Fancy Eyeliner for Dummies with Beauty Blender Liner Designer

I consider myself not too terribly shabby at makeup stuff.

I watch tutorials and shit, so like I know where contouring is supposed to go and how to make my small eyes look bigger, yada yada yada.

But, for the life of me, I’ve never been able to pull off a cat eye or flicked eyeliner. And yes, I’ve seen ALL the “easy” tutorials out there where these makeup magicians are all, “You see, I just put a dot here, here and here and then connect them together and it’s absolutely perfect every single time!” I’m calling bullshit…or at least witchcraft.

I’ve tried the dots, the tape, all of it. Whenever I gathered my courage to try again, it either failed or took me approximately 7.5 hours to get it somewhat right. So I had pretty much given up entirely on the whole charade.

That is, until I saw the Beauty Blender Liner Designer as a choice among the free gifts with purchase on Birchbox. The reviews were lukewarm but I gave it a go anyway.

Flickmaster

So what is it? Well, it’s basically a little silicone triangle with 3 differently curved sides. I saw one YouTube reviewer saying that the side of a business card would essentially work the same way, but I disagree. Here’s why…

The material is a soft silicone that easily contours to the curves of your face. AND it can actually stick to your face so it stays in place. Plus, the different sides can help you do a bunch of fancy eye makeup looks. I haven’t tried anything but a classic flick, but you can find cool tutorials on YouTube.

I won’t pretend that it was an immediate success, but I could tell from the get go that it was a helpful tool that would, eventually, allow me to achieve my flicked eyeliner dreams. Check out my handiwork in the picture here.

If you’re going to give it a go, here are some tips I’ve discovered through trial and error:

• Though it will stick to your face, I’d still recommend holding it there just to be sure there’s no gap as you apply the eyeliner.
• At first I had trouble getting both sides to match, but I figured out that it works best if you position one end near the outside corner of your eye and the other end an inch or so under your eyebrow, making sure the side you want to use is where it needs to be. Make note of the distance from your eyebrow to the end of the tool when you do the first side and then try to get the same position on the other side to get a symmetrical line.
• Do NOT use this for the first time with bulletproof liquid eyeliner when you’re rushing to get ready for an actual outing. Instead, spend some time practicing with a skinny brush & eye shadow.
• If you mess up (you will mess  up…probably many times if you’r like me), use makeup primer to wipe off & start again. Just be sure to wipe the primer away before you start again or the liner won’t go on well.
• Here’s a video tutorial from someone who knows what they’re doing:

I’m still no expert but now I actually feel like I can do fancy flicked eyeliner when I want to and that’s pretty awesome.

Got any novel eyeliner tips for me? Do tell!! Or just share your own fancy eyeliner horror stories and we can commiserate together 😉