Coloured eyeliner goes into a box of makeup marked 'terrifying and mad' along with loose glitter, frosted lipstick and hair mascara. Which is why I went into that box, pulled them out and decided to figure out how you can wear the stuff without looking like someone vomited a tropical cocktail in your eye. Because nobody wants to look like that.
The main things to take away from it are: there are very few people in the world who can pull off coloured eyeliner without a face full of makeup (I tried it and looked like I'd woken up the morning after a shit bar crawl) and it's all about mixing colours. Oh, and don't put red eyeliner on the inner rim of your eyelid because you'll look like you've got a really bad infection.
90s Retro Drumstick Eyes
Used: Barry M in yellow and Kiko in 109
Draw purple liquid eyeliner on the top lid, and yellow on the bottom. It's a bit dramatic, and the sort of look that everyone will comment on in a tone that means 'Interesting choice'. Good points are that it makes your eyes look bigger, it's very bold, and it'd go really well with a sparkly purple and yellow outfit. Bad points are that you could look a bit like a Marvel villain.
Tropical Dot Eyes
Used: Mac Eyeliner in Hi-Def Cyan and Kiko in 04
Eyeliner? More like eyedotter! Have never gone out in public with eye dots but if I was at a festival or some other place where freedom of expression doesn't equal stares/small children asking their parents what's wrong with you, I'd do this. I need eyeliner otherwise I feel like I have little mice eyes, so I used the darker blue to line my eyes so they sort of matched. Multicoloured dots are big fun, if you find drawing dots around your eyes really fun (I do), but the pencil ones looked a bit like I'd bruised myself and it was really hard to get good definition.
Tropical Dot Eyes Take 2
Used: Kiko in 109 and 108
Eyeliner? More like Greatliner. Liquid liner is the best for dots. See? This still looks mad but in a controlled, less bruised, way. Full marks to liquid.
Bright Lines
Used: Sleek eyeliner in Pumpkin (and my trusty black Soap & Glory felt tip)
Single coloured lines can look a bit shit unless you've got gigantic model eyes because you're a model. That's why I used black liner on top of the colour, and only putting the colour on either the top or bottom lid to avoid lookig quite as dramatic as the yellow and purple one, above. You just draw a really big fat line of a really mad colour like orange, and then make sure you go over the top of it with your classic black liner on both lids (if you feel so inclined). Obviously stick to one style on your face, I just wanted to show you what both look like. Lesson learned: orange is actually surprisingly wearable and put mascara on too otherwise you'll have weird orange eyelashes.
Summary: Treat your eyes like a painting, and your liner like the brush. Go mad, mix and match, but make sure you use mascara over the top and you can always turn to your trusty black liner if you think it looks a bit unfinished.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.