Small-eyed ladies rejoice! There is hope in our approach to a winged eyeliner. The cat-eye has always been one of my favorite looks, but it’s not without effort. The thing is, my lids aren’t very big (aka they’re hooded), so the wing of even my best-applied cat-eye rarely peeks out like it does with girls who have heavier eyelids.
One of my girlfriends asked me recently why I don’t rock that look more after seeing a picture of me with winged eyeliner. I told her that I didn’t get much bang for the look unless I spent a lot of time creating an illusion of bigger eye size with subtle tricks. Knowing she thought it looked so good did inspire me to investigate how in the hell I could get the look I loved without looking like I applied a messy wing without attention to my lid.
(Related: Unique Eyeliner Styles, Shapes, Ideas, Tips, And Hacks)
That’s a tiny violin problem, but a problem nonetheless. Luckily, for those of us with smaller eyelids, there are solutions! I myself have tested and tried these cat-eye tricks, and they were really helpful!
First thing to remember: a thicker line is a good solution. This ensures that your cat eye will always be seen, so don’t be afraid to go heavy here!
Still clueless? Don’t worry! Here are a few great videos for us hooded eyes ladies:
If you’re tired of all that black, you have options! Now that the summer is upon us, a bold, colored wing might be a great option as well. Think pink, dark red, orange, or turquoise. Here’s something to get you started:
To accompany your winged eyeliner, you should remember a few other things to help enhance the size of your peepers:
- Using liner on the top and the bottom has a tendency to smoosh your already-small eyes together. Instead, go for a white eyeliner pencil on the bottom.
- Forget about excessive eyeliner on the bottom of the eye.
- Use a shimmer right under your brow.
- Create the illusion of a bigger eye by applying shimmer under your browbone. An iridescent shadow will work wonders, especially if you’re going a little heavier with the eyeliner and/or dark shadow.
- Don’t be afraid of mascara. Go crazy with the lengthening and volumizing mascaras, which will make your eyes pop:
- Experiment with a double wing, which can create more action around the eye: