7 eyeliner mistakes everyone should stop making

When you’ve worked hard on a complete makeup look, don’t let your eyeliner bring the whole thing down. Eyeliner can enhance your look or completely distract from it. There are tons of styles to choose from, and each seems to require its own formula of liner and plenty of practice.

As you experiment with new eyeliner styles, here are seven mistakes you may be making. Try out these solutions to the errors, and you’ll see your eyeliner game take a huge step up.

Each type of look requires a different type of eyeliner. Although all types of eyeliner have their place, using the wrong one — whether it's pencil, liquid, gel or crayon — can leave you dissatisfied.

A common recommendation is to tug your outer eye corner to the side for a straight line, especially for a winged eyeliner look. This is only half true. Using your finger can lead you to pull too much and result in a distorted look. Try using a cotton swab to gently keep the line straight.

By applying eyeliner only to your lower lash line, you can end up looking tired and unfinished. To avoid this, always apply at least a little eyeliner on your upper lash line if you're using it on the lower one. 

Fully closing your eye can cause wrinkles and a less smooth surface for when you apply eyeliner. Instead, keep your eye open slightly to allow better coverage.

At some point, every makeup lover has had to start their makeup routine over after botching a winged eyeliner look — usually after trying to freehand it. Achieving a well-done winged eyeliner is easy when you use a small piece of paper or a stencil to apply the eyeliner in the line you’re attempting. 

Particularly for very fair-skinned people, ultra-dark eyeliner can wash out the face and distract from, rather than enhance, the look. Try charcoal or gray rather than a harsh black.

Even the most talented makeup user makes mistakes, but leaving them can really bring your look down. Rather than redo your entire look, fix the little errors. A cotton swab with makeup remover or micellar water can erase stray marks. A small detail brush with some concealer also can help take your look from sloppy to polished.