How To Do Winged Eyeliner | Step-By-Step For Every Eye Shape

The only timeless style of them all out there is Wing Eyeliner. No matter how many cool trends try to label this style as outdated, a classic wing eyeliner with red lips can never go wrong. Trends are for the anxious, after all. Wing eyeliner has been a thing for decades. It’s a staple beautifying technique that everyone wants to work out on their versatile features. Wing look literally goes with every occasion. A nice, thin flick is professional, then thicker or more graphic ones are for more social or night wear. This skill won’t ever let you down.

That’s why this article will make sure you’re adequately skilled with wing eyeliner. Everything starting from how to do winged eyeliner, what you need to nail the wing eyeliner style, suggestions specifically for different eye shapes along with expert tips, and many more are included. You just need to look for it.

Follow all the guidelines and practice. You need to accept and embrace your features first and then do something that compliments you.

What is Winged Eyeliner

Wing eyeliner is a perfect feline flick that flatters most eye shapes. This classic look is undoubtedly the easiest way to channel your inner Audrey Hepburn. This look is elegant and tricky to pull off, but boy!! Is it worth it?

What Are The Tools You Need to Nail the Winged Eyeliner Style

1. Choosing the right eyeliner, brush, or pencil: If you already have any specific product to begin with, I’d say experiment and practice with that first. Otherwise, a pen-tip eyeliner or gel eyeliner with a really precise brush can be a good starter for beginners.
2. Primer.
3. Face powder(optional) Ruler or straight objects. Concealer/foundation. Black eyeshadow.
4. Stencil(optional) 
5. Q-tip
6. Tweezers (if necessary)
7. Hand mirror.

How To Do Winged Eyeliner (Step-By-Step) 

Preparation for the eyes:

1. Clean Base: For a long-lasting eye look, you have to wipe your eye area thoroughly. Even skincare can break down your eye look you spent so much time on.
2. Priming: Apply on both the upper and lower lid and push it on the skin gently. And then, take a little bit of face powder and set it in place.

Steps you need to follow:

1st step: Take a clean mirror to help with concentration cause, trust me, it can get frustrating at times. Hand mirror gives you access to move around, and you’ll feel you have something in control at least.

2nd step: Hold the mirror slightly lower and look at it at a 45-degree angle. But for hooded eyes, you have to look straight.

3rd step: Follow the line of your lower lash line. The upper lash line makes the wing go too high up, and at such an angle, it isn’t too flattering.

4th step: Flick it up once you know what you want. A big tip is to not put so much pressure on the end. And don’t do anything abruptly because that makes you lose control.

5th step: After getting done with the first flicks on both eyes, it’s time to bring it back to the lid. It’s straightforward to want to go where your flick ends and drag it in, but it’s recommended to go halfway to that point. While bringing the wing in, don’t use only the pointy tip but the whole nib to get more product, and it does the work as you’ve laid it horizontally.

6th step: You’ve eaten the frog already in the previous step. Now it’s time to gently line the lid with short strokes of the liner. Do not attempt to tackle the whole shape at once. Fill in if any gap is left.

7th step: Once you’re satisfied, you can build up your liner for more perfection. For example, build up right where your wing meets with the eyes or just lengthen the wing more to your liking.

Common mistakes to avoid

Common Mistake #01: Work with light hands, and don’t end your strokes with pressure so that they end with big dots.

Common Mistake #02: While lining the inner portion of the eyelid, don’t use your liner or brush pointedly because that will make you blink rapidly. Use them flatly.

Common Mistake #03: Don’t look too straight, or the liner will transfer into the crease.

How To Do Winged Eyeliner for Beginners (Expert Tips)

Expert Tip #01: Start with the eyes first before doing your face makeup.

Expert Tip #02: Do eyeliner with shadows first if you’re just starting.

Expert Tip #03: Fat eyeliner makes it easy to hold and control.

Expert Tip #04: Dried-out eyeliner can be really helpful for mapping out the wings.

Expert Tip #05: You can put your fingers on your face for balance, like putting your pinky finger on your chin so that your hands are not overworked or shaking.

Expert Tip #06: Start minimal because you can always build up more on that later.

