Eyeliner Over 50? Here Are 7 Habits Worth Updating, According to Makeup Artists
I’m decent at doing my makeup, but one skill I can safely say I never learned how to properly do is my own eyeliner. It doesn’t matter how many YouTube tutorials I watch, my eyes end up looking like a third-grader’s drawing. And even then that might be too kind. I also think it has to do with the fact that I have hooded eyes, so I just think eyeliner doesn’t look as great on me naturally. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish I could do a cool cat-eye like Taylor Swift. In researching this piece, however, I am more inspired than ever to finally get eyeliner right at the age of 47. It’s never too late!
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So I did what I always do and went to the people who do this for a living, plus the awesome commentary our BEEs have shared. The makeup artists who work on faces over 50 kept naming the same few habits, most of them picked up decades ago, that stop flattering once the lid takes on a little hood and the brow sits lower. These are the seven they flag, and what they do instead.
1. Reaching for jet black on autopilot
I’ve been leaning more towards brown tubing mascara over black lately, and I come and go on whether I like it better. But I have to say it does read softer overall, which is never a bad thing, especially during the day.
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Our BEEs split cleanly on this one. The ones who traded black for a soft brown or plum say the “you look tired” comments stopped, without feeling like they were wearing any less. A few with deep-set eyes and dark lashes still want a true black up top, and report it reads fine as long as it is smudged into the lashes rather than drawn as a hard line.
Makeup artists say the same about liner, and it is the first habit they change on an older eye. “Anything that isn’t pitch black is going to come across a bit softer,” says Marlena Stell, the professional makeup artist behind Makeup Geek. “And especially as we tend to get older, having things that are softer and well blended versus hard, harsh lines is going to be more flattering.”
The community says the same thing in plainer terms. “I use a waterproof pencil eyeliner in a soft brown, dark brown, purple, dark green, or any color other than black, since I find it to be very harsh,” one commenter wrote. Another: “Maybe brown, grey or charcoal instead of black? Would look softer, less harsh.” There is a real reason it works beyond taste, too: the contrast between your features and your skin fades with age and is one of the cues we read as older (Porcheron, Mauger and Russell, PLoS ONE, 2013). A soft brown rebuilds that definition without the cutout edge black can leave.
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in “Whiskey”
A rich matte brown that defines the eye without the harshness of black, in a no-tug formula that wears all day. About $26. Certified cruelty-free (PETA).
2. Ringing the whole eye in dark liner
The full circle of liner, top lash line, lower lash line, and the whole waterline, is the look a lot of us learned young. On a mature eye it closes things in. As Marlena Stell puts it, a hard line all the way around “just makes us look tired. It’s going to drag the eyes down. It’s going to make the eyes look smaller.”
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The move our BEEs repeat most is leaving the inner half of the lower waterline bare, or going one shade lighter there. It opens the eye back up in photos, where a full dark rim tends to shrink it.
Reviewers who have tested it both ways back her up. “It makes your eyes smaller if you put black in your lower waterline, but opens up more if you use white or some light colors,” one commenter observed. Another had a workaround: “I’m a big fan of only using waterline eyeliner in the corners, so you get the cat eye effect without completely shrinking your eyes.” A third was blunter: “Bottom waterline ages you a bit unless you’re going for a grungy look.” The fix is to brighten most of the lower waterline and save a little smoke of color for the outer third only.
Rimmel ScandalEyes Waterproof Gel Pencil
A creamy, waterproof gel pencil for softly smoking just the outer corner, for about five dollars.
3. Lining with your eyes closed
This is the habit that undoes the most careful work, and it has an anatomical cause. With age the upper lid takes on a little extra skin (dermatochalasis, in the clinical literature) and the brow drifts down, so the strip of lid that used to show above your lashes folds away (StatPearls, on involutional brow descent and dermatochalasis). Close your eye to line it and you stretch that skin flat, draw a clean line, then open up and watch it vanish into the fold. “With hooded eyes we don’t have a natural fold, a natural crease, we have a hood,” says Risa, a makeup artist who specializes in hooded and mature eyes. “So what we’re trying to do is make it so you can see our makeup when our eyes are open.”
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This is the adjustment our BEEs wish they had made years sooner. Mapping the line with the eye open feels strange the first few times, and the line looks oddly high in the mirror when the eye is shut. Then you open up and it sits exactly where it should. Most say it cut their redo rate in half.
This is my biggest issue when it comes to applying eyeliner. And because my eyes are hooded, Risa’s advice will surely help me.
The people who have cracked it all describe the same move. “You have to keep your eyes open when you draw in the eyeliner. Look straight ahead. I start with the wing and draw over the folded line on my eye. Trust me, it works,” one commenter wrote. Another flagged the classic trap: “It’ll look good while you’re still holding it taut, but immediately droop as soon as you let go.” The line will look too high when your eye is shut. That is the point, because, as another put it, “an upward wing just disappears into the crease.”
Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Cream Liner Stick
A fine-tip matte cream liner that sets and stays put against the hood instead of transferring up.
