let's talk about waterlines

Adding eyeliner to your waterline is an easy way to change up your eye makeup. It can add darkness to a smoky eye, brighten up tired/red eyes, make smaller eyes look bigger, and big eyes look smaller.

The waterlines are the area where your eyelids meet to close your eyes. In other words, it's the area between the base of your lashes and your actual eyeball.

In high school, I remember my eye doctor telling me not to put makeup on my waterline. 

"Okay doc, whatever you say. You're right. Being cool doesn't matter as much as my eye health." ::wink wink::

So, I would leave the appointment, get into my car, flip down the mirror and layer on the black liner that he so kindly made me rub off.

I kind of went through a "only wear black, smoky eye makeup, and black high heels" stage in beauty school.

Ooph.

High School. Not my best fashion moment.

Anyway, my eye doctor was probably right. It's not the safest makeup technique to do to your eyes since it can clog tear ducts and cause irritation. I've never had any negative effects, that I'm aware of, but I still try to limit using this technique.

So: listen to my eye doctor. Do this at your own risk. Don't come crying to me if you get an eye irritation, because, well, two reasons: 

1. crying probably isn't helping your eye irritation.

2. I'm going to tell you that I told you not to do this.

Anyway, let's get on with it.

The two eyeliners I'll be featuring in this post are Mac Powerpoint Eye Pencil in Engraved, and Tarte EmphasEYES Inner Rim Brightener.

In the first photo, I'm wearing absolutely nothing on either waterline.

In this photo, I'm wearing the Tarte liner on both the top and the bottom waterline. The biggest difference I can see is that my eyes look bigger, but almost too "heavy" at the bottom. 

In this photo, I added the Mac liner to the top, and left the Tarte liner on the bottom. This adds a little bit more definition around the top lashes by making them look a little fuller.

Here I'm wearing black on both the top and bottom waterlines. You can see the most dramatic change in the eye makeup with this technique. It makes my eyes look smaller, but they pop more.

*lip color: Revlon Lip Butter in Strawberry Shortcake

As you can see, from all the looks lined up together, there isn't a huge change between all the looks.

Using liner on the waterlines is one of those subtle techniques that can add a finishing touch to an eye makeup look, depending on what you are going for. If you've had a long night, and wake up to red, swollen eyes, try the Tarte liner to brighten them up. 

If you want the smokiest of smoky eyes, line the top and bottom with black or slate liner.

So now that I've said all this and made you all interested in trying it, don't forget about my warning above, k?

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.