Make your eyes POP!

Have you attempted the sultry smokey eye, time and time again, only to look NOTHING like your pinterest board full of smokey eyes? I have! It never looked as dark, as bold or as POW as I wanted it to. Not in a neat way. In more of a raccoon smeared way:) My girlfriend let me in on the secret tip I was lacking, to get that SULTRY, sexy, well defined smokey eye. The kind that looks like you're not trying too hard-It was effortless. The secret?

Tightlining! Its one of makeups most underestimated tricks to making your eyes pop. No one can ignore a gorgeous tightlined eye. It demands to be seen! So what is it? It sounds too easy...but here it is: its lining the upper waterline of your eye!

Seriously, the definition it gives to shape the eyes is something spectacular. I snapped a few pics of the process as I go. This was a very fast, subtle smokey eye to show the technique. It also looks AMAZING on a non-lined upper eyelid. But for this demonstration I did a light smokey eye.

From top to bottom, left to right:

no makeup

just eyeshadow

eyeshadow + eyeliner

tightline technique

eyeshadow, eyeliner, tightline and waterline

full makeup PLUS Virago babe lashes in "Giselle"

To tightline: You can use a few different products to tightline. For the softest look, any eyeliner pencil will do! Another option is a gel liner with brush. And my personal fav is a product by Laura Mercier actually called "tightline cake eyeliner" (you wet a flat eyeliner brush and dip it in the "cake.")

Regardless of your choice of product, The point is to line the top waterline- to fill in the light colored gap in between the lashes and the eye. For a pencil liner, gently lift the eyelid and fill in the space. For a gel or tightline cake, simply look down into a mirror (hold a small mirror under your nose so you are looking down into it) and with a flat eyeliner brush, press the product into the bottom of the TOP lashes and on the upper water line. You can do this on the lower water line as well.

Another huge plus about tightlining? It helps your false lashes blend in better with your natural lashes. Eyeliner in general does!! (but of course not necessary)

Happy tightlining!