Classic and trendy, elegant or trampy, achieving the cat eye is a versatile skill to master. Some whip out that liquid liner and with a swish and a slash are done with it. The majority, however, end up with rickety lines and uneven edges. Here’s the trick to easy cat eyes anyone can do. As always, take your time and don’t give up if you need a few practice runs to get the hang!

1. Use a thin angled eyeliner brush. This is key. The one pictured is from the paint section of a craft/hobby store and cost approx. $7.00. Wet the brush and rub the edge in an eyeshadow powder or use dry with a cream liner.

2. Touch the brush to the outer corner of the eye, using the length of the brush to create your wing. A positioning tip so that each side is even is to line up the end of the line with with a point on your eyebrow.

3. With the long hairs of the brush touching the tip of the outer line, connect it to the top of the eyelash line. Now you have a wing.

4. Fill in the wing so that you have the outer portion on your cat eyeliner complete.

5. Delicately draw the brush edge over the lid to complete the liner. Whether you start from the inside or outside depends on what you’re most comfortable with. Alternately, if you’d like to switch to pencil liner or liquid liner for the lid portion, that is totally cool too.

6. If you’d like added precision and intensity, go over the easy cat liner you’ve already created with a liquid line.

Finit-0! From here you can play it up or play it down to make it just right for you. For me I think next time I’ll make my outer line more vertical for a bewitching whimsy.

There really is something to being ‘put together’ and I don’t mean that in a Posh Spice way. Whatever the look from hipster to preppy…. to ironically preppy hipster, getting the ensemble to play in the same key is crucial. This requires some vision.

Visions don’t have to just pop up in your head like some Basquiat explosion of schizophrenic creative genius. They can come to be in a process of self-discovery. When I worked in an office the proper attire came so unnaturally to me that I had to rip out fashion-forward ‘career girl’ pictures from magazines and tape them to my closet wall. I just don’t do business wear, so I’d end up looking like a sales associate at Victoria’s Secret. Borrowing a vision is better than no vision to get through a rough start.

Another trick is the uniform trick. Get one vibe down perfectly and sport it every day with minor variations. There is such thing as too much vision.

Lastly, complete the vision. Details have more importance than they sometimes get cred for.  The wrong makeup, shoes and bags, and even undies can throw a vision off. Be aware and have intention with what you choose. Don’t stress yourself out or anything, just be aware.

I like to call it the pop-eye because it seems to pop out at you, but the shape is more properly referred to as the protruding lid, or less properly as deep-set. It’s a seemingly complicated but actually very simple eye shape to play with. Many think that adding a shadow to the protruding eye will make it stand out more, but as long as it’s a medium to deep shadow, it’ll actually recede the lid and help the eyeball itself stand out more. Here’s the how-to:

1. Apply a medium to deep matte shadow over the entire protruding lid. Anything smoky like grays, browns, burgundies, etc. work especially well.

2. Line the eyes, top and bottom depending on what you like. If you have a lower lid that protrudes as well you should definitely line bottom too. Use a creamy liner that easily blends into the shadow.

3. Apply a slightly darker shadow along the crease, blending it just above the brow bone. This will help diminish that hard brow bone appearance.

4. And lastly, never use anything but a fleshy or neutral highlight. You could even pass on the highlight if you’re over it. Now doesn’t she look gorgeous? Don’t forget mascara!

Anyone else feel like not doing anything today? Blog shmog. Makeup shmakeup! Who cares? For all you work a days out there, at least it’s Friday!

A friend of mine plans to see a major ex for the first time in 2 years. A few days ago we scavenged the mall for a perfectly casual ‘I’m not trying too hard, I just look this hot every day now’ outfit.

You don’t really want him or her back. Well maybe you’d consider it, but that’s not really the point. The point is to inspire that twinge of regret. The thought that maybe if they’d just invited you to the family reunion, or let you tie them up for once, everything could have been different….  And it totally works. People love to romanticize an old relationship.

There is nothing quite like a wistful look in the eye as they attempt at some casual affection, or a pause before parting like they want to say something more. Here are a few makeup tips sure to stir that self-esteem boosting regret revenge:

-First, don’t get any radical ideas like crazy big false eyelashes or silver liquid eyeliner. You don’t get extra points for creativity.

-Radiance and happiness are key factors. That means you don’t want your skin super matte. Try a tinted moisturizer and/or bronzers and blushes that have a tiny touch of shimmer. Tiny!

-Bring out the eyes because that’s where intimacy starts. Use contrasting colors. For tips look at previous posts Eye Makeup For Brown Eyes or  Eye Shadow For Gray Eyes . I don’t think I’ve done a post on green, so I’ll just tell you that you want reddish brown.

-Choose a more natural lip that’s not super dramatic or goopy and dripping with gloss. You want them to remember you for you, not for their secret fantasy of doing it with a hooker.  Although now that I think of it, there could be the potential there for a two-in-one result if that’s what you’re going for.

-If you have a few days lead, throw on some teeth whitening strips. A little refresher will add some spark to your smile. And you should smile a lot. Remember, confidence and happiness are amazing regret makers.