The Invisible Liner Trend Is Not as Complicated as It Looks
By Devon Abelman. Photos: Courtesy of Instagram.
Some call it floating liner. Others refer to it as invisible liner. Either way, it's incredibly mesmerizing. You might have noticed your favorite beauty bloggers and makeup artists on Instagram trying out the latest liner trend. We sure have. More than once, we stopped scrolling at the sign of the mind-bending eye makeup. To put it simply, invisible liner, as we like to think of it, looks like someone Photoshopped out the black winged liner from a typical Instagram-worthy look. The entire lid has perfectly blended colors, but where liner is usually drawn on appear to be completely bare.
Everyone has been crediting Stacey McDonald (known as @staceymariemua) for the mind-blowing trend. McDonald, a professional makeup artist based in England, tells Allure that the look happened accidentally while she was teaching a makeup class. "It was actually meant to be triple winged liner," she says. "But when I took off the tape, I thought 'Wow, that looks good.'" When it came time for her to give her creation a name, she originally called it no-liner winged liner. Then, it became invisible liner. Once people realized wings are still involved, floating liner became a more popular term for it.
So what's the easiest way to recreate McDonald's invisible liner look? She has two suggestions. You can either use tape or eye makeup remover. If you choose to go the tape route, you'll need the standard clear variety you keep at your desk. The technique is similar to when creating the perfect cat eye with it. Instead of placing it diagonally along the outer corners of your eye, stick it at the middle of base of your lashes, going in the same diagonal direction. It should cover up the area where you typically draw on winged liner. Then, brush on whichever eye shadow you want and blend your heart out. After you pull off the tape, you can line along the crisp edge of shadow with glitter or black liquid liner, like the L'Oréal Paris Infallible The Super Slim Liner. You can see the process in action, here.
If you're not ready to break out office supplies, you can work backward. First, do your eye shadow all over your lid. Then, clean up the "invisible" area with some eye makeup remover, like Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Makeup Remover & Cleanser, on a cotton swab or an angled liner brush.
If you're not sure what to do with your actual eye shadow, here's some inspiration. Feel free to get as neutral or colorful as you want with it.
This story originally appeared on Allure.
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