Like bold red lipstick, cat-eye liner is one makeup trick that is less of a trend and more of a lifestyle. It’s always en vogue, and those who embrace it do so with wild abandon. It’s no coincidence that nearly all of my style icons, the women past and present that I consistently look to for guidance (or whatever, I’m shallow), have been known to boast the eternally sexy black flick. There was no drought of eye-catching makeup looks at this year’s Golden Globes, some good, others shameful, but there’s only one that was so on-point that I said to myself, Never again will I wear my cat-eye liner is a manner that is not precisely this one.
That show-stopping pair of eyes belonged to Angelina Jolie, who has long been my eye makeup and otherwise idole supreme (see also: deity, muse, most beautiful praying mantis-woman to ever walk the earth). Never — never— before, in all my days, have I bore witness to such exquisitely blended, gorgeously defined black liner. Imagine my dismay when, come the day after the awards, Angelina’s makeup artist had yet to come forward with the tools and technique used to acquire this most enviable look. Luckily, I have the all-abiding patience and focus of a savant, which I put to good use by settling myself in front of the mirror in a series of trial and error. Forty-five minutes, three brushes, and one handful of spilled kohl later, and what do I have to show for it? Only the most gorgeous eyeliner ever, of course, and the goodwill to pass it on.
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