Tutorial: Ombre Cat Eyeliner

I've been experimenting with eyeliner techniques and colors, especially since colored eyeliners are quite becoming more "in." I still love my black and browns, which have been staples in my makeup bag, but sometimes, it's nice to have a pop of color once in a while. On its own, it's a statement without eyeshadow, giving you a nice, edgy look. I usually use this technique when I need to go to an event after a workout session and I don't really want to bring brushes and all.

In this tutorial, I have a two-toned ombre cat eyeliner using the classic black and plum eyeliner. The cat eye starts off first as plum then wings out to black in the end. It's subdued enough to be worn in weddings or formal events yet it's got an interesting twist to it. You can use the eyeliner technique alone without eyeshadow but if you want to use eyeshadow or a full face of makeup either you feel inspired to put on makeup today or you just want to feel better, check this tutorial out. The warm gold scheme of the eye color contrasts well with the plum eyeliner so the plum stands out because otherwise, nonsense. Maybe you can't use this for your passport photo, but for a wedding, maybe.

Plum gel liner adds a different twist to an otherwise classic look

What You Need:
(I indicated the brands I used in the parenthesis. Feel free to use other brands of your own preference)

• Eyeshadows (Urban Decay Naked Smokey Palette)
• Black Eyeliner (L'Oreal Superliner Superstar)
• Purple/Plum eyeliner (MAC Fluidline in Looking Good)
• Black Pencil Eyeliner (Urban Decay24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion)
• Charcoal Pencil Eyeliner (Eye of Hours eye pencil in Charcoal Obsidian)
• Eyeshadow primer (NYX Eyeshadow base)

(Note: I did already my base, brows, contour, cheek color, and lip color here, so let's go straight to shadow)

Step 1: Apply eyeshadow primer from lashline to browbone.

Step 2: Apply a light contour color on the crease (UD Combust)

Step 3: Dab a shimmery golden color on the lid (UD Dirtysweet)

Step 4: On the outer 1/3 of the eye, apply a darker color with the same shimmery finish as the lid color (UD Radar)

Step 5: Smoke things out by applying a dark gray-black or black color on the outer V of the eye (UD Black Market)

Step 6: Line the bottom liner with charcoal pencil and set this with the same color you used on the outer V. Highlight the browbone and inner corners of the eyes with a bone-colored color (UD Thirteen). Blend the life out of the edges for nice, even transitions.

 Step 7: Tightline the upper lashlines with black eye pencil. Blend and smudge to slightly "smoke" it out.

Step 8: Use a purple eyeliner to line the top lashline, stopping until just before the outer corner.

Step 9: Go over where you ended the purple eyeliner with the black eyeliner and continue on lining the eyes and "flick" out the wing."

Step 10: Your eye liner should look like this: Starting off as purple, then ending with a black wing tip. If you want, lightly blend the transition between the purple and the black so you get a nice, blended ombre effect.

Finish off your look with some mascara on curled lashes. Apply falsies if desired. Finished!

Take this look to your next event or party. It's a way to introduce colored liners to your makeup kit, accompanying them with a basic black or charcoal and an otherwise neutral eye. The wing tip does take a lot of challenge getting even and I really took a long time there. If you have any wing tip tricks  to get both sides even, do leave them in the comments below.  Enjoy this new look for the new year!


Store Directory:

Eye Of Horus
Available at Purbeauty, Landmark, and SM Department stores; available at glamourbox.com, and beautymnl.com; facebook.com/eyeofhorusph; instagram.com/eyeofhorusph

L'Oreal Paris
Available at all leading groceries, beauty hubs, and department stores nationwide; lorealparis.com; lorealparisexclusif.ph; facebook.com/LOrealParisPhilippines

NYX
available at leading department stores; nyxcosmetics.com; facebook.com/nyxcosmeticsph

MAC

click here for a complete list of stores; maccosmetics.com; rustans-thebeautysource.com; maccosmetics.com.ph; facebook.com/MACcosmetics

Urban Decay
urbandecay.com; facebook.com/urbandecayglobal; instagram.com/urbandecaycosmetics

Heavy Cat Eyes + Hot Pink Lips (and how I remove all that)

Giving my winged cat eyes a break (the one with the eyeliner-hanggang-bumbunan level), I wanted to make cat eyes again, this time smokier, fatter, darker, blacker. And... paired with red lips. This is my first attempt though, which took like an hour on the eyes alone, since with cat eyes, the biggest challenge is to creating the shape and make sure both sides are equal. Strong eyes with nude lips? Uhm. I want hot pink. Wala lang.