4. Skipping the step that keeps liner from migrating
If your liner is gone by lunch, the problem usually is not your hand. Lids run oilier than the rest of an older face, and the creamy formulas that feel gentlest also melt the fastest. “I have very oily hooded lids, and the only eye liner that stays on is the Urban Decay liners,” one commenter reported. Others lock it down instead of swapping it out: “I set my eyeliner with translucent setting powder, though that can lighten the color a tad,” said one, while another packs “a deep pigmented black eyeshadow with a thin angled brush into the lash line” to erase any gap.
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Our BEEs are blunt about formulas that travel: a pretty line that ends up under your brow by 2 p.m. is not worth the money. The ones that hold up on their oilier lids, by their count, are the long-wear gels with a little powder pressed on top.
Pressing a matching powder shadow over a creamy line “is going to almost set it and help it last a lot longer,” says Marlena Stell. Two seconds of insurance, or you start with a formula built to stay.
Maybelline TattooStudio Long-Lasting Gel Pencil in “Bold Brown”
A soft-brown gel pencil rated for 36-hour, waterproof, no-budge wear, for around $10.
5. Drawing a hard graphic wing
A smudge wing allows for so much more forgiveness than a sharp wing, especially if you’re a total klutz like me!
A sharp cat-eye fights a hooded lid two ways: the fold folds down over the tail and snaps it off, and looser skin makes a clean edge skip. Marlena Stell knows the exact frustration: “My skin gets looser and it starts skipping, so I get this kind of jagged line versus a straight one.”
The community’s answer is direction and softness. “My wings need to go out at the end of my eyelid and then straight out, so that it doesn’t get stuck in the crease,” one commenter explained, taking the line toward the temple rather than up toward the brow. Another made peace with a fuzzier finish: “I’ve also learned to embrace the smudged look and am okay if it’s not precise. I do try to keep my wing small.” A third leans into it on purpose, reaching for “kohl liners that are thick or smudgable” for “fuzzy eyeliner that doesn’t look harsh or hard. Hard lines make your eyes appear smaller.” Our BEEs who gave up the sharp wing say the smudged version is both more forgiving and faster, which is its own kind of win on a Tuesday.
Charlotte Tilbury Rock ‘n’ Kohl Eyeliner Pencil
A creamy kohl with a built-in smudger tip for an easy, soft, smoked wing. Certified cruelty-free (Leaping Bunny).
6. Dragging a stiff pencil across the thinnest skin you’ve got
Your eyelid skin is the thinnest on your body, around a third of a millimeter near the lash line (Hwang and colleagues measured it in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery in 2006), so sawing a dry, hard pencil across it tugs and stings. One commenter described the exact failure: “The eyeliner pencil would not go on smoothly, because my eyelid would just wrinkle when I try to move it.”
The fix is a creamy formula and one small trick. “When I’m trying to use a pencil and it doesn’t go on smoothly or pigmented enough, I use it a little on the back of my hand to warm it up. It makes a world of difference,” one commenter wrote. Marlena Stell prefers a gel for the same reason, because it “doesn’t tug or hurt the eyes at all.” Our BEEs with reactive or watery eyes keep a creamy pencil specifically for the waterline, where a scratchy one is unbearable.
Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense
A retractable, sensitive-eye-tested gel pencil that lays down color in one soft, no-tug pass.
7. Forgetting to tightline the upper lash line
When I have tightlined my upper lash line, even with just doing that and no other liner, it definitely brightens my eyes. And even if you stop there it makes a big impact. My only issue with doing this is I will sometimes get a chalazion, so I only do it if I’m going to an event versus, say, a Thursday at the office.
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Tightlining is the technique our BEEs convert the most skeptics with. It looks like nothing in the mirror and like fuller lashes in every photo. The note they add: go slow on the upper waterline, and skip it on a watery or sensitive eye, where it can sting.
This is the one most people skip, and it is the closest thing to a free upgrade. Look closely and you will often see a thin strip of bare, flesh-colored skin between your lash roots and where your liner sits, and that little gap reads as a sparse, unfinished lash line. Fill it and the lashes instantly look denser. Nikol Johnson, a professional makeup artist who built a line for mature skin, calls it her sneaky trick: “I did not want to see any of that light color of the tight line, and you would see the eye just completely come together.” It suits hooded eyes especially, Marlena Stell adds, because “you’re not putting the liner on the lid, so for those who may not have a lot of lid space, it’s not going to make the eyes look heavy.”
Reviewers who tightline talk about it like a secret. “Try tightlining your upper lash line before mascara. It makes lashes look thicker and fuller,” one commenter advised. Another said it “gives your eyes more definition, making your upper eyelashes much thicker at their origin, and really makes your eyes pop.” Go slowly so you do not poke yourself.
Stila Stay All Day Smudge & Set Waterproof Gel Liner
A dual-ended gel liner made for the waterline and tightlining, with 12-hour waterproof wear. Certified cruelty-free (Leaping Bunny and PETA).
A cruelty-free mark means the brand is certified by PETA, Leaping Bunny, or both at the time of writing. A missing mark doesn’t mean a brand tests on animals; it just means the brand isn’t certified by these programs.
What Our BEEs Are Buzzing About
Here’s the beauty community demonstrating these eyeliner techniques in action:
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