Sometimes I hear women and girls saying that they can’t wear winged eyeliner because it just doesn’t look good on them. I totally get it because certain lid shapes make it more difficult to master, hooded lids in particular. You definitely can wear winged eyeliner if you have hooded lids, but thats a topic for another day.

For those who have non-hooded lids and still think you can’t make winged liner work, maybe what you need to ask yourself is “Am I making my wing the right shape to flatter my eye?” Ya see, winged eyeliner shapes (and the shapes of eye makeup in general actually) have an effect on the appearance of your overall eye shape. So maybe you are just doing the shape in a way that’s not flattering for you.

That’s good news right? But if you google eyeliner shapes, you may notice that you get a lot of funky, graphic shapes and ideas. They are cool AF for sure, but not exactly helpful if you are trying to make your standard winged liner look its best. So today I decided to show you the difference between two of the most common, subtle winged liner shapes and explain what they will accentuate. That way if you know like “Oh! I definitely want to lift my eyes because sometimes I feel like the look a little too droopy” then boom, heres your answer. You shmell me?

TO CREATE ROUNDER MORE LIFTED EYES:

To make your eyes look more round and open and lifted on the ends, try making your wing at a more steep angle. Note how the initial line I made to determine my angle is going up toward the brow pretty dramatically. That will give the illusion that the end of you eye is more lifted. To add to that effect make the entire line a little on the thicker side and boom-bam-pow you have a round, lifted, very ‘awake’ almost doll-eyed effect. Side note, this is the one I usually go with when doing my own makeup, because I find it a bit more flattering on my eye shape.

TO CREATE ALMOND SHAPED, SLINKY, SEXY FELINE EYES:

If your goal is to make the eyes more almond shaped, cat-like, or sexy, slinky and elongated then start by lowering the angle of the wing and letting it be more flat and in line with your top lash line. Combine that with a slightly thinner line overall and you will elongate the entire eye shape. This doesn’t ad as much lift as the first option, but it still adds some. But instead of a very doll-like appearance it gives a more sexy, bedroom eye effect.

Obviously there are more winged eyeliner shapes out there that you can shake a stick at (wtf who comes up with these sayings?) but as far as your standard, everyday looks these two are particularly handy for most people. So if you have tried making your winged eyeliner one of these ways and didn’t find it flattering, try tweaking it a little and see if it works for you. The amount of impact it has on your eye shape is pretty crazy so you might be surprised what a huge difference it makes! 🙂