I can't seem to get them to smoke up enough without looking much like there's a lot of silver and gray. Maybe it's my eye shape, I think. Hot pink lips go with hot pink lipliner.

I certainly used a lot of black eyeshadow that day!

A strong and dark makeup would go well with big spiky falsies on a day out. Hmmm... maybe in the next show.

Face:

MAC Studio Sculpt concealer NC30 on redness and imperfections and also on undereyes

MAC Studiofix Powder NC25 on undereye as a highlight

MAC Studiofix Powder NC35 all over

MAC MSF in Gold Digger as a golden blush highlighter

Eyes:

MUFE Eyebrow Corrector in 0

MAC Paint Pot in Painterly as a browbone base

MAC Nylon on brows

Stilla Smudge Pot in Little Black dress to shape the cat eye

MAC Mont Black on lids.

Kohl pencil (the ones I buy in Indian stores for Php150, the one that goes really smudgy, creamy, and smoky) to line and shape and then set with Mont Black

MAC Pigment in Soft Washed on the crease, for a soft blend and transition of colors.

Lips:

Fashion 21 hot pink lipliner (I'm sad F21 phased this out na. I love it coz it's super waterproof)

MAC lipstick in Hollywood Nights

I think I'll try putting the base eyeshadow first before shaping the cat eye so the browbone highlight stays true to its natural color instead of having a silvery gray tinge to the supposedly champagne-y color it has. Anyway, this cat eye is just for practice. Maybe I'll try it out Wednesday come Sensual Grooves class time, yes as I'll be out of town tomorrow. Or whattheheck later!

And what I use to remove this, since this is such a heavy color and I used three pain-to-remove products (paint pot, smudge pot, and kohl eyeliner)? Clinique Take The Day Off Makeup Remover! I swear, I'm so glad they invented this or else I'll be having wrinkles now.

I get this usually as hand-me-downs from my mom since she loves Clinique skin care and when she gets the GWPs when she purchases her favorite moisturizer, I get the cute purple bottles since she doesn't use them anyway. Yay! I think I have about 5 travel size bottles of this. It's so ironic because I have adverse reactions to skin care products of Clinique (but not the makeup, since I use their eyeshadow and mascara) but not this one. In fact, my eyes love it.

The fact that it's so easy to use I'll show it to you in simple steps. Step 1: You see that there's a barrier separating the oil part from the water part? You have to shake the bottle well before using. Step 2: Dispense a good amount on a cotton pad. Not too much to soak it wet, but just enough. Step 3: Gently press the cotton pad on (closed) eye just to get the product in. I wiggle this a bit sometimes so I get the makeup to loosen up. Not too hard to poke your eye out. Be sure not to get product inside the eye. That can sting, so keep the eye shut. Once there's product on the lid, wipe eye area gently with the cotton pad until it's clean.

My right eye has no more makeup as compared to my left eye. Stubborn eyeliner can be removed with a q-tip soaked in makeup remover. The makeup's all in the pad almost effortlessly. The lids are a bit oily after though, from the oil so after removing the makeup, cleanse face with your favorite makeup remover/cleanser (like cold cream or cleansing oil) to remove makeup that remained on the face like foundation, blush, leftover eye makeup, etc. And wash face as usual with your facial wash.

Not only did I use this to remove my very heavy eye makeup, I was able to wipe my lips of all hot pink lippie traces effortlessly too, like on cue. I like using this product when I want to remove makeup in a flash since I'm too tired to go through an entire roll of tissue, wipes, and makeup remover and I'm wearing very heavy makeup that day.