Different Eyeliner Styles For A Distinctive Look

A lot of people have asked me about different eyeliner styles and how to do them but the truth is I haven’t really spent a lot of time trying out the cat eye, Egyptian Pharaoh or Goth look. I don’t have the face or coloring for dramatic eyeliner or makeup. (OK I confess, I’m a closet mouse really with a hankering for natural makeup, that looks like me, only better but I’m going to rebel one of these days….)

All is not lost though, even though I can’t give you the run down on these different eyeliner looks on my eyes, there are plenty of makeup daredevils who like nothing better than to give themselves a dramatic look with their eyeliner and you can get a whole ton of eyeliner ideas and tutorials on how to do them if you look for them.

To save you the bother I have put together a whole list of resources here so that you can look at the ones you’re most interested in. Enjoy! It certainly opened my eyes to what eyeliner can do – if you have the face and personality for it of course 🙂 and I even found some that I am going to try out with all the videos I have watched to put this together.

By the way if you just want to know how to create a natural looking eyeliner for a classic look, see the article on How to Apply Eyeliner instead.

Cat Eyeliner

This is a very simple video to follow if you want to learn how to do cat eyeliner. Cat eye liner is a great evening look and adds a bit of drama even if you don’t want to look too made up. Cat eyes can be a sexy look too though so watch out for predators! This could be quite heavy black eyeliner but you’ll see in the video how it is softened just a bit so that the eyes don’t look too closed in.

For a lighter summer look, see this summer cat eye tutorial from Smashbox cosmetics. This goes through the whole makeup so if you’re only interested in the eyeliner fast forward to around the 3 minute mark but the whole thing is only 5 minutes so it’s worth a watch as it creates a very pretty natural look. Even I will have a go at this one.

And here’s yet another way to do cat eyes eyeliner with versions for day and evening. You will find that you may suit one shape more than another if other styles of eyeliner are anything to go by. I’m going to try these two and the summer look this week.

More cat eyeliner looks

Arabic Eyeliner Looks

Arabic or Egyptian eyeliner is characterized by heavy black lines. Egyptian eyeliner always has a distinctive line at the outer corner of the eyes just like you see on an Egyptian mummy and pictures of the Pharaohs but you can follow videos for either to get a powerful and dramatic look.

Hot Arabic Makeup

This video has over 100 great Arab eyeliner and makeup ideas so that you can get an idea how you want to look before following the tutorials in the other videos. Why not freeze the frame with your favorite look while you practice putting on your eyeliner so that you know what you are aiming for?

Arabic eyeliner tutorial

This one has a heavy dramatic eyeliner for a traditional Arab look. Good clear tutorial that shows you don’t have to be perfect with your eyeliner application to achieve the look (though it helps).

Arabic eye make up tutorial

A good video if you want help with eye shadow as well as eyeliner. Gives guidance on using tape to get a more defined look. Uses black eyeliner plus red and black eyeshadow

Egyptian Queen inspired makeup

Many of the online videos for Arabic and Egyptian eyeliner show very thick black lines around the eyes and that makes them too harsh for everyday wear as well as too dramatic for most people especially those with fairer coloring. But this video shows a very wearable look with Egyptian makeup as the lines are distinct but slightly thinner. Probably best for evening though. I like the silver eyeliner used to highlight the black in this video.

Green Arabic Eyeliner and Makeup Tutorial

A beautiful look with green eyeshadow and Arabic eyeliner

And ones with lilac and blue dramatic Arabic eyes.

More Arabic Makeup videos

Goth Eyeliner Ideas

If you want goth eyeliner, then you will find a couple of tutorials below to choose from for slightly different looks.

In the first one I picked out, black eyeshadow and eyeliner are extended out to side of the eyes with a flick and then a swirl design added in black cake eyeliner with a fine brush. You could use a gel too. I’m not a goth – I’ve never been a goth – but I like this look until it goes a bit over the top with the face painting. Still it’s not so scary LOL

I like this second Goth look as it has a bit of color to it but still characterized by the thick black eyeliner that is essential for the look

There are quite a few more on You Tube but they were for full Goth makeup or they seemed more punk than Goth to me so I’ll let you be the judge as I’m not sure what Goth is any more LOL after looking at all of these. Here’s what you get when you look for Goth eye makeup tutorial anyway.

Emo Eyeliner Styles

Now if you’re into the emo scene then you have probably seen lots of examples of eye make up that work for the look. There’s no one particularly look – it’s just characterized as looking a bit sad and well, emotional. Here are a few tutorials that you can try to get your own style.

Here’s one created only with Styli-Style eyeliner used to paint a thick line on the upper lids and an only slightly thinner line below. Distinctive touch added at the inner corner to give the emo look.

More emo scene makeup, this time just following the shape of the eyes with thick black lines and then smudging upwards to soften the look a bit on the upper lids

A more sophisticated emo scene look for teens. This has quite a long intro – actual tutorial starts at 2 minutes.

More emo scene looks

I hope that give you a good idea of the possibilities whatever eyeliner styles you’re interested in.