[upbeat music]
- Well, these are woefully uneven.
Hey everybody, this is Jihan Forbes,
and this is almost every way to do a cat eye.
People have been doing cat eyes forever,
so it makes sense that there would be
a lot of different ways to do them.
I tried 21 different methods,
some tame, and some completely bizarre.
Let's dive in y'all.
First up we've got your classic felt tip liner.
For this style of liner,
liquid pigment is deposited through a felt tip pen,
which in theory is meant to mimic a pen or marker,
making it easier to use.
Now this is the style of liner
that I personally use the most.
There are a few things I love about this method.
The ergonomic pen is very easy to use,
drawing on clear lines is easy with the pointy tip,
and these types of liners are usually waterproof,
so they last all day.
Next up, we have a brush tip pen.
On this pen the brush is made out of teeny tiny hairs,
similar to a paintbrush almost.
The paintbrush tip is what makes this
one of my favorite methods,
because it makes it really easy to draw thin, crisp lines.
One thing to note though,
these eyeliners tend to dry quickly,
so move fast.
If you happen to go outside your line
or want to make any changes,
you may need to bring in extra tools
to clean up any mistakes.
My favorite way to do this is with a pointed cotton swab
and just a little makeup remover on it.
Outlining with a spoon.
Spoons are surprisingly very useful in the beauty world.
You can stick 'em in the fridge
and use them to de-puff your eyes in the morning,
and you can also use them to create the perfect cat eye.
I used a spoon as a guide to outline my wings
and I'm shocked to say I really liked this technique.
If you have an unsteady hand,
the spoon acts as a buffer to keep your lines crisp.
The slight curve of the spoon gives a more natural wing
as opposed to a super straight line
which I really appreciated.
The spoon, fantastic.
Angled eyeliner pen.
This pen has an angled highlighter style tip
that's supposed to make it easier to draw on your wing.
Now for me, I usually draw my wing
starting at the lash line, then I draw the angle
for the cat eye and connect the two.
This liner made it easy to draw my first line,
but I had trouble getting that point.
The liner is great for beginners
or anyone looking to create a very small cat eye
because it really does the work for you.
Eyeliner marker.
Oh it's a fat marker.
This looks exactly like the markers I used in grade school,
so it felt a little odd using something so large
to create thin lines.
Okay.
Cut.
As you can see, I had a lot of trouble creating a wing
because the first line I drew was so thick.
I had to go in with a cotton swab to finesse the line
and create the cat eye shape.
Okay, and now that's fine.
I could really see this liner being easy and quick to use
if you're just lining your eyes,
but creating a sharp wing, maybe not the best tool to use.
Not for me, might work for you,
but we're just gonna put that right there.
Tape.
Now I've seen this hack all over YouTube,
but this was the first time I actually tried it on myself.
Anything that may tug or pull on the eye area isn't ideal,
so I applied the tape to the back of my hand a few times
to get rid of some of the adhesive
and make it slightly less sticky.
Okay.
Hope that's even.
I placed the tape at an angle on the outer corner of my eye.
This made it really easy to get a clean,
crisp edge to your wing.
I actually really liked the effect,
just make sure you're gentle when
you're pealing off the tape.
Now we've got eyeliner stickers.
Eyeliner stickers are designed
to take all the fuss out of doing your cat eye.
Instead of drawing one on, you can literally
stick these to the corner of your eyes.
Then, you fill in the rest of your eyeliner
with liquid liner.
From afar these didn't look half bad,
but if you look closely, there's a huge textural difference
between the sticker and the line,
because the sticker is so thick and textured.
I don't think I'd reach for these on a daily basis,
but I can see these working great as stage makeup.
Just be sure to be gentle when you're taking these off
because they really stick to your skin.
Now we've got gel eyeliner.
I'm no stranger to gel eyeliner.
In fact, this is the method I used
when I first learned out how to do cat eyes.
Gel liner is one of the thicker eyeliner formulas out there,
because it's actually made out of a base
of gum, wax or silicone.
