My Top 3 Liner Rules For Sexy Lifted Eyes

I’m completely OBSESSED with eyeliner – I literally cannot go a day without it! It can totally change the eye shape, lift them, and draw all the attention to your eyes. Liner just makes me feel feminine, beautiful and sexy, and it’s the first piece of makeup I ever wore. From the age of 12, I’d basically never leave the house without it – just a little smudge at my outer corner to make me look awake! Ever since, liner has just kinda been my thing, and nothing gives me more satisfaction than a bold wing.

So finally, after people asking me to make an eyeliner for forever, we created the eyeliner to end all liners, our Huda Beauty Life Liner. It’s the mattest, blackest, most intense eyeliner I’ve ever used and it’s waterproof, smudge proof and literally life proof, so you have the confidence to know your liner is flawless all day long. We decided to create a dual-ended liner; at one end an intense liquid eyeliner, and at the other end, the perfect pencil liner that’s perfect for smudging and tightlining with. It’s my ultimate go-to for lining my eyes.

Eyeliner is a major skill, and once you master it you can completely transform your eyes; whether you want to alter the shape, make them look bigger or lift them. My eyes are quite round and I love to create an almond-shape by elongating my eyes and lifting them with liner. Here are all my tips for lifting and snatching your eyes.

My top 3 Eyeliner Rules:

Liner Rule 1: Get the Angle Right

By getting the right angle and starting your liner at just the right place, you can create a crazy lift that really accentuates the eye.

Always start with your wing. Instead of connecting it to your lower lash line, start 1 or 2 mm above where your lower and upper lash line meet – this will help lift the eye – then draw the wing at around a 45-degree angle toward the tail end of your brow.

After you’ve done your wing, as a general rule, the liner should be very thin towards the inner corner of your eye and then it should begin to get thicker from the outer third before joining the wing. For a less dramatic look, you can start your liner from the outer third only, and for a more dramatic look, you can make the line thicker but keep the dimension of thinner to thicker the same.

When connecting the liner above your lashes to your wing, try to never draw downwards in a curled shape and instead gently slant it toward the wing you’ve drawn to create a triangle shape. Check out my tutorial below:

Liner Rule 2: Always Tightline Your Eyes

If you’re not tight lining your eyes already, then you’re about to see a huge difference. By using a pencil liner on the waterline of your upper lashes, it helps to fill in the gap and make your lashes look more dramatic and your liner more intense. It also fills in that ‘gappy’ look you can sometimes get. My top tip is to only tightline the central part of your eye where the iris is so that the liner doesn’t go near the tear duct or outer corner where it could smudge.

Liner Rule 3: Avoid Lining Your Lower Lash Line

To open up your eyes I like to avoid using eyeliner on the lower lash line. Instead, you can use powdered eyeshadows here. You can use a subtle color along the entire lower lash line or apply only on the outer third of your eye to create a more subtle shadow underneath the lashes. For a more dramatic look, you can smoke the shadow further in towards the inner corner and play with different shades depending on your look.

My Top Tips for Applying Eyeliner:

1. A handheld mirror is a must: I always use a handheld mirror so I can really see what I’m doing. I like to hold it slightly below my eye so that when I’m doing my liner, my lashes are down and it makes the process easier.

2. Balance your elbows on the table: By keeping your elbows on the table, it keeps your hands still so you’re less likely to make mistakes.

3. Know your eye shape: Everyone’s eyes are different, so what works for your bestie might not suit you. Play around with different angles and different liner widths to find your perfect combo. Check out our liner guide to flatter your eye shape here.

Of course, no liner look is complete without a bomb mascara to create fluttery, sexy lashes, and our new Huda Beauty LEGIT Lashes, $27, is a dual-ended mascara that delivers major volume, dramatic curl and insane length without weighing down your lashes, so you can achieve any lash look.

What are your go-to liner hacks? Let me know in the comments below.