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.
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?
