How thick is your line?

  I love low resolution cameras 
  Originally uploaded by dynamist.

I am almost always displeased with my eyeliner. I don't have a steady enough hand to do liquid liner, and my pencil lines always strike me as way too thick (or too thin). As ever, I am a woman of extremes.

How about you? Any tricks up your well-starched sleeves?

Comments

[Beth]

I used to have the same problem - hand too shaky for liquid and pencil is just bleurgh, but I found the solution about a year ago.

You need a long handled, fine brush and any cream eyeliner you like - this way is a breeze. It works well with eyeshadow and one of those "turn your shadow into liner" products too!

Give it a try!

[Jewels]

I have previously mentioned how easy I find ModelCo magic water kit (turns shadow into liquid).

But I also love this techique
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-get-eyeliner-into-your-eyelash-line.
If you use soft kohl doing this way gives you a really smokey rock star look

[Medina]

Ever tried a flat acrylic brush and gel liner? You hold in horizontaly against your lash line kind of pressing the colour on in short lines. Gives a very fine neat line which can be built up using the same technique.

[Jackie Danicki]

Medina, I have a Bobbi Brown gel liner like that which I've never used in the manner you suggest. I will have to give it a go (once I fly back to London, where I've left it - bits of my life in three cities at this point!).

[Jacq]

I'm exactly the same - terrible shaky hands mean that liquid eyeliner leaves me looking like Alice Cooper. So I forego the precise line alltogether, and just put a thin kohl line on, and then smudge it. I find that this makes my eyes look fairly decent.

[betty]

Use a good eyeliner brush and powder eyeshadow in a dark color. Press the shadow into your lash line.

[nancy]

I have used Maybelline liquid eyeliner since high school. The brush is very fine, very workable; it goes on easily, not too thick. The eyeliners I find impossible to use are the ones that are like felt-tip pens.

[MJ]

Ditto to Beth. I am also too shaky for any liquid or gel brush that comes with the product, and I like a fine line, but I've found that the long fine bruch picked up in the watercolor brushes dept of an art supply co is perfect. It's long enough to balance my hand against my face and still have a lot of brush length - somehow more of this makes my hand steadier, while those little eeny weeny things that come with the product are way too short and amplify the hand shakes.

[Rachel]

I am a make-up artist and the two tops complaints are always how to get the perfect liner and long wearing lips. I have worked with dozens and dozens of products and what I have found that works for just about everyone is gel liner. I recommend Bobbi Brown’s gel liner. It wears all day no smudges or smears and it's super easy to apply. The next most important item is the brush. I highly recommend Trish McEvoy's eye lining brushes ( I recommend ALL her brushes, they are the BEST). You will get the most use out of an angle brush. It allows controlled precision for all those shaky hands out there.

[version girl]

I use the technique Medina described but, I use an angle brush and a dark shade of powder eye shadow. The effect is soft and smokey. Ooh la la.....

[nenuca]

I use this thick liquid/paste thing from MAC ... Fluidline! I love it, it's very waterproof and not that hard to apply when you use an angled brush. The texture helps application a breeze and with the brush mistakes are almost unnoticeable.

[Franziska]

With fluid eyeliner one eye always looks good and the other doesn't. I don't know why.

The best eyeliner I have ever had (and I still use it) is Boots 17 Soft Liner Pen. It's so easy to use as it is like a nice pen with a soft tip that doesn't release too much eyeliner.

[Alice Bachini-Smith]

I use them all, but liquid and creams take longer. What I often want is a pencil because it can go on so quick, and be smudged up for mistake-hiding if necessary. Lately I've noticed that with paler colours it matters a lot less how good your eyelining is. People used to wear browns and khakis a lot more in the 90s and earlier, but now everyone is in black, which makes things harder to get right- but my current favourite is a gold eyeliner from Urban Decay, which goes on soft then sets in place, and it's very pretty and flattering and almost impossible to mess up.

[lauraw]

I tried the technique at Jewels' link, above, and I love it!

I use a retractable pencil and it looks so much better than how I usually do it.

Thanks for the tip Jewels!

[s]

I have no new insights beyond what has been said into liquid liner (except that I love the felt-tip one from Boots and my left eye application always sucks way more than my right eye...)
The reason for this ramble is the method described in the video in one of the above comments... I saw the video and tried it. Very true, lashes do look rather lovely, and application is almost idiot-proof. However, intolerable raccoon eyes as of 10am, WOW. I guess it is because the eyeliner goes on the inside lash line instead of outside lash line? That method seriously needs a waterproof liner, good grief! Not sure if that exists, soft kohl waterproof pencil...? If I were still in high school, I think I would have been tempted to ask mom to let me stay home the next day, so as not to face the retrospective embarrassment... ha!

[Leslie]

I am a HUGE fan of Urban Decay's Liquid Liner. I love the variety of colors and the applicator. When I first started using liquid liner I found this method helpful...Take an eyeliner pencil first to your eye, but only make small little dots or dashes along your lash line. Then proceed to "connect the dots" using the liquid liner.

[Jewels]

Hee hee
Maybe I like racoon eyes LOL, but in all honestly the video doesnt tell you to use kohl for the technique, and I suspect you are correct about it working well with waterproof.
I just personally find the soft smudginess you get with kohl looks good on me :, but that does me some maintainence during the day.

[tien tsin]

Hey, I was like you before. I felt my lids weren't made for liquid eye liner and when I tried it failed badly. But I tried again and I finally got it. Don't be afraid to draw a thick line because it is easier to make it straight. My eyes looked way better and I've used liquid ever since. You can do it!

[Meg]

I used to have that EXACT problem. Then i discovered Smashbox. I now use the Jet Set Waterproof Eyeliner with the brush #21. The eyeliner comes in a variety of colours and is creaseproof and waterproof so is extremely long-lasting. The brush is fine and is arched for ease of application. I seriously doubted it would be any good but i definetely recommend it!

[Lynnderella]

I have tried lots of different liners, lately many from Japan. The B+C Makemania Solid Black Liner 201 at ichibankao.com is AMAZING! It is like a marker, and allows me to draw a very delicate, thin line that can be built up or easily corrected. It is the only liner I have ever used that I didn't get fed up with and give away or throw away. Ichibankao includes shiping in price, so I think this is a reasonably priced solution. If you live near a Japanese market, sometimes there are cosmetics available there too. I found this liner in Katagiri, NYC and at the Mitsuwa Mall in New Jersey.

[msjean]

i pencil first w lancome retractable, then go over it w lancome liquid felt-tip. pencil allows you to draw it neatly, then it's easy to just follow the line with the liquid. (just like tracing a drawing w pencil first before using ink).

also i do a blunter line w the pencil and a finer line w liquid. the slight pencil outline that remains visible works the way a "smudge" does to soften the line.

[Eve]

I have used the Shiseido liquid eyeliner for years now - I think it's called pen liner or something similar. I have a shaky hand too, and this is the easiest product I've used