Easy Glam: Red Lips & My Version of a Winged Liner

Easy Holiday Makeup Look:  Red Lips & My Version of a Winged Liner

Of all the makeup trends that pop up every year, winged liner seems to be the one that has stayed put (and grown in popularity) year after year.  This is also the makeup look I never manage to get right.  After quite a few failed attempts, though, I have figured out why following the winged liner trend is never ever going to work for me.  I amn't sure if I should describe my lids are hooded or droopy or just that my eyes pop out so much that my lids disappear when I am staring straight ahead 😳, but whatever combination of issues my eyes have, the fact is the only way a winged liner would look good on me would be if I walked around with my eyes half closed and my brows lifted up.  Not very practical in real life, outside of photos.  What does work for me is keeping my liner thin along the lashline and lifting it up only toward the outer corner of the eyes.  While this is not really much of a wing, it does give an illusion of elongating my eyes rather than making them look rounder/wider.  Using a fine-tipped liner/brush is essential, at least for me, since that gives much better control with the application and also helps with the tightlining.  Scroll on for more photos, products used, and an easy how-to.

Products Used:  NARS Key Largo eyeshadow quad - DHC Eyeliner - Milani Corallina blush - Smashbox lipstick (Infraed Matte) - Urban Decay Perversion eyeliner pencil

My version of a winged liner - in 6 easy steps:  

For my lids, I used a wash of golden eyeshadow, blended along the socket with a peach shade.  

For the liner, look straight ahead and mark a point where the wing will end.  An easy way to figure this out - imagine a line from outer corner of eye toward the end of the brow (1).  Where this imaginary line meets the crease of my eye, I mark the point where I think the wing should end for me (2).  Going any higher is pointless (!) in my case, because it will just end up inside the crease and I won't get a straight line anyway.

Draw a line connecting this point to the outer corner of the eye (3) and another line connecting it to the lashline (4), about one-third way in, creating a triangular shape along the outer third of the lashline. 

Fill this triangle in (5).  Using a superthin eyeliner, tightline/line along the roots of the lashes to create a very thin line all the way to the inner corner of the eyes.  Keeping the line thin avoids adding any extra width to my eyes - which is what I want.  

(6) I have used a black liner along the waterline.  Using the same shadow as used on the lid, smudge this line ever so slightly along lashline.  Finish with mascara.  I did not extend the line any further since it would accentuate the crinkles around my eyes, but if you prefer, you can extend the point of the wing more with a sharp line up from the point of the wing (follow the imaginary line from step 1).  It would look good especially if using falsies.

Easy Holiday Makeup Look:  Eyes - NARS Key Largo eyeshadow | DHC Eyeliner | Urban Decay Perversion
Lips - Smashbox Infrared Matte on lips, 

The easiest way to dress up a simple liner like this is with a red lip color, and one of my favorites is the Smashbox Be Legendary lipstick in Infrared Matte.  It's a matte, bold yet surprisingly wearable color that is also quite longlasting.  For the blush, I initially applied Milani Corallina, which didn't really work, so I borrowed a tip from the fabulous Lisa Eldridge and dabbed some of my lipstick on to my cheeks to get a blush that matched my lipstick (pat lips lightly with fingers to pick up a bit of the color, then dab lightly on to cheeks).

And that's my finished makeup look - a simple, easy take on a winged liner, adapted to suit my older lids.  As you can see in the photo below, this is how much I can "wing" my liner because most of the lid space disappears when I have my eyes properly open 😀.