TUTORIAL: Perfect Cat Eye Winged Eyeliner (Liquid Liner)

Ah, winged eyeliner. It's super flattering, makes your peepers look wider and your eyelashes appear thicker. Win. Win. Win.

It's a rad technique to have in your back pocket when you're undecided on what makeup look to rock, but it's also one of the most difficult styles to perfect.

Think smudgy panda eyes, uneven flicks, thicker liner on one side than the other... There are a lot of things that can go wrong with winged liner.

So that's where I come in!

I wear winged liner on an almost daily basis and I have a tip or two up my sleeve that will make creating an even cat eye effect a whole lot easier. So let's get started!

Also, please do excuse the quality of some of the images in this post. Blogspot decided to randomly make some of them look oddly dark and grainy in the upload, sorry about that!

Taken By Surprise Tutorial: Perfect Cat Eye Winged Eyeliner

1. First up, you'll need a good quality liquid liner - one that won't smudge or smear and have preferably a thin, pointed brush tip for precise lining.

My favourite is the Maybelline Hyper Glossy Liquid Liner in "Black" (though the brown is quite lovely too). This baby ticks all of my boxes and I've gone through three of these already and keep coming back to it. The Rimmel London Glam'Eyes Professional is also quite good if you don't want a shiny finish.

Maybelline Hyper Glossy Liquid Eyeliner in 'Black'.

2. Next is my winged liner secret.

When applying liquid liner, lean your hand against your cheek.

What? That's all I have to do? Yes! Trust me, this makes everything. So. Much. Easier.

Having you cheek to lean on helps to stabilise your hand so you don't get shaky, which will create an uneven line. So basically you want the fleshy part of your palm to be resting against the side of your mouth on your cheek. Thank me later.

3. Now onto actually lining your eyes! Starting from the inner corner, slowly draw a thin line to halfway across your lash line, staying as close to the lash line as possible!

If you can do this in one motion (why are you reading this post, you little pro!), perfect, but if you're finding this difficult, use short strokes as they're easier to control.

4. Then just finish the line until your entire top lash line is done. Whoop whoop, we're getting there!

5. Then starting from the outer corner of your eye, draw a short line in the direction towards the end of your eyebrow (about a 45 degree angle). Wow, look at you! That's the beginning of the wing!

6. From the tip of the little line you just drew, connect that point to the liner along your lash line, which will create a cute lil sideways triangle. Aww!

7. Here's the fun part... Colour that little triangle in! Once you've filled in the space with your liquid liner, you should have a clean, sharp point.

If it needs a little cleaning up, grab a cotton bud/Q-tip and dunk it in some eye makeup remover and gently wipe away any messy edges. Easy fix!

8. Now, we don't particularly want such an obvious pointed triangle shape, so apply some of your liner along the top of the triangle to soften the line and make the transition from the liner on your lash line to the wing a lot more subtle.

9. Want a sharper point? Place the tip of your liquid liner at the end of the triangle (which will create that sharp point) and drag the pen in towards your eye. If you draw outwards, it's a lot messier and harder to control, trust me on this!