Hello, Lady Bethezda here from Bethezda’s Preoccupations. Luna has graciously asked me to do a guest post for you guys. Enjoy!

Ever wondered how to get a perfect winged eyeliner effect? Have trouble placing your wing or getting it straight? I have a few tips and tricks here that will hopefully help you on your way to the perfect winged eyeliner.

First you’ll want to gather your tools.

Choose which type of makeup brush you are comfortable with using. I prefer to use a short angled brush most of the time but I also like a bent liner brush and sometimes a straight liner brush. It kind of depends on how much coffee I’ve had that day and how steady my hand feels. Here I have pictured #37 Studio Gear brush (bottom), elf angled eyeliner brush (center) and a Paula Dorf eyeliner brush (top). The Studio Gear brush (found at Ulta) is a dupe of MAC #266. I used to be a makeup artist for Studio Gear so I have a lot of their brushes. They have lasted me over ten years though so I can vouch that they are good. This angled brush is my go-to for eyeliner and eyebrows but different people have different preferences which is why I have showed three types of brushes that would be good to do a winged liner.

I suggest starting out using a dark powder to draw on your eyeliner. That way if you make a mistake it’s easier to remove and start over. Once you like the placement of the powder you can go back over it with a gel or liquid liner. I’m using a cheap Maycheer brow duo I got off of ebay. Any dark powder or shadow will do.

Now onto the placement of your wing.

I’ve started here with a neutral eye using Detrivore White Chapel and Nyph. I have no eyeliner on in this picture. (Disclaimer: I do have my eyeliner tattooed but as you can see from the pic, it has almost all worn off. Soooo not worth it, just FYI).

Now to place the wing, use the end of a thin makeup brush and draw an invisible line from the outer corner of your eye to the outer edge of your eyebrow. This is the “line” you will want to follow for making your wing.

Now with a bit of powder on your brush, try to follow the invisible line you just “drew”. Aim for taking the wing out toward the end of your eyebrow. As you can see from the pictures I have heavily hooded eyelids so I find that any wing I draw gets covered with my eyelid unless I take the wing out pretty far. You will have to experiment with how far you would like your wing to go. I like to have a dramatic look so I sometimes take mine almost all the way to the brow. It’s just something you’ll need to play with.

Now from the end of the wing, draw another line back toward the upper lash line on the lid.

And fill in the triangle that you have created. Also go ahead and draw your eyeliner onto the rest of the upper lash line.

If you are worried about getting the line super straight another little trick is to use Scotch tape. Just place a piece of tape on the same invisible line you have “drawn”.  

This is also great to do when you are using loose dark eyeshadows or eyeshadows that have a lot of loose glitter. It keeps the fallout from collecting under your eyes. I personally don’t like to use tape too often because it does pull on the delicate skin under the eyes. I’ve got enough crows feet forming naturally, I don’t need to help them along! But…for a special look I will bust out the tape.

Now just draw your line along the edge of the tape like above. This way though you don’t have to worry about keeping your hand steady.

Once you are happy with how your liner looks you can go over it with a gel or liquid liner. Here I’ve used Physicians Formula gel liner in black and then added two coats of MAC Zoom Lashes mascara.

Now carefully and slowly pull the tape off and you should have a nice crisp line.

A good rule of thumb is to always keep a few q-tips and some eye makeup remover nearby when you’re doing your makeup for quick cleanup. Or, if you’re like me and need to wear a pretty heavy foundation and don’t want to make “holes” in it you can use a q-tip or small concealor brush dipped in your foundation to whisk away small mistakes. This is also how I clean up my brows since I draw them on.

Once you’ve got the hang of it you can start to get crazy and creative with it. I like to add another line on the bottom for a “double wing” effect. Just remember, the more that you practice, the easier it will get.

I hope that this tutorial may have helped some of you. If you have other suggestions I’d LOVE to hear them. I’m always amazed at the great little tricks my readers give me.

You can check out my full blog at Bethezda’s Preoccupations HERE. Thank you so much for reading and a SUPER BIG THANKS to Luna of toxid-lotus for allowing me to share with you guys.

Cheers!

Have you seen Sigma’s new Dry’n Shape System[1. affiliate links] for makeup brushes? They just released it! I haven’t obviously tried it yet, but I’m really interested in it. I’ve been eyeing those brush guards for quite awhile now, but never actually purchased them. Mostly because between my cat and 3 year old I imagine I won’t have many left after a few days. This however looks right up my alley. What’s it designed to do you ask? Well let me tell you! This was made to completely dry your brushes in 4-6 hours, AND it re-shapes them for you. There’s a neat little video you can watch with a demonstration.

Taken from the website:

The Dry’n Shape provides the necessary pressure to bristles to quickly and efficiently remove water from every fibre. The fabric used to shape the bristles was specially engineered to accelerate water evaporation, resulting in a faster drying time for your brushes.

How do you use? Simple my friend, or at least it’s supposed to be! You wash your brushes like you normally would in brush cleaner or whatever you so choose, I personally wash mine with dish soap mixed with some grapeseed oil. Then you gently press out the extra water and place your brushes into the smallest band that your brush will fit into. You’ll want to make sure that the bristles are firmly compressed. Then you just wait 4-6 hours for the magic to happen and Voila! Dry brushes! It’s $29 from Sigma, which is a pretty good price. Oh and remember if you spend $30 or more you get a free gift, who doesn’t love a free gift? You can also get $10 off their bestselling premium kit. Don’t forget Sigma ships worldwide! Just a heads up also, I’ll be receiving a brush for review soon and also giving one away. So you should be looking forward to that!