Expert Tip #07: If you accidentally end up with a glob in the middle of the lid, instead of thickening up the whole wing, leave it and let it dry. After that, push it down with your fingernails or the back of your tweezers.

How To Do Wing Eyeliner on Different Eye Shapes

How To Do Wing Eyeliner on Monolid-Shaped Eyes

1. As the eye skin of monolids overlaps, you need to wipe off any excess oil from your eyelid in order to prevent any creasing. Using a good eye primer on both the upper and lower lid is necessary.
2. Make sure you look straight with your eyes open all the time.
3. What makes drawing a wing eyeliner on monolid eyeshadow tricky is you cannot actually draw the liner directly on your lid as it is hidden away with an extra layer of skin. You have to draw on top of that fold, which you may know as the epicanthic fold.
4. If you have asymmetrical eyelids, which is normal, you may want to map out your wing with an angled brush and eyeshadow because then each eye requires two different shapes of winged liner.
5. In case you have a hooded monolid, figure out the highest point of your eye and draw a straight line on the outer part where your wing should be. Then, see where your lower waterline points toward and draw another stroke at that angle. When you connect both lines, that’s your wing.
6. Set your eyeliner with powder eyeshadow afterward because even with liquid eyeliner, you can face smudging as the skin rubs against each other a lot.

How To Do Wing Eyeliner on Upturned-Shaped Eyes

1. No creases involved, hence less hassle to go through. So, you can undoubtedly use a pen eyeliner for a more intense color payoff.
2. Start with creating small strokes from the top of your eyelid.
3. Avoid thicker wings, or it will end up looking too much.
4. For the inner corner, tightening would be enough. Still, if you want to go with a little bolder look, hold your pen liner flat and just stamp thin lines really close to your lashes.
5. Remember to trace your natural eye shape. And if you’re not going to wear falsies, it’ll be better to make the wing look more natural by blending everything with your natural eyelashes. Basically, make sure no blank spot is showing through.

How To Do Wing Eyeliner on Downturned Shaped Eyes

1. Downturned eyes are a little droopy, which causes your crease line to come down low, but it doesn’t interfere with the lid as much as it does with hooded eyes. So if you want a sharp wing, you cannot pass that crease, or it’ll break your wing, and you’ll end up with that little check mark look.
2. If your crease comes too far down that you can’t even do a straight wing, go for a blended wing. For that, pencil eyeliner along with eyeshadows are much preferred.
3. Always start with marking where you want your wing placed. If you do this with your eyes closed or looking down, then when you open your eye, the wing is not going to be where you thought it was because the crease makes it go in a different direction.
4. Perks of using a pencil eyeliner is you can use a small brush to blend and give it shape according to your preference. But don’t forget to set with eyeshadows later.
5. When blending with eyeshadows, use the darker ones closest to your lash line and the lighter ones as you go farther up for that gradient effect. This way, your wing won’t appear broken on the corner.
6. Now, for a more dramatic wing look, you can definitely use a liquid or gel liner close to your lash line and blend out. For the inner corners, tightening would be enough; there is no need to blend all the way in.

How To Do Wing Eyeliner on Round-Shaped Eyes

1. Round eyes may be the most prominent feature you have on your face. Big eyes have endless soul power; as they say, eyes are the window to the soul. So you have to find that happy medium when it comes to round eyes, as they are overpowering already. This means you can’t go way too light or way too heavy with the eyeliner.
2. The first task is to get the angle right. Picture an imaginary line from your inner corner to the outer corner. If that line is straight or downturned, you want to create such a wing that gives an illusion of almond eyes or looks angled up. Because only following the eye shape will make you look bogged down, and that might not look too flattering.
3. The shape of the wing should be thicker on the outside and thinner on the inside. The same thickness all the way across would exaggerate the droopiness of the eyes.
4. Liquid pen eyeliner would be a great option. Start at the outer corner and flick it up to get the shape of the wing. If you struggle to get the same angle on both eyes, don’t worry; read the FAQ part and find the solution.
5. Round eyes generally have a lot of lid space. So, after doing the first flick, make a dot where you want your eyeliner to start on your lid and connect them. After that, connect another line from your inner corner and that dot. And that’s all, fill it up.