I'm getting this all over my face, but oh well.
These water repelling waxes often give the product
its sweat and water resistant qualities,
as well as a smooth texture that makes it
easy to glide onto the lid.
Gel eyeliner is a little more forgiving than liquid liners,
and that's because they go on sheer
and can be layered for an opaque effect.
It also takes a few seconds to fully dry,
so you have time to smudge it out
or correct any mistakes if you want to.
There she is.
All in all, I think it's a great,
versatile method for cat eyes,
though the fact that you need to use a brush
might be intimidating for beginners.
But if you ask me, go for it.
Next up, mascara.
Turns out, mascara's perfectly safe to use as eyeliner.
So, I took an angled brush, I coated it in the mascara,
and then I applied it to my eyelids.
Honestly, I was pretty surprised at how easily it glided on.
Mascara's formulated to be thicker
and drier than your typical eyeliner,
which makes sense since runny mascara
would transfer all over your lids.
Since it's so dry though, I did notice some patchiness
and flakiness when I used it as an eyeliner.
In a pinch, I can definitely see it being a great option.
For everyday though,
I would stick to the more traditional tools.
Yay beauty.
The hair pin stamp.
Makeup lovers of the internet love using
random objects to make cat eyes.
This method uses a hair pin as a stamp
and as you can see, this did not go well for me.
That didn't work at all.
First off, a bobby pin doesn't naturally have
the type of shape I like for my cat eyes,
and honestly, after using it as a stamp,
I had to do even more work filling in my line
than I would with a regular eyeliner.
We're tossing her too.
Pencil eyeliner.
Pencil eyeliners like this are some of
the most common liner types.
They're typically made of wax and surrounded by wood,
so you can sharpen the pencils when the tip gets dull.
I like these for lining my eyes
but I've never been able to draw on
a clean cat eye with a pencil.
Okay, well that's as good as it's gonna get.
I told y'all, this one is...
She's not the one.
Using a pencil like this to line my eyes,
I knew I was gonna need a cotton swab
to clean up the wing after.
But on the bright side, if you wanted to create
a smoky cat eye, pencil liners are great.
They have a softer texture than liquid liners,
so they allow for a bit more play time.
This is the good one.
Next up, eyeliner stamps.
I've seen eyeliner stamps around
but I never really had a chance to try them,
so I was excited to get my hands on a set.
Unfortunately, I ran into some issues.
Oh okay.
So...
The stamp was able to create a fairly decent wing,
but since no two eye shapes are alike
I had some trouble getting them to look uniform.
Plus, if you're interested in a larger, more graphic wing,
this aint gonna do it for you.
The stamp itself is pretty small.
It's like barely anything bruh.
Like where...
I mean okay.
This isn't a method I'd personally use,
but if you're new to cat eyes,
this actually might be a good trick for you
because it gives you the basic shape.
DIY eyeliner stamp.
If you want to try an eyeliner stamp
but don't wanna drop the cash on a professional set,
you can apparently make your own with an eraser
and a safety blade.
Some blog posts online made it look easy.
Clean your eraser with rubbing alcohol,
then use a razor to sculpt the triangular stamp,
but in reality, using the stamp was so difficult.
What appeared to be a nice triangular stamp
ended up creating a lopsided blob on my eyelid.
Negative one out of 10, would not recommend to a friend.
She won't be flying today.
Her wings were clipped.
Next up we have shadow as liner.
This is a very popular technique with makeup artists
since black eyeshadow can be used dry to create a soft line,
or wet to create a more pigmented effect.
So I started with the shadow dry
and used it with an angled brush.
I definitely had to get used to this method
because after the first swipe I noticed
the pigment was nothing near how opaque I wanted it to be.
I found that actually stamping the product onto my lid
instead of sweeping it on left me with a bolder line
that I could work with.
For my right cat eye, I started off by spraying
my brush with some water and then
dipping it into the shadow to create a paste.
There was definitely some user error with this one
because the ratio of water to powder is super important.
