Eyelining for babies.

There isn't a single kohl pencil or gel liner in my entire makeup collection, and there hasn't been for years. My Cover Girl Line Exact dried out a couple of weeks ago, but even when it was still oozing ink, I hardly used it. I keep promising myself to get either a Bobbi Brown Long-Wear gel eyeliner or a Mac Fluidline, and I think this is the year that it may happen. But a little bit of liner goes a long way -- when applied correctly, it makes one's eyes look more awake and defined. Lacking proper liner, I use a liner brush and dark shadow to wedge in short strokes a thin line as close as possible to my lashes.

The effect is very subtle, but it's there. Behold, my lineless left eye (and forgive my scraggly brows, a trim is overdue):


A touch of neutral shimmer eyeshadow from my Bobbi Brown Stonewashed Nudes palette, and a teensy bit of black shadow liner from my Mac Smoke Signals palette, I'm ready to go stuff my face with the best Mexican food in town:

The entire lining process took about ten minutes which may seem like quite a lot, but I didn't want to clean up mistakes (more time wasted, increased blood pressure). Besides, I'd saved enough time by only applying one eyeshadow wash. I wet my eyeliner brush, dipped it in black eyeshadow, blotted it on a piece of tissue to minimize fallout, and drew a line in short strokes from the outer corner towards my tear duct. So, lining isn't all that difficult, and nobody has any reason to skip the liner with this technique. As for me, it's time to graduate to big girl liners.