How To Do Wing Eyeliner on Hooded-Shaped Eyes

1. With eye shapes like hooded/downward, a precise liner look can close up the eyes even more. But when you add some smokiness at the base of the lashes, it creates some volume. So, for this reason, you’ll need both pencil and pen eyeliner.
2. With a pencil eyeliner, start massaging your eyelashes. The purpose is to make sure there is no skin peeking through. Don’t worry about the shape much.
3. Match the outer tip of the wing with the highest point of the middle of the lid. And match the angle to the nose-eyebrow line. Once you’re done, blend lightly.
4. Finally, go with the pen eyeliner and start with small and light strokes wherever you want.
5. Rest your pinky finger on your hairline and very slightly pull so that your crease can’t disturb much.
6. For hooded eyes, if you add something lighter on the outer water line, it will open up the ends. If you do the same in the inner lower waterline, it opens up the mid part. You can do this for a wide-eye effect.

How To Do Wing Eyeliner on Almond-Shaped Eyes

1. As the shape is already there, you don’t have to flick the wing up or down to give an illusion. Wings on almond shape are straight-is.
2. If you have good control over your hand, a felt tip is perfect.
3. Smudge out the edges with a slightly similar colored shadow to make your wing look like you gave effort.

How To Do Perfect Winged Eyeliner Makeup Look

• Curl your lashes: A must for opening up the eyes. If you use the guide of your outer lashes to start drawing your wing liner, you already know how important this step is, right? You can use normal eyelash curlers or heated ones, or heat up your normal lash curler with a lighter!

Tips: If you don’t have a heated lash curler, use a makeshift one. Get two clean and unused wooden sticks (used on Q-tips). Heat them up slightly with a lighter and place your lashes in between those sticks. Finally, press and hold to create a long-lasting curl. This technique is commonly used by makeup artists of K-beauty.

• Apply mascara: Skipping mascara means bypassing magic for real. For lengthening, mascara itself is enough. Even though voluminous lashes are a byproduct of mascara for adding extra volume, use a lash separator. For dramatic lashes, try out different colors or simply stamp glitters on the tip of your lashes.
• Add falsies: Nothing can beat individual lashes in this case. These can be worn on both upper and lower lashes and give you the perfect doll eyes. But if you don’t have individual ones, cut strip lashes into 3-4 parts. Then, exclude the more extended parts and add the shorter ones to the outer part of your eyes. As for the lower lashes, draw fake lashes with fine-tipped eyeliner that compliments your eyes. Please don’t go wearing an entire strip of lashes with a wing eyeliner look; we don’t do that any more.
• Add eye shadow to complement the winged eyeliner look: You can either play with colors or enhance your eye shape with darker shadows to make the wing liner pop out. To do that, emphasize the outer corner of your lower lashes with a slightly darker shade. Try going for Aegyo-Sal, which is a little under-eye fat look popular among East Asian makeup artists. You can define your crease following your eyeball as a guide, too. It’s like creating another wing, coming out of your eye crease with a slightly darker brown shade. These techniques will elongate the eye shape more, and it’s universal as you’re following your eyeball shape.

