Image: Shu Uemura
Biggest beauty goal: Getting your eyeliner to lock into place. I mean, there’s little point in adding “eye-conic” eyeliner looks (like say, this pretty pastel number) to your repertoire, only to have them slip and slide off your lids before your office pantry break is up, right?
Which is why I’m so psyched to be privy to these top professional tricks you can apply to your everyday eyeliner that’ll have it staying put from Singapore dusk to Singapore dawn:
1. Be a powder-puff girl. The chief culprit of a fleeting flick is excess sebum on your eyelids, so you’ll want to prime with a powder prior to swiping on your liner. Simply sweep on the tiniest smidgen of translucent face powder along your lash line, patting it up onto your lids for maximum sebum-sopping power.
Switch to your eyeliner of choice (long-wear pencil or gel formulas are fantastic for this purpose) and go about your business as usual. Try Shu Uemura’s spectacularly smudge-proof Calligraph:Ink liquid liner ($58 for cartridge and applicator), which boasts carefully chosen bristles of varying firmness for complete control and a gorgeous glide.
2. Powder over once more. Once you’re satisfied, set with another layer of loose powder. Take it from an eyeliner expert: “I find that this extra step goes a long way in clinging onto the creamy consistency of most eyeliners,” says Dollei Seah, creative director of Makeup Entourage.
Top tip: Because you want to abstain from too much tugging on your already lined peepers, pick up your powder with a small fluffy brush and dust it on without pressure or pressing of any sort.
3. Finish with some tone-on-tone action. For well nigh indestructible results, take it up another notch and layer on a water-resistant gel liner in a complementary colour (black-on-black or blue-on-black, for instance).
The sequence is as such: Powder, pencil, powder, gel. This final flick of souped up sheen seals in everything for an extra intense finish. Tadah, sticking to this easy-peasy three-step plan is your best bet for budge-proof beauty. Here’s to keeping your flick “on fleek”, as the hip young ones say these days!