Monolid eyes, no matter how beautiful, are tricky to apply eye makeup on – but it is possible. Toss that double lid eye tape – we won’t be needing it. With no crease and a small real estate for eye makeup, how do you get a glamorous eye look?
Forget all you know about techniques for double lids, it’s time for a paradigm shift. I promise these makeup hacks for alluring monolid eye looks will get you stares.
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Monolid Makeup Hacks to Make You Look Like a Korean Idol
1. Primer Is Key
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Oily lids and shadow fallout are the worst enemies of monolid makeup. Prevent fallout and keep your eye makeup in place even when your lids fold over your lash line with a great primer! I recommend a tacky and grip-y waterproof and intensifying primer on top of or underneath concealer or foundation.
Tip: Monolid makeup involves blending to the heavens, so make sure your primer isn’t too dry or doesn’t dry you out.
Bonus Tip: We’ve got an interesting article on the best primers you might wanna check out!
2. Keep It Minimal
If you feel that your shadows aren’t showing up on your lids, I’m sorry to say that adding more shadow isn’t going to help. The best look for monolid makeup is simplicity, and the key is proper color placement.
3. Accentuate the Shape of Your Eyes for Monolid Makeup
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When you paint on and blend your shadows, the direction of your brush should be outwards moving to the edges of your eyes rather than up. The outer corners of your eyes should carry the most drama and depth.
4. Lash Line Is Key to Monolid Makeup
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The lash line is the most visible area of monolid eyes, and also the secret to making it pop! It’s the best area to highlight and emphasize the length and shape of your eyes. This is also the most visible area of opened monolid eyes.
Tightline your upper and lower lashes to define them and make them appear bigger. Tightline your upper lashes with a black liner to define them, while a white liner on your lower lash line will give you larger eyes.
Keep your eyeshadow close to your lashes, opting for darker, smoky tones to accentuate those hazelnut eyes. Lighter shades won’t define your eyes as well, but if that’s the mood, use darker tones to smoke out your lash line.
5. Use Gel Instead of Liquid Eyeliner
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The best eyeliner for monolids is a gel liner applied with a thin, angled brush.
Gel liners are able to get into your lash line better than their liquid counterparts. You can also create a smoky effect with a good gel liner to pair with your pastel or lighter shades if that’s today’s mood. There’s so much more monolid makeup techniques you can apply with a gel liner!
6. Monolid Eyeliner Should Be a Straight Line
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Enhance the natural shape of your monolid using your eyeliner, this is a great way to elongate your eyes. Create a thick line in the middle of your eyelids, and maintain a straight line moving towards the edge. You can flick the liner slightly at the edge to achieve a fierce cat eye, but this liner trick is already glamorous in its own right.
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7. Don’t Force a Crease
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The defining characteristic of monolid eyes is that they don’t have a crease. Faking a crease may look fabulous on photos, but it comes off unnatural behind the camera.
Rather than combatting the natural contour of your eyes, focus the drama on the outer corners of your eyes. You’ll achieve just as much depth and a mysterious smoky eye just as well.
8. Apply Eyeshadow Underneath Your Eyes for Monolid Eye Makeup
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Another way to achieve a bold eye look is to apply eyeshadow underneath your eyes. Because monolids typically protrude more than other eye shapes, you can get away with this beautifully. No panda eyes here!
Drag down the shadow from the outer corner of your eye to your lower lash line, creating a V-shape. Blend well so that your whole eye look gets a gradient effect.
9. All That Glitters Is Bold
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Have you ever created a red carpet look in a minute?
Another way to bring drama and attention to your eyes is through glitters. Apply it all over the lid, following the shape of your eyes. The best part is you can opt out of eyeliner if you don’t feel like it and it will look just as gorgeous.
10. Blend and Diffuse Shimmery Shadows
Blend and diffuse shimmery shadows, now you’ve got two. You can now travel with just one pot eyeshadow – congratulations!
Dip your brush into your shadow and begin applying over the center of your eyeball. Blend the outer corners horizontally rather than vertically to give them a diffused and smoky look. The shadow at the center of your lid should look bold and dark, while the outer, diffused edges are now a shade lighter.
11. Lash Out on Your Lashes
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Don’t be troubled when your eye makeup performs a disappearing act, take it out (or up) on our lashes!
Curl them or apply feathery falsies to open your eyes and give them an instant lift. Do this with or without the shadows or liners, it’s an entirely natural monolid makeup look alone.
Check out this tutorial Beauty Insider on how to create different monolid makeup looks with different eye shapes:
Learn to embrace and work with the monolid windows to your soul! Now you know where to concentrate your makeup to make your eyes pop – the trick is horizontal rather than vertical. Don’t fight the flow, let your eye brush go with it!
These super easy hacks won’t just improve your everyday monolid makeup, it might even cut your beauty routine in half.
When was the last time you used double eyelid tape? Was it before or after you read these monolid makeup hacks? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!
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