Makeup wipe.
Using a makeup wipe to create your wing
might be more of a hack,
but many people use it to clean up wings
and to make them sharp in a single swipe.
I'm purposefully going to use a method I had trouble with
so I can see just how effective the makeup wipe is
at creating that crisp wing.
So here we go, I'm gonna start on my left eye,
and oh look how easy that was.
As you can see, it really does,
when you do it with a bit of precision,
it really does clean up the sides of your eye.
Now we're onto liquid eyeliner.
The tip is similar to an eyeliner pen
and the wand is super easy to use.
Plus, since the wand is designed to be dipped into a pot,
the brush comes out wetter than traditional eyeliner pens.
The result is an opaque, smooth line.
Since the formulas tend to be on the wet side,
it does take a few seconds longer to dry
than your typical liner pen,
so just be sure to give your liner a few seconds
before you go in and touch it.
Dry her out.
What y'all think?
Bendable eyeliner wand.
What makes this eyeliner different from the others
is the bendable wand.
The base of the eyeliner is adjustable,
so you can hold it at an angle,
or you can keep it straight.
For a beginner, the bendable wand is amazing.
Having that angle keeps your hand
in a more comfortable position,
meaning you don't have to contort your wrist
to get the right shape.
The wand just does it for you.
It helps you get used to creating that angle
you need for the perfect cat eye.
I wouldn't say it's a requirement for my liner.
It did give me some bomb wings,
so that's what we're here for anyway.
Eyeliner stencils.
Eyeliner stencils have cutouts
in the shape of the ideal cat eye,
so you can stick them onto your eyes,
then fill them in with eyeliner.
There's definitely room for user error here.
Wow, this is so extra for no reason.
You need to make sure there are no bubbles
or inconsistencies when you apply the stencil,
or else you may end up drawing outside the lines.
I feel absolutely ridiculous with these things on.
You also need to make sure you stick them on evenly,
otherwise the stencil comes out wonky.
What's more, the stencil was extremely difficult to remove,
and ended up irritating my eyes.
Y'all need to really chill with this adhesive.
For real, for real.
The skin around your eyelid is very sensitive
so tugging and pulling at the skin
with a sticky stencil isn't great,
since it can promote inflammation and stretch your skin.
These might be great for special occasions,
or as training wheels while you're learning,
but I wouldn't recommend anyone use them daily.
Floss stamp.
Now this is a technique I can't say I've ever tried before.
It involves painting eyeliner onto a floss pick
and then using it as a stamp.
This was not easy.
Okay, and then the second.
And quite frankly really frustrating,
mainly because using a floss pick as a stamp
lacks a lot of accuracy.
As you can see, the first time I used it
I stamped a line in the wrong spot
and ended up having to redo it.
Can't say this is a method I'd try again.
Credit card.
This was a really easy way to get
a straight clean wing with something
pretty much everyone has at their disposal.
This method includes a credit card,
which we have obscured for the owner's safety.
Simply lay it on the edge of your eye
and use it as a guide to line your eyes.
Just make sure you've sterilized the card
with rubbing alcohol first,
'cause credit cards are constantly exposed to germs
and you don't want that near your eye area.
This works kind of like how the tap guide did
in that it helps you get a straight line.
If your hands are shaky, this is a useful hack.
Last but not least, a guitar pick.
I used this as a guide to outline the shape of my wing.
The straight smooth edges of the pick
definitely make it easy to get clean lines,
but I wouldn't say it improved my cat eye significantly.
After trying out all those methods,
a few definitely stuck out to me.
Each method had its pros and cons,
and some were flat out horrible.
But I really like the classic brush tip pen for precision.
I was also surprised at how clean my wings were
after using the spoon as a guide.
That was a giant shock to me.
And using shadow as liner was great
because you can get different effects
depending on how you use it.
Everyone has their own unique makeup method
for creating the perfect cat eye.
But after these 21 methods I hope you found
some new ones to experiment with.
There you go, that's almost every way to do a cat eye.