You’ve worn the cat eye, now try the puppy eye. It’s as cute as it sounds.
The sexy cat eye is so ubiquitous even my mother has Taylor Swift liner right now, and for a good reason. It’s sexy, dramatic, and makes a person look all experienced and knowing. But if one wants a look that’s more doe-eyed and innocent, try the “puppy dog” eye instead.
Puppy dog eyeliner is basically the opposite of a cat-eye. Where cat eyeliner flicks up at the outer corners, the puppy dog liner flicks downwards to give the eyes a more round, wide-eyed look that will make you look like a cute, doe-eyed ingenue.
Over on Reddit’s Makeup Addiction forum, a user going by Otaythx demonstrated the look using a black liquid eyeliner and a dark brown shadow.
“Basically, it’s the opposite of a cat-eye,” she explains. “Instead of flicking your eyeliner up, flick it more downward. Then I used a dark brown eyeshadow (or you can use a pencil) to sort of shade underneath and blend into the lower lid.”
It seems easy enough, but it might not be equally flattering on all eye shapes, so this seems like a look one would want to give a test run before taking on the road. And it might take a practice test or two to get the length of the wing at the outer corner right because, according to Otaythx, if you make them too long, you could wind up going right through “cute and innocent” and into “sad eyes on velvet” territory. (But with Big Eyes in theaters, those Margaret Keene eyes could be very timely.)
“I think if you keep it subtle, it accentuates the roundness of your eye shape rather than make it look too droopy. Kind of like cat-eye; you just need to find the right angle and length to extend the liner. Too dramatic, and it can make you look really sad (I learned that on the first attempt),” she wrote. “I still like cat eyes, but it’s nice to know that there’s another option out there so I can switch it up. I like that this look is sweeter and more youthful-looking.”
It’s certainly cute, and it’s a good look to have in one’s arsenal for days when one does not want a big cat-eye.