line.  Following the line but with a less intense stroke, curl up the line past the outer corner of your lid.  You can always add more, but start off conservatively until you achieve the amount of wing you want.

 

Next, line the bottom of the eye.  You can line the outer edge or line your entire eye, depending on the level of drama you want to achieve.  The challenge with pencil eyeliners is that there always seems to be a gap between the eyeliner and base of the eyelashes.  To fill it in,  I go over the eyeliner with a black eyeshadow.

 

With liquid eyeliner, I start with the inner corner of the eye and slowly extend the line around my lid, keeping my eyes open.  Again, closing your eyes to apply eyeliner to the top lid will distort the line versus following the natural, rounded shape of the eye.

  

After the initial line, I go back over it to make it thicker and to feather out the edges into the shape and amount of wings I want.  A light touch while extending the eyeliner and making wings is very important.  Lastly, I lightly line my bottom lid.  Tip:  It used to be a popular thing to line the inside of the lid, but this makes the eyes look smaller and can irritate your eyes.

The Winged Eyeliner or Cat Eyes look has a dramatic/retro feel to it, which is a lot of fun to play around with.  For these photos, I teased my hair into a beehive and put on orange lipstick.  For a more subtle look, you can use brown eyeliner with a smaller wing at the end.  Remember:  Follow the natural shape of your eye and start off lightly, adding to it until you achieve the look you want.  

  

I think I like the beehive look!!!  My husband did a double take when I came downstairs to work on this post - he saw my hair way before the rest of me.  I did a funky fix to these bottom photos to add to the retro feel.

I hope this tutorial is helpful and inspires you to try something funky with your make-up!  I welcome any questions or requests for other tutorials!