Things I Don’t Do: Inner Lower Lid Eyeliner
By Glinda
I am, perhaps, making up a term.
I don’t care.
I have never applied any type of eyeliner to the bottom inner lower lid of my eye. It sounds like possibly one too many adjectives in that phrase, but I’m tired and I threw perfection out the window a very long time ago.
Side note, is it sad that my nine year old doesn’t really know what a thesaurus is? I mean, yeah, he’s seen then a couple of times, but has never actually used one. Ditto with encyclopedias.
Anyhoo, lining the bottom of the eye has been a trend for quite a while now, one that has gone in and out over time.
I’m firmly in the “out all the time” camp, however.
Firstly, it squicks me out. I have contacts and I would fear for their contamination. Secondly, I am of the personal belief that it actually makes your eyes look much, much smaller. If that’s the look you’re aiming for, then have at it.
But, it isn’t for me.
May 3rd, 2012 at 9:47 am
For future reference, it’s called the waterline (thank you, youtube beauty tutorials)! I will do it occasionally, if I’m going for a look that calls for high drama. Also, you can use white eyeliner on the waterline to make your eyes look bigger and brighter.
May 3rd, 2012 at 9:56 am
I like the look for dramatic occasions, but I’ve never been able to get the liner to stay in that area for long. Any suggestions?
May 3rd, 2012 at 11:22 am
@SarahDances- Ah thank you, I knew there had to be a more economical way of saying it!
May 3rd, 2012 at 2:20 pm
Leah – two problems here, likely. One, you need an appropriate liner in the first place. Anything billed as “waterproof/resistant” will be better, but generally you want something a little firmer than you would usually need. Some liners are just too soft/smudgy for use on the waterline.
Second, a lot of people don’t do the upper waterline, so you get the bottom waterline liner transferring to the upper waterline, making it look diluted. If you do both, you avoid that problem! I hope that helps.
May 3rd, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Leah- I tried once and I just ended up with grey tears for a day. Of course, I was trying to use cake eyeliner.
May 3rd, 2012 at 5:25 pm
With ya all the way on this one. I have/had (still see on FB) a friend who religiously each day applies a mathematically precise thick black liner ALL the way around. Plus full foundation in tan, all year (this is in Minnesota). She’s been doing this since she’s 17, and she’s honestly a beautiful woman, but sometimes I wonder what she really looks like.
May 3rd, 2012 at 5:38 pm
We seem to have diametrically opposed views on eye makeup! I admit that this look is very metalhead-from-New-Jersey-in-1983, but I still love it. Not every single day, but lining the waterline will always have a place in my heart.
May 3rd, 2012 at 7:11 pm
It CAN look very pretty and dramatic if executed well (see: Bilson, Rachel), but as a fellow contact-wearer, I’d be too worried about eyeliner particles floating hither and yon into my eyeball.
May 4th, 2012 at 6:54 am
Metalhead from New Jersey in 1983–you said it, girl. And even then I thought the look was too severe, especially if someone did the white-eyeliner bit (always worn with blue mascara so that the eye-whites look “cleaner”….except the theory doesn’t work and the eyeballs just look more bloodshot). The real problem with this look is that the eye moves so much the liner does, too, so it’s only a matter of time before all that dark khol migrates south.