I Think They Got Blind Children To Name These

I am always on the hunt for a good, true brown eyeliner. Whenever I find a liner that looks like it might be ok, it always turns out to have a heavy red pigment to it that makes me look like I've been crying, or it is just a tad too soft and makes my eyes look recessed.

GOSH cosmetics makes a good stick liner called Metallic Brass, which is neither metallic nor brass coloured. It is a dark dark brown with teensy tiny flecks of gold in it. These flecks did not irritate my eyes at all, and are honestly hardly noticeable once this is on your eyes. Metallic Brass is part of their Velvet Touch Waterproof line, which they claim will not budge after it sets. It definately does not move for love or money from dry areas, like my the back of my hand, so if you are dry around the eye area, this will probably be super for you. I'm a bit oilier, but even then it only smudges a tiny bit, and creates sexy bedroom eyes when I apply it "oriental" style. And this stuff is very waterproof, so you will have to use some oil based remover or cold cream to get it off. GOSH has also included vitamin E and Jojoba oils to "moisturize", although how much moisture you'll absorb from your eyeliner is a bit dubious. They do apply really smoothly and don't look waxy, so I guess GOSH is onto something with their wonder formula. In addition to Metallic Brass, GOSH makes 26 other liner colours, all with stupid or misleading names and online swatches that are not even close, making me wonder about GOSH's ability to correctly identify and represent colours. Ah well, at least their products are good!

Listening to: Three Little Words - Frankmusik

The Straight and Narrow

I love using powder shadows as eyeliner. They wind up looking so much softer than stick liners, and look natural if you can get the pigments right down into your lash line. But eyeshadows don't usually come with applicators that work well for drawing fine lines... actually, they don't come with applicators that do much of anything at all. But I digress...

To use your shadows as a liner, you need to hunt down an angled eyeliner brush. This brush enables you to apply a quick swipe of liner across your lids, smudge a smokey eye, and draw on dramatic cat eyes. If you can apply stick liner, you can draw a decent line with a brush. Face the longer side of the brush in towards your nose, and lead your line with the shorter end of the bristles. Use 2 short strokes super close to your lash line to get the inner corners of your eye, then apply a flowing curve along the length of your lashes. Flick your wrist up at the very end of your eye and extend your line just a tidge. This gives you a very subtle cat eye.

I use L'Oreal's HIP in Brazen (the brown shadow, not the hot pink) to dry line my eyes on regular days, as this gives a natural look when you apply it close to the lashes. For special occasions, I'll do a smokey eye with Tapestry Taupe and Almay's Stay Smooth Eyeshadow in Sapphire (Which apparently they don't make anymore. But you can find it here). Then I use a slate blue powder eyeliner by Quo (Only found in Canada, and this liner really is discontinued. Damn.) to apply a cat eye line. You wet the liner with water and it works like a liquid eyeliner - but better, since the angled brush gives you so much more control than the flimsy brushes supplied with liquid liners. Powder or cake liners really are my favorite to use.

You can also try out some cream liners, but these smudge too much during the day for my liking. The kit from Smashbox comes in fun and pretty colours.

Go, find an angled liner brush, and give it a try! And...if you're still using the foam applicators that come with eyeshadows, pick up a decent shadow brush too...

Listening to: Soon We'll Be Found - Sia