Step #10: Eyes

Hello Queens!! This will be an interesting one, as I am not going to tell you what to do!!! I know!!! It's a shock, and I almost died 😲. I love being bossy!! But this is your chance to REALLY have fun with your makeup. There are a few hints I’ll give for people with eyes like mine, but honestly, there are so many ways to do eye makeup, so many techniques that I am only just learning, so many new techniques being introduced, that I couldn’t even begin to try to start an eye tutorial.  My advice:

Play

In the words of Trixie Mattel: “The eyes are the window to the hole”.  No lie. When that gorgeous man looks into my eyes across the dance floor he may as well already be there.  But seriously, the eyes take longer than any other part of your face, and are the easiest to mess up.  They are also the most important part of your face in terms of looking good in your makeup. If you mess up your eyes, you may as well just put it all away, unless your goal is to look like a trash queen, in which case, go gaga with your makeup.

Your starting point should be determining what type of eyes you have. Do you have large eyelids? Are your eyes hooded?  Here is a nice link for a brief overview of eye shape. Each shape will require a different painting method.

I personally have hooded, deep set eyes, and could not for the life of me figure out how to make that look good. That is, until I watched a video by Violet Chachki where she completely blacked out her lid, and created a new crease out of her hood.  By moving the hood onto the brow bone, and using white eyeliner and shadow in the original crease up the hood to the the brow bone she was able to widen the eye, and give the appearance of a larger eye.  I was sold.

Now that I have a better understanding of the way makeup looks on my eyes, and what actually makes an appearance on my face, I can experiment with other shapes, but I have something to fall back on. The colours vary, and sometimes I alter the shape itself to widen or contract the eye, but always glue down my brows, create a new hood in the crease, and draw on a new, highlighted brow above my natural brow. Usually it ends up as a cut crease that enlarges my eye, a large wing of dead black eyeliner, and a harsh eyebrow.

You will find the method that works for you, but for the love of Cher, please PRACTICE until you figure out what works.

Eyes can either be done at the beginning of the face, or at the end of the face.  I will discuss the reasoning and methods for both, but be warned, both require some precision and care to NOT FUCK IT UP!!!

In the beginning…

There was a boy, and his face was cleaned, and primed, and eyebrows glued down so well you’d think he'd shaved them off, and the foundation was neatly cleaned up.

• -Avoid the issues with fallout from powdered eyeshadows onto a covered face
• -Avoid the risk of costly mistakes by having the ability to restart your makeup
• -More difficult to apply foundation neatly and evenly once eyes are in place

In the end…

There was a boy, his eyebrows were covered, his contour on fleek, and his eyes were caked in foundation, which made an excellent primer for the vibrant colours he wanted to place on his face.

• -Avoid uneven foundation application by starting with a clean, contoured face
• -Avoid the need for eyeshadow primers
• -Avoid non-seamless nose-to-hood contour
• -High risk of fallout from powder eyeshadows, glitter and mascara
• -If you fuck it up, it’s fucked up, and you’re screwed, or you learn to adapt

Apart from that, do what you want!!! The eyes are my favourite part of drag makeup, along with the eyebrows because you can be creative to the maximum extent of the word.  Express yourself!

Post some of your favourite eye looks in the comments or send them to me on instagram! I love being inspired! <3