Face to Face: Amazing New Looks and Inspiration from the Top Celebrity Makeup Artist

Creating a cat eye is easier than it looks. First,  rim the eyes with a standard black eyeliner.  Not  too heavy— just enough to provide a base. When working with the liquid eyeliner, you  want to start by removing excess  liquid from the wand. Here, I went with a deep black liner, but  navy  and green and even silver  can also be fun. Play around with what works best for you or for the occasion. If you’re going to a formal event, it’s best to stick with black or navy. But  if you’re going out  dancing, for drinks with the girls, or to a holiday party, really,  anything goes. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

To remove the excess  liquid, wave  the liner wand in the air (don’t roll it on a tissue—you’ll only  pick up bits of fuzz). Then place  the liner tip at the inner  corner of your top eyelid and draw a straight line all the way  across.  Don’t worry if the line appears jagged—you’ll need  to draw the line two or three times to create the full effect, so there’s plenty of time to even out  smudges. If you  need  to drag the liner across  in sections or dab  at the lash line to fill it in, that’s fine, too.

Next,  to create the cat-eye wing, simply extend the tail of the drawn-on liner past the eye, being sure to keep  it on an upward angle. The further out  you  take  the line, the more dramatic your cat eye will be. Then think about what you  want to do with the rest of the eye. I like to leave the lower lashes bare or apply a single  coat of mascara. On the lids, white eye shadow worked to create the retro feeling I wanted here, while serving to play  up the eyes even more.  But  you  can also use beige,  silver, or other metallic, or go all the way  with it and apply a black shadow to the lids. Just make sure you’re not  being too dramatic for the occasion; that is, a black-on- black cat eye might not  be the wisest choice for a job interview, a wedding, or, for that matter, a funeral.

Here, for the full Marilyn effect, I decided to apply a beauty mark  on the model’s upper cheekbone using  the same black liquid eyeliner. Just a dot of liner is enough. Then, to turn the dot into a natural-looking beauty mark,  I used an eyeliner brush to apply a tan eye shadow on top of the dot. Use your finger to gently press the shadow into the dot,  so that the shadow stays  put  and absorbs a bit into the black liner.
Keeping the lips in a natural or light coral  tone works best because you  don’t want anything to compete with the eyes. Then use a dusting of translucent powder all over  the face to set. I think Miss Marilyn would approve, don’t you?