5 Tips To Make Your Eyes Look Bigger

Makeup is so much fun to experiment with. You can highlight your features or cover them up. When you start wearing makeup, you learn which features of your face needs to be highlighted or contoured.  The first thing you learn is which mistakes you’re making and avoid them. Your eye makeup can tell a lot about your face, it can make you look awake or dull. To enhance your eye makeup, the first trick is to avoid dark and harsh colors.

makeup tips for small eyes
Here are some easy tips to make your eyes look bigger:

Blended Eyeliner: If you like wearing eye liner, make sure it’s properly blended. Leaving you eye liner UN-blended creates a very harsh look and make your eyes appear smaller. Use a soft brown colour and blend it very close to your eyelashes, you can extend the liner by blending and this will create an illusion of bigger eyes.

Don’t pencil your waterline: For your lower lash line, take a dark brown or black eye pencil and apply it on the outer half of your eye. Always, apply the pencil below the lower lashes. If you apply it on you waterline, it will make your eyes look smaller.

White/nude pencil: For your water line, apply a nude (Rimmel London Scandal Eyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eye Liner – Nude) or white pencil. A light colored pencil will give an effect of bigger eyes. Take the same pencil and highlight the inner corner of your eye.  You can also apply a white shimmery eye shadow on the inner corner to brighten your eyes.

Curl your lashes: Many women underestimate the power of lash curler or don’t own one. Invest in a good quality eye lash curler like the Shu Umera or Eyelash Curler Kevyn Aucoin Curler. The affordable dupes for these curlers work just fine, like the E.l.f. Eyelash Curler or Sally Hansen Classic, Flirty Eyes Eyelash Curler. To hold your curl longer, heat your lash curler with a hair dryer and curl your lashes.

Fill your brows: Your eyebrows are frame for your eyes. For thin and sparse brows, use a shade lighter than your natural brow colour and follow the shape of your brow. Use a pencil or brow powder for filling. If you have naturally thick brows, you don’t need much to do. Just apply brow gel to keep them in place.

Good Luck!

How to Combat Oily Eyelids So Your Makeup Stays in Place

Unless you like the cakey look?

This article was written by Mi-Anne Chan and repurposed with permission from Refinery29.

If you have oily eyelids, you know that getting makeup to stay in place is a struggle. You probably know the drill all too well by now: wake up, put on your makeup, check your face at noon only to find that you're rockin' a serious pair of raccoon eyes—it's not a pretty sight. But, if it's any consolation, you're not alone. We've all been there.

We all create oil on our eyelids, some more than others. "We all have numerous tiny oil glands at the eyelash line to add oil to our tear film," says Ava Shamban, M.D., dermatologist and assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA. "This oil-water emulsion provides lubrication to the eyes, and the oil prevents the water from evaporating."

There may not be a cure-all method that will completely stop our bodies from producing oil, but we can definitely take measures to curb it. We talked to a few industry pros to get the lowdown on some of the best ways to stop slick lids from wreaking havoc on your makeup. Read ahead to learn the secret to a life free of mascara smudges, liner fading, and creased shadows.

 Start Off With A Clean Slate
First things first, before you put on your face in the morning, make sure your skin is completely free of any residual makeup (or even makeup remover) from the day before. "You need to make sure everything is totally off your eyes and that you don't have any oils leftover because that can increase the oiliness," says makeup artist Elisa Flowers. "You want a clean, fresh start." Try using Lancôme Bi-Facil Double-Action Eye Makeup Remover ($29, nordstrom.com).

Pick the Right Skincare
After your face is clean, move on to your skin care, but be sure to look at the ingredients in your moisturizers and eye creams. "If the issue is that makeup isn't staying in place, perhaps the problem is using moisturizers that aren't fully absorbing," says Heidi Waldorf, M.D., dermatologist at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital.

We’ve All Been Putting Our Makeup on the Wrong Way

Turns out, the order you apply each product is super important.

Believe it or not, when it comes to your makeup, the order you put things on is just as important as the products you use.

And surprisingly, face makeup shouldn’t actually be your first step. If your eye makeup somehow always migrates onto your face—causing you to have to take off your foundation and start from the beginning—there’s an easy fix for that: Start your makeup application with your eye makeup instead.

  "Eye shadow has a tendency to flake during application, especially when creating a smoky eye,” says Jennifer Fleming, a CoverGirl makeup artist.  “Starting with eyes ensures you won't need to reapply foundation and concealer.” Pretty genius, right? This trick will save you serious time getting ready.

And when it comes to your eye makeup, you should use eye shadow first, then eyeliner, which is used to layer your shadow and create more definition. However, "If you don't have a steady hand, you can apply eyeliner first and then blend eye shadow on top to soften the line," she says.

Put your mascara on last since "applying eye shadow [or liner] after [mascara] can cause the products to flake onto the lashes and cause clumps," says Fleming.

Then you can go about your business as usual, applying foundation, concealer, and powder. If you want a sun-kissed glow, dust on bronzer after powder since bronzer is meant to only add color to areas where the sun naturally hits (think hairline, temples, bridge of the nose, and cheekbones), says Fleming.

As for your lips, always apply lip liner before lipstick—it works as a primer and defines the lip’s shape, says Fleming.