Learning to Love Liner

My eyes are my favourite facial feature and I probably spend proportionately more time making them up than the rest of my face. Although my makeup collection is rather modest by beauty blogger standards I must admit the majority of it is eye based and although I'm always looking for new tips on how to do different looks I'm generally happy with my day to day look. However, there was one product I'd always wanted to master but never seemed to get right - liquid liner. Well, the time has come to woman up and learn!

I have two felt tip liners - the Kiko Ultimate Pen Long Wear Eyeliner, which has quite a fine tip tapering to a very fine point, and the No7 Stay Precise Felt Tip Liner, which is slightly thicker but more tapered. Both are very black and last for ages but I think the Kiko one slightly has the longevity edge. Both are very simple to use with good ink flow and being slim are well suited the liner novice like myself. Like all felt tip liners they're best stored cap down to prevent them drying out.

I'm still no expert but now at least I'm confident I can manage a reasonable line along my lashes. So here are the tips that really helped me get to grips with it:

• If shaky hands are an issue (they certainly are for me) then try resting your elbow on a hard surface so you're not trying to support the weight of your arm while drawing your line.
• Don't try and draw your line in one go unless you're super confident. Go from the inner corner to the middle then from the middle to the outer corner so you end up with the thickest part of the line on the outer corner.
• I often find my lashes, which are quite long, get in the way so I simply hold them out of the way with my other hand leaving a clear canvas to draw on. 
• If you're not sure where to place a flick then stick a post-it note along the line between the outer corner of your eye and the tip of your brow.  
• Get yourself on YouTube and check out some tutorials to see exactly how its done. There are loads of good ones out there, including some which will show you the best line to suit your eye shape.
• As the saying goes, practice makes perfect and that's certainly true here. I got into the habit of trying out my line before I took my makeup off each night for a fortnight and I improved really quickly. Just keep trying tit out and eventually you'll find a way of doing it that works for you.   

Applying liquid liner is definitely a skill but it's not impossible!

Are you a liquid liner expert or a novice like me?