The liner lesson
I’ve dreamt of mastering eyeliner flicks for years. The problem? I can’t even draw stick men. My past feeble attempts usually include stretching my eyes out so far that the liner just smudges when I let go. With a smidgen of hope, I asked Adam Burrell, Barry M make-up ambassador and Little Mix’s (yep, all four of them) go-to man, to teach me his face-enhancing ways.
1
Follow the curve
“Make sure flicks are even by using the curve of the bottom lash line as a guide. Hover a brush along it until you reach the outer corner. Then start drawing from there until you’re happy with the length,” explains Burrell. “Map a horizontal line from the outermost point [of the line], back to the corner of the top lash line, so you’re left with a triangle shape. That forms the outline of your flick.”
2
Draw in dashes
Burrell says the easiest way to join the floating flick to the rest of your eye, and to successfully line your lid, is to draw little dashes, pressing the brush or felt-tip liner into the root of the lash. And yes, resting your elbow and looking straight ahead at a decent-sized mirror really
does make it loads easier.
3
Clean up
Making the flicks even is probably the hardest part. But, as Burrell taught me, it’s easier to clean up a line that’s too thick than to add to a line that’s too thin. That’s when you end up in panda territory.“Use a thin cotton bud doused in make-up remover to shave from the bottom of the line. Angle it upwards to help sharpen the line – and remember it does take practice and patience, even I don’t always get it right in one go,” he says. Which gives me a little bit of confidence.