Like most millennials who came of age in the Midwest during the early 2000s, my love affair with black eyeliner ran deep. Who were you if you didn't have side-swoop bangs covering an eye rimmed all the way around in kohl pencil? It was the era of Avril Lavigne and Laguna Beach, and I obsessed over Kristin Cavallari's eye makeup with the same infatuation the Internet's had for Peter Kavinsky the past week.
My taste in makeup has since graduated. (God bless Glossier.) My eyeliner skills, however, have not.
I'd probably be OK with this if it weren't for the fact that, as a beauty editor, one of the most common questions I'm asked from friends is how to do cat-eye makeup. I've interviewed the top pros in the business and I can recite all the advice they've given me over the years, but putting it into practice on myself never works, especially since I've got deep-set eyes (eyes that sit farther back behind your browbone) and hooded lids (an extra layer of skin that droops over my crease). They're both fairly common traits, yet you rarely find tips for how to actually wear winged liner on them—either the line ends up way too thick or my eyelid eats whatever I trace on it.
So in the interest of finally learning how to do a cat eye once and for all, I scoured the depths of the internet and tracked down the tricks and products that claim to make things easier for the liquid liner-inept. To keep the test as consistent as possible, I used Kat Von D's Dagger Tattoo Liner for nearly everything. (One of the hacks, a cat-eye stamp, comes with its own liner pot to dip in.) It's a new take on the brand's best-selling Tattoo liquid liner, often cited by pros and bloggers alike as the best—it's got the same formula but with an easier-to-maneuver angled brush.
Read on to see what passed the test.
Hack #1: Cat Eye Stamp
When the Vamp Stamp first came out, it literally blew up the internet. A trick that makes getting perfect winged liner as easy as stamping it on? The makeup dummies everywhere were rejoicing.
Navigating the food-grade silicone stamp is fairly foolproof: Each end of the wand features a stamp that creates an outline for your cat eye: one for your left eye and one for your right. You press the stamp into an eyeliner pot that comes with, then match the end of the stamp to the corner of your eye. Again, it's only a blueprint though. From there, you have to go back and trace in the spots it didn't cover and extend the line over the rest of your eye.
The Vamp Stamp also comes in different shapes: The Vavavoom (in small, medium, and large) gives a more dramatic line; while the Vixen gives a thinner, more subdued flick. I was going big or going home, so the medium-sized Vavavoom it was.
On the very first dry run, I missed the corner of my eye and stamped far too much inside. The second pass on the other side was a bit easier, but filling the line in from there was tougher than I expected. The end result was indeed dramatic, mostly because the connecting line covered half my lid.
Rating: 3.5/5. I think with some practice getting the motions down could be easier. Also, next time, I'm going with the Vixen.
Hack #2: Scotch Tape Stencil
Both friends and Internet commenters alike have sworn by the ease sticking a piece of Scotch tape along the side of your eye, which creates an idiot-proof guide that you can trace against. The first obvious pro to this trick is that, unlike the stamp, it's free. The downside is that as you're sticking tape on top of your very delicate eye skin, you begin to realize how sharp tape is and worry it'll slice your eyeball. (No? Just me?)
The placement is, indeed, foolproof to figure out: You want the edge to follow diagonally up from the bottom corner of your eye. Tracing was also a no-brainer. I could be as messy and wobbly as I needed and the guide did the work for me to keep the line crisp and sharp. Pulling the tape up after is slightly uncomfortable. Note to self: Don't stick it down so hard.
Rating: 4/5. I think a felt a new wrinkle form.
Hack #3: Makeup-Wipe Sharpener
So this hack masquerades in a few different forms—micellar water and an angled brush; makeup remover and a pointed cotton swab—and is the one pros most often tell me: There's no shame in going back over a messy line with remover to clean it. I went with the easiest version, since I'm more likely to have makeup wipes on hand than anything else. Also: fewer steps.
In retrospect, I probably should have taken the extra effort though. Even after folding the wipe into a taut square, it was hard to get the line super precise without smudging eyeliner everywhere. From a distance, the result looked great. Close up? Ehhhh.
Rating: 3/5. There's a reason the pros use Q-tips.
Hack #4: Winged Liner Stencil
Another genius invention that shook the Internet when it launched: Beautyblender's Liner Designer Pro. Physically, it's a little piece of rubber that looks vaguely like a guitar pick. But in practice it's so, so much more. Each side of the tool is shaped just slightly different to help create varying angles and liner shapes. It comes both with a direction pack that's easy to follow and a mini magnifying mirror with a pop-socket on the back so you can stick it anywhere.
I worried that using my left hand to hold the stencil in place would throw off my balance, but it actually made it easier to guide. The rubber is soft, so it isn't irritating like the tape, and the mirror made it so I could actually see what I was doing. I ended up with a very subtle, very natural-looking flick that looked perfect with my eyes open.
Rating: 5/5. I did it! I got a wing!
Hack #5: Dotted-Line Technique
Last up: the dotted-line technique. This is another trick pros have offered up to newbs like me over the years to (1) help make your wings match and (2) make sure your line is straight. First you want to start with the outside dot. The trick is to go out horizontally from under your eye (as if you've got an invisible piece of tape there) and place a dot where you want the wing to end; the gist is that you'll be able to see from the start if the two points on each eye are even. Next you want to place a few dots all the way along your eyelid to create an outline, so from there, it's literally a game of connect the dots. Not gonna lie: Not even ashamed I have to make it so simple a kid could do it. This makes winged liner way more manageable.
Rating: 4.9/5. The technique itself is brilliant and looks perfect when my eyes are closed. The 0.1 deduction is for when they're open. I really do think it's just my eye shape.