Different Types of Winged Eyeliner Styles

• Sticker wing- Not for everyone, but if you’re lucky enough, you’ll know you’re gonna have to stock up on sticker wings cause it’s the best cheat code to ever exist. Just have to pull the adhesive tape off and place it. Doesn’t look flattering to all eye shapes and sometimes doesn’t even sit well to begin with. But there’s no harm in trying it out.
• Soft wing- Perfect for downward, hooded, and even round-shaped eyes. As if this style blurs out all the creases or hoods that interfere with eyeliner. For those who think black solid liners look harsh on them, soft wing is the best alternative.
• Sharp wing- So sharp, can cut all the haters out of life. This type of wing is angled towards the temple and has to be as pointiest, straightest, and flatest as possible. It really elongates, and you have to have good hands for this style.
• Thick wing: It’s thick from start to end. With a liquid eyeliner, you just have to go all out, stroke after stroke. It’s good if you have lid space, but hooded-eye people can rock, too. Adds drama to your eye with all that thickness.
• Under eye wing- This wing involves both the upper and lower lid. Basically, extend your upper lid downwards a little and then go up as you usually would to draw a wing. It’s like a little check mark. Then connect with your mid eyelid. After that, take a black shadow and blend that extended part with a lower lid till the middle.
• Faded wing- The easiest way to do this is to use tape. Starting with a brown pencil or gel eyeliner to roughly sketch out the wing and then blending it with different shades of eyeshadows gives that gradient faded look.
• Graphic wing- This style needs ultimate confidence. Little space to make mistakes. Any type of design made with eyeliner on the upper or lower lid can be graphic eyeliner.
• Edgy wing- Edgy wings will make you stand out in the crowd. Because it over-exaggerates certain parts of the eyes. It may be a very elongated inner eye corner or drawing spikes in place of lower lashes, adding signs around the wing, etc.
• Colored wing- As the name says, everything drawn is colorful. So many colored eyeliners are already available in the market. Grab your fav, or just play with your eyeshadows.
• Batwing- Wing eyeliner on hooded eyes are basically bat wings. You can literally draw prominent bat wing-shaped eyeliner, too. Subtle bat wings are really popular nowadays as they make drawing perfect wing eyeliner even on droopy or hooded eyes.
• Fishtail wing- It’s a fun style where one wing goes upwards and another downwards like a fishtail.
• Split wing- In this style, another wing starts from the lower lid and follows the actual wing parallelly. Both the wings have an excellent thin gap between them. This look is very graceful.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I make sure both wings are even?

Answer: You have to stay calm and collected when you do eyeliner; it can sense your fear, lol. Imagine your wing, and the hand shall follow. Now that we’re done with mentally priming ourselves, here’s one hack you can follow as a beginner-

• DIY eyeliner stencil: Fold any sticky tape with a glued part outside. Cut a V shape of your preferred size on the outer edge. Again, cut in the middle, and you’ll get two wing stencils. Stick your stencil as an extension of the lower lash line on both sides. Gel liner would be best as liquid liners tend

 To overflow, and pencil ones might budge the stencil out of place. And that’s how you skip to the good part.

There are a lot of other hacks, which we discussed in this article, too. Find your eye shape and check out all the excellent suggestions to get better at it.

What’s the best type of eyeliner to use for winged eyeliner?

Brush tips. Has flexibility. It can make a perfect wing without dragging. The flick is significantly more precise. Does the best job of not accentuating wrinkles.

How can I prevent my winged eyeliner from smudging?

Have to start off with clean skin. Wipe the eye area with wet tissue. Use a good primer if you have a lot of folds going around.

Can I do winged eyeliner on hooded eyes?

You’ve got this in the bag! With so many ways and techniques we conquered, wing liner feels the easiest on hooded eyes now.

What are some tips for creating a winged eyeliner look with glasses?

Wearing glasses with power can warp your eyeliner no matter how perfectly it’s done. So, you might want to go for a thinner liner on the lid and a more extended wing than usual. Try out colored liners for an instant boost. Adding a pop of color/shimmer also looks great.

How do I fix a mistake while doing winged eyeliner?

You can make sure you don’t make any mistakes, to begin with, by mapping out the wing beforehand with eyeshadow or a dried-out eyeliner. Even if a mistake occurs, simply use micellar water and Q-tips.

Final Thoughts

So, to conclude everything, you now know what types of tools you need to begin with and all the steps that need to be followed in order to get a perfect winged eyeliner. Keep all the expert tips in mind. And also avoid the don’ts to not make mistakes. Hope the suggestions listed explicitly for your eye shape are helpful. Incorporate them into your eyeliner routine. A lot of other techniques, like adding eyeshadows or doing lashes, add immense weight to the overall look, so don’t forget them.

Finally, you need to be patient and consistent. You might not need so much time as today after a couple of days. Let your muscle memory sink everything in, and try again tomorrow. Once you get used to it, you’ll make it a habit. You wouldn’t want to stop even if new trends make wing liner style feel outdated. Wing eyeliner is not limited to just a flick. A lot of variants exist. Have fun with all of them.