Prevent Black Eyeliner from Fading

Wearing eyeliner is like a quick pick-me-up. It can instantly revive and change your appearance. The tricky part is deciding what application (pencil, cream, etc.) works best for you and, more importantly, how to keep your makeup from smudging, rubbing, fading or spreading to other parts of your eyelid throughout the day. And, let's face it, no one wants to shell out tons of money for something that you end up taking off at the end of the day anyway.

Barring the expensive surgery to have permanent eyeliner, there are many tricks and products that can either help you make your eyeliner last all day or are good enough alone to last all day. Here are a few of my own tried and tested tips.

Foundation: Like the foundation that you put on the rest of your face, a good foundation patted onto your eyelid, is a good idea if you use a regular pencil eyeliner application. A liquid foundation is the best, but you have to make sure that it matches your skin color. Otherwise, you end up looking like you are wearing a nude color eye shadow, and it may look odd.

If using liquid/wet foundation, use a sponge applicator to pat the foundation onto your eyelid. Make sure the foundation is completely dry before lining your eye. If you're not sure what to get, try Benefit's creamy shadow/liner, which is about $19 at Sephora.

If you are using a power foundation, pressed powder is better than loose powder, only because you have greater control of where the power ends up going. With loose power, you're bound to look like you are wearing skin color eye shadow.

After Lining Your Lids: After applying the eyeliner to your eyes, translucent loose powder is an extra precaution to make sure that your liner stays on. You can put a light smattering of powder on your eyeliner and eye lid for an extra seal of protection. Use an eye shadow brush as opposed to the freebie applicators you get with eye shadow compacts. The brush allows a more even distribution of powder and looks a lot more natural.

Black eye shadow is another step you can take after lining your lids. Instead of using translucent powder, find an eye shadow color that matches your eyeliner color exactly, and just put it directly on top of the eyeliner to seal it in place. Black and brown colors are obviously the easiest to find.

Blush: No, really. Find a rose- or terra cotta-colored blush and you have a base for your eyeliner that also doubles as a not too heavy eye shadow. It ends up giving you a little color, but doesn't over power the eye liner. Plus, blush powder is oftentimes lighter than eye shadow, and the free blush brush you usually get with drug store blushes, is a good applicator to use for your lid.

Markers: Well, not literally, but eyeliner applicators that are similar to markers, are some of the best products around because they keep your eyeliner on your eyes. If you're not familiar with this type of product, the applicator is basically like a marker. You are essentially drawing a line around your eyelid and lower lash line. They're relatively easy to use, but you should practice before actually going out.

If you want to try a marker-like eyeliner applicator, try Cover Girl's Line Exact. The tip is very fine and you can find this for around $7 at any drug store.

Dust your eyes with loose power, and then apply the eye liner. Keep your lids open by tilting your head back and looking down at the same time. Remain this way until the liner is completely dry.

With something like this, make sure to put on a bare eyelid. If mixed with anything powdery, the powder adhered to the applicator and then the liner comes out unevenly or doesn't come out at all.

Liquid: Liquid eyeliner are similar to pen/marker eyeliner in that once they dry, you are good to go all day. It will not budge. The downside is that you have to be able to master the applicator, which isn't brain surgery, but you don't have the same control as you would a pencil eyeliner.

With liquid products, definitely still do a light dusting of loose powder or concealer on your lid and corners of your eye before application.

Waterproof: Another way to go, is waterproof eyeliner. MAC's Liquidlast eyeliner is great. It's waterproof and will get your through the day. Plus, it doesn't get all cakey once it has dried and is on you lid for a couple of hours like some of the marker/liquid eye liner products out there. It stays smooth all day.