Eye-popping products: The best new eye makeup buys to try now
Flatter and flutter: Gentle new eye makeup launches Image:MAC
The first makeup caveat I received — “take care not to pull the skin around your eyes”— came from a French midwife, or sage-femme, and it was indeed wise. The skin on your lids is 40% thinner than that on the rest of your face. According to New York dermatologist Dr Dennis Gross, the tissue below the eyes is naturally missing a lot of essential elements that make your skin strong. There’s very little soft tissue like fat or muscle. The skin itself covers the hollow space of the eye socket. Clearly, those windows to your soul have delicate dressing. UV exposure, smoking, and your genes are all greater influences on how well your eyes look over time but pulling at them feels instinctively wrong.
Observing professional artists, you do see some stretched skin. This is usually in pursuit of perfection at speed: smoothly blended shadows, for example, or a poker-straight line. The results look flawless in photos, but life’s too short not to use what makes you feel good. Some of us like to “put our eyes on” in the morning. A little contouring under the brow bone with a matte shadow can make eyes look more open, while some contrasting colour on the lids can make the whites brighter or the irises ‘pop’.
It Cosmetics Superhero new No-Tug Shadow Stick, €25 at Brown Thomas and Boots, is a long-wearing cream formula that makes shaping a cinch. Featuring both matte and pearl finishes, it’s completely buildable for an opaquer look. The cream is formulated with a silicone-rich eyeshadow primer to create a creaseless finish that won’t settle into eyelid lines. Collagen, caffeine, and hydrolysed collagen have anti-ageing, hydrating and depuffing benefits. Superhero is available in 12 shades.
Most people look perkier with a little mascara and some formulas do a lot with a single swipe. MAC Cosmetics says MacStack Mega and Micro Brush Mascara, €28.50, is its launch of the year. Over two years in the making, MacStack aims to meet every one of your mascara needs in a single product. To that end, the formula is available with a mega or micro brush. Both feature petal-shaped, staggered, and multifaceted bristles that work to hit every angle. Mega brush creates instant volume and length for upper lashes. Micro brush delivers extreme precision and control on shorter more sparse lashes and great for lower lashes.
Eyeliners are the most architectural of eye makeup products. Used properly, they can improve symmetry and even create a completely different eye shape, without surgical help. Liner skills, like drawing, can be improved all the time, even if you’re trying for something much simpler than feline or fishtail liner. I always think mine could be better and they won’t get that way if I don’t practice most days.
Lancôme Idôle Ultra Precise Waterproof Eyeliner, €23 at counters nationwide, takes little effort and lasts all day. The liquid formula is transfer, flake, and smudge resistant. The tip makes it the ideal tool for finally achieving your liner goals. Its 0.1mm point delivers an up to 0.4mm fine line of an ink formula with luminous carbon-black pigments.
Getting under eye camouflage right is a skill and less product is always more to avoid a cakey look. Makeup artist Wayne Goss recommends concentrating your concealer in the inner corner of your eye where you typically have the most darkness. Instead of using a sponge to blend out your concealer immediately after applying, he says to first use a brush to work it into your skin. This will prevent the sponge from soaking up the product and help the concealer look natural.
After you’ve finished blending with the brush, you can then take a damp sponge and use it to push the concealer into your skin even further. The product should be a shade lighter than your base, and there’s a great newbie on the market.
KVD Beauty’s sell-out Good Apple Foundation is now a concealer. The vegan brand took the makeup’s lightweight full coverage and made a long-wear concealer for under eyes for all skin types. It blends out easily for a natural, skin-like finish. Apple extract and raspberry stem cells provide antioxidant-rich hydration.
Every drop is rich with colour pigments that evenly spread over skin for crease-resistant coverage and a brighter look. Dark circles are neutralised instantly.
Designed with under eyes in mind, the applicator mimics your fingertip for a precise application without dragging the skin.
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