How to Do Perfect Eyeliner Over 50 - Step-by-Step Tutorial

Tools and materials:

• Eyeliner pencil
• Pencil sharpener
• Angled brush
• Flat brush
• Puff
• Winged liner brush

My eyelids are very crinkly and the texture is uneven. In other words, the skin is not taut, particularly on my moveable lid. So I have to figure out a way to get a dark line to emphasize my eyes without it having to look perfect because I just can’t get perfection.

What I have found is that sticking within some parameters is important. When I am lining my eye, I start right where the lashes start; I don’t bring it all the way down to the corner of my eye.

Then, I bring it all the way out to almost the end of my lashes, but I stop two or three lashes before the end.

1. Apply eyeshadow to the lash line

I started off by doing a very soft, neutral eyeshadow look, and to apply the eyeliner, I work with the same eyeshadow palette that I’ve used.

I’m going to take a flat brush, and I’m going to dip it into the darkest color that I used on my eyes. I get a little bit right on the tip of that flat brush, then I’m going to place that along the outside half of my eyelashes right at the base.

That’s going to help to define that lash line area before I put my liner on.

2. Apply eyeliner

The next thing I’m going to do is take my sharpened pencil, and I use a little puff to pull my eyelid taut so that I can get that liner on in a straighter line than without using it. So, I’m just going to very carefully hold that puff and bring the liner along the lash line.

I find it easier to take short little strokes because I want to make sure that I don’t get too much on my lash line or that I get in an area that I don’t want it to be in.

3. Draw a wing

This next step is totally optional and that is to wing the liner a little bit out to give a lift. What I’m going to do is hold my eyelid up so that the skin is a little bit tauter, and I’m going to bring the first line of the winged liner straight down.

We want to do it straight down because when I let go of that skin, that line will angle out all on its own. So the first line that I want to make is straight down. 

The next line that I’m going to do it at an angle, kind of creating a triangle towards the end of my eyelashes, and I’m going to do the same thing, I’m going to hold my eye up, and I’m just going to angle that in a little bit. 

4. Blend with a brush

The second line I drew isn’t straight, and it’s not completely clean, but that’s what happens when the skin is a little bit more textured. That’s where the winged liner brush is going to come in and be super handy.

I’m going to take it and start running it along that line, and that’s going to smoke and smudge out the line. I’ll still have the definition along my lash line, but I don’t have to worry about the line being perfect. I like to start right at the inside and just start smudging that line out.

Once I get to the winged area, I’m going to pull my eye up again very gently, and I’m just going to smudge and pull that wing down into my line. You can also turn your brush and pull that wing up a little bit as well.

5. Tight line

Now I’m going to take my pencil and tight line with it. Tight lining is applying eyeliner underneath the upper lashes. So I just take that pencil and run it right at the base of those lashes back and forth until I get that area nice and dark and filled in.

Eyeliner over 50 tutorial

I applied a touch of mascara, and my left eye (in the picture) is with mascara and the eyeliner, whereas the right eye is just with mascara. You can really see what a difference the eyeliner makes in adding impact and definition to the eye.

Let me know what you think of this tutorial in the comments below.

Products used

• Wayne Goss Kohl Eyeliner Pencil
• Sigma 06 Winged Liner Brush
• Ulta Pencil Sharpener
• Sigma E54 Medium Sweeper
• Tartlette in Bloom Eyeshadow Palette