I love applying a wing to the inner corner of the eye, I find it gives a beautiful cat-eye look. It compliments the shape of the eyes, and makes them really stand out. Inner corner winged eyeliner can also help tie a lot of my eye makeup looks together. I’ve noticed that with false lashes you can see a harsh end to the lash band. Especially when wearing a lash with a thicker band, which is common with more dramatic styles. So starting the inner corner wing where the lash band ends, makes it look seamless. Inner corner liner also pairs well with regular winged liner adding drama to both ends of the eye.
Getting Started
Today I’ll walk you through how to apply inner corner winged eyeliner step by step. Including a video demonstration of the application, and some product favorites.
To draw on the inner corner wing, I like to follow the natural contours of my lash lines and my eye shape. This will of course vary a bit from person to person as we all have different eye structure. However makeup has no rules, so you can modify this however you’d like. I just find the curves of the eye are a good starting point to work from.
For the first step, I like to use a good waterproof liquid eyeliner. Or a gel eyeliner whatever you are most comfortable using. I have tested a few liquid liners that last really well for me, but of course all eyes are different. The eyes can be a little watery at times in the inner corner area. I’ve listed some of my most used favorite liners for the inner corner down below at the bottom of this post.
I apply my inner corner wing as a last step in my makeup routine. Typically when my eyeshadow and face makeup is complete. I like to apply a powder to the inner corner to absorb any moisture that may be there. It helps it stay a little better and doesn’t slide around. You may have already applied an eyeshadow to the inner corner and that works perfectly the same. However if it is blank still, you can apply a touch of translucent powder. If you need a little extra staying power, you could pat an eyeshadow base on the inner corner eye area skin before eyeshadow. The Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer is a good one I enjoy using.
Now that your inner corner is prepped with powder or eyeshadow, I like starting with the upper lash line first. If you look straight in the mirror, follow the shape of your eye and the curve of your top lash line. Imagine if that angle/line were to continue onward at that same angle towards your nose. This is the guide I like to use for drawing on my first line. I picture the imaginary line in my head, then sketch out a small line with my eyeliner using thin strokes along this guideline.
You can make your inner corner wing as short or as long as you’d like. Starting with a short line is usually easier for me, and I can go back and extend it after I draw my bottom line. I like using light strokes, and resting my hand or elbow somewhere as a fulcrum helps a lot. Or I’ll place just my pinky on my cheek for balance, and keep my arms tight to my chest. Focus on keeping a thin line, you can always make a thicker wing once you have it sketched on. Using just the tip of the brush of the eyeliner or liner brush will help keep the line thinner. I like using tiny short strokes when sketching my line. Just slowly making the liner longer bit by bit.
Next I like to draw on my bottom line, by connecting it to my lower lash line and our first upper line. Again looking straight into the mirror, imagine as if your lower lash line were to continue onwards towards your nose. I like to use this as a guide. Or most often I like drawing a straight line, going horizontal across. It leaves a small gap of space in the inner corner so this is personal preference, create your wing how you love it. Once I know where I want to start my line, I feather on the liner, then connect it to the other line making a sharp point. I stop a little short of the upper lines end point. I find this creates a sharper wing and a thinner point.
Once you have your inner corner wing drawn on, this is when I like to pull the line inwards towards the lashes if needed to blend into the falsies. You can do that same thing on the lower lash line as well or even go in with some pencil liner on your waterline. Tight-lining the eyes really connects all the eyeliner together. I also think it gives the lashes a thicker fuller appearance.
Sometimes it’s hard to keep both the lines perfect, and I often make mistakes. In these instances, I’ll grab a cotton swab with some micellar water. I’ve been really liking these pointed ones from amazon. I use the tip of the cotton swab and spin it in place to remove the mistake. It allows for a such a precise clean up. If your makeup will get ruined with this method, I also find a full coverage concealer can clean things up. I’ll use a small spotter brush from the craft store and place the smallest amount on the mistake and gently set with the eyeshadow used in that area or a setting powder.
It’s often hard to explain makeup steps without demonstration of course. Especially so when I’m over here talking about imaginary lines to follow. So I have attached a video tutorial at the top of the post for reference.
Products
Lastly I wanna go over some of my favorite liners for my inner corner. I tend to have a watery inner corner that will often smudge or bleed if the formula doesn’t work for me. My first favorite is the Maven Beauty liquid liner. There are a few different shades available in this formula. It has a brush tip with a twist dispenser at the bottom. I do enjoy the brush on the actual component but I also love using a spotter brush from the craft store. It tends to be a lot thinner this way.
Another favorite is the Too Faced Better Than Sex liner, it’s available in brown and black, I used the brown one in the above video.
Urban Decay also just launched their 24/7 ink liquid liner, this liner has quite a few fun pops of color. This liner has a super defined tip and is really good for creating small fine inner corner wings.
For gel liner, I used to use the Maybelline eye studio gel liner which works great for outer wings as well if you’re a beginner. However I stopped using gel as I’ve found liquid liner gives a sharper line and not as blurred as gel liner. I haven’t tried a whole lot of gel liner in the past though so I might be missing out.
On the topic of Maybelline liners in the inner corner. They have now discontinued one of my favorites. The Maybelline Eye Studio Master Duo 2 in 1 Glossy liquid liner. I think it can still be purchased online on some sites, but this was my go-to for inner corner liner. It has a round circular shaped felt tip that was flat. The flat edges were perfect for drawing on a point, and the formula stayed so well for me. I’m curious if the Maybelline Eyestudio Master Precise liner has a similar stay power in the formula I’ll have to try it out. If anyone has tried that one, or any other liners let me know as I always love trying out new ones!
Depending on how long you are wearing your makeup, and if your eyes are not super watery. You may even be able to use a little bit of eyeshadow to create this inner corner wing look. I really enjoy using art brushes for the eyeliner as there are so many options available at the craft store. I like getting ones with short bristles for the inner corner so I have more control. One of my favorites right now is the Princeton Velvet touch 18/0 round brush. I found it at my local Hobby Lobby in the paint brush department. This brush is awesome for graphic liner looks too.
A simple way to add a pop of color to your eyeshadow look, is using a colored liner for the inner corner wing. It would also be a cool way to add in complementary colors to the look to pair with your eye color. I have brown eyes so I like using purple or blue. Here is an example of what I mean, I used a little bit of purple liner with this classic black wing look.
You don’t even necessarily need to use an eyeliner. You could place a little bit of purple eyeshadow, or whatever color you’d like on the bottom portion of the inner corner wing. I just recently did so with a soft fall themed color look by adding some red shadow to the inner corner to compliment the winged liner.
In this look I added an inner corner wing with Maven Beauty lagoon eyeliner which I drew on with a Princeton velvet touch 18/0 round brush.
