Painted Ladies

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Eyeliner Week: Tightlining


By Sheila

And now a technique that is very closely related to yesterday’s waterlining tutorial. Although the two techniques are often confused, there is definitely a big difference between lining your waterline and tightlining.

Tightlining

With tightlining, what you are doing is targeting the area between your lashes in order to enhance your lashes and make them look more lush. It’s a very targeted technique as opposed to lining your waterline, which is covering the entire area with liner.

You can use a pencil or powder for tightlining, but I prefer to use a gel liner. In this example, I’m using a Stila Smudge Pot in Black with a very, very thin brush. The brush is a no-name one I picked up somewhere along the way, but I would recommend MAC’s #210 brush as well.

Ready? Let’s start with my naked eye (bonus points if you can tell me which band sang the song “Naked Eye”).

What you are doing with tightlining is pushing the liner right in between your lashes. It takes time, but it does get easier with practice.

Here’s a little diagram to help you visualize the technique.

Don’t ever claim that I’m not dedicated with these photos. Now you’ve been exposed to every fine wrinkle under my eye. Yes, I do love you all that much.

I don’t usually tightline the bottom lashes — it’s a matter of personal preference. With the upper lash, I’ll tightline from end to end. Here’s the finished look without mascara. Just a little extra “oomph”, which in my opinion is never a bad thing!

And with mascara and nothing else … kaPOW!

‘Scuze the spider lashes. I’ve been a bad beauty blogger and have put off replacing my Dior Show for far too long!

Tightlining is a great eye enhancing technique when you don’t necessarily want to pile on a ton of makeup, or in the case that you want a little something different in your usual eye makeup application. Like I said, it does take practice, but it does get easier over time. Remember, you want to PUSH the brush into your lashes — just keep pushing the brush right along the lash line.

Do you have any tips/tricks/advice/product recs to share that you’ve used with tightlining?

Comments

  1. Nessa says

    Lucious Jackson sang Naked Eye!!! My friend and I used to listen to the CD single and we thought they were saying naughty words, but they really weren’t.
    Great tut! I never knew there was something called ‘tightlining’.

  3. Lisa says

    I love that look! Something else for me to try. I tried waterlining my upper lids this morning and I found out that my eyelids are extremely ticklish and sensitive. It was almost as bad as poking myself in the eye, so I guess I’m going to have to stick to just the bottom lid only for waterlining.

  9. samantha says

    Laura Mercier Cosmetics makes a product specifically for this. It’s a water activated cake liner, called “tightline.” It’s amazing.

  15. Barbara says

    The photos are so helpful! Until I saw this post, I thought tightlining was just waterlining the upper lids.

  16. Jules says

    Would you recommend this strategy for someone someone with hooded eyes? What about using colors? I am a blonde with pale skin and heavy or hooded blue-gray eyes, do you have any suggestions?

    Thank you,
    Jules

  17. Sheila - Painted Ladies says

    The beauty of this technique is that it’s universal – looks great on all eye shapes! Try an eggplant liner to enhance your baby blues!

  19. Sunniva says

    Well I guessed the Who, because they came out with Naked Eye FIRST! Anyway, awesome tutorial! Can’t wait to check out the rest of the page!

  22. Vedette says

    Thank you for this. I really have problems doing this because I keep on poking my eyes and usually, I ask my little sister to do it for me.

  27. Michelle Ramos says

    I use a powder kohl eyeliner called sormeh (by Mosha Katani). When I line my waterline, it automatically gets into the spaces between the lashes, tight lining them. Because I’m using a powder, I use a flat, slanted brush for application.

    Great job showing the difference in the techniques! Very helpful!

  28. Melissa says

    Laura Mercier makes a liner and a flexible, flat brush just for tightlining. The cake liner is activated with water and makes the perfect texture so it never runs into your eyes. The flat brush makes it so easy to apply- you just push it into your lash line! You are making it harder on yourself if you are tightlining with any other brush or liner! Stop by any Laura Mercier counter and their artists will give you a complimentary tightline lesson!

  32. tinareynolds says

    I love your tutotial I have been working harder on getting mine not to be to thick of a line

  34. Luckychii says

    I’ve always tried to do this from above the lashes and ended up with a much heavier line that I’d like, then gave up on achieving this. I’ll give it another try from below. Thanks so much for the photos to explain what you’re doing!

  36. AskandEmbla says

    I have blue hooded eyes as well and would recommend using browns as they look less harsh on blue eyes than black liner (also better for mature women).

  39. Katerina Kirax says

    Any tips for us over 50 ladies whose eye skin is getting crepe-y and whose eyelids are getting little skin tags and white bumps? Not to mention eyelashes which are no longer long enough to be curled much less mascaraed? Let’s not forget sensitive eyes which balk at the tiniest bit of frost in a shadow and eyeglasses!

  42. Gustavo Woltmann says

    Really amazing! I don’t know how you do it but I am flabbergasted by the awesomeness of your content and your website model! How did you get those sponsored links on the bottom of your article? Is it on the bottom of all your articles? Again! Really awesome.. keep up the awesomeness! 🙂 Take care and God bless!!!

  43. XristiG says

    Thank you – this is what I have been wanting to do for everyday wear – but trying to go from the top – you make it seem so simple – now more practice required so I don’t blink 😉