(Beauty)

The Best Gel Eyeliner Is One You Can't Buy Until June

by Maria Del Russo
Imaxtree

Though graphic liner isn't always the look you'd go for on a daily basis, it is definitely a look that requires a certain level of confidence to pull off. Especially bold, black eyeliner. The trial and error that goes along with trying something new is much easier when you're using a budget beauty buy. And backstage at at Proenza Schouler's Fall/Winter 2019 show on Feb. 11., key makeup artist Dick Page worked with the new Maybelline Color Tattoo 24HR Eyeshadow launch, which rolls out in June 2019.

It's a reformulation of the brand's wildly successful Maybelline Color Tattoo 24HR Gel Cream Eyeliner, and it'll sell for $7.99 — just a dollar more than the original. The launch will include a new cast of colors, including Risk Maker, the same shade used on all of the models. "It's almost like a chalkboard black," he tells The Zoe Report. "It's a very flat black color."

The makeup look was very much inspired by the clothing that Proenza Schouler showed. "There's a lot of tailoring and menswear fabrics [in the collection]," Page notes. "It's not quite beautiful, but there is something striking about it." Using that masculine energy as a jumping off point, Page applied thick, painterly lines across the lids of a handful of models working in the show.

Imaxtree
Courtesy of Maria Del Russo.

"This look only shows up nine times in the collection," he explains. "Some girls have [the eyeliner] on the top and bottom lids, some just have it on top, and there's one girl who only has it on the bottom [lid]." The key to this graphic eyeliner trend is to paint every line with the same hand. So every woman who had this graphic look was painted by Page — none of the other makeup artists backstage.

Instead of a typical eyeshadow brush, Page worked with a heavy fluffy brush from Smith Collection. "It has a tapered tip, so it has some weight to it," Page says. "I needed something with weight so it felt like a paintbrush, since it's truly like I'm laying down paint on their eyes."

When you're working with an eyeliner look as graphic as this one, Page says that it's important that the rest of the makeup look minimal. "We're barely doing anything on the rest of the face," he reveals. And anyone who knows Page knows that he isn't a fan of the flat way in which concealer lays on the face. So he took great care to ensure he was using very minimal coverage — and he advised those of us backstage that barely-there face makeup was the key to pulling off a graphic eye. "It's just perfect skin with a very subtle lip," Page says, referring to the Maybelline Color Sensational Made For All Lipstick in Pink For Me applied to models' lips.

With the relaunch of Maybelline's Color Tattoo 24HR Eyeshadow, a graphic eyeliner look is probably something you're going to want to experiment come June. Just remember Page's tips — keep the rest of your look minimal, and if you're going to do a lip, make sure it's subtle. Oh, and when in doubt, apply your shadow with a powder brush.

Shop some of the hero products ahead.