What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.
Who am I? What have you done with Karen? What’s happening to me? I don’t know why — whether some otherworldly entity has commandeered my body — but I’m having a majorly transformational moment with eyeliner right now, specifically brown eyeliner.
Actually, I do know why… Lately, whenever I look in a mirror, I feel like my eyes look even more exhausted than usual, and black liner makes it worse. Ironically, I used to almost exclusively wear black liner, and I LOVED it.
Then I discovered dark brown MAC Coffee.
MIND BLOWN.
It filled the same need that black liners filled — creating a thicker lash base, bigger-looking lids, defining the shape of my eyes — but didn’t look as harsh.
So…I just figured out that even lighter shades than brown, like taupe, can work like this too. And taupe. Is. Dope.
I’m super in love with this $33 liner from the Chanel Le Stylo Yeux line called Mat Taupe, which is — surprise! — a matte taupe. Like MAC Coffee, it doesn’t have red undertones, but it’s slightly lighter and less gray.
When I wear it to tight line and along my lash lines, it does ALL THE GOOD STUFF — defines my eyes, makes my lashes look thicker, etc. — but it’s even less harsh than dark brown.
For years, I pooh-poohed the idea of wearing brown liner because I thought it was boring (“Why wear brown when you could wear black?”), but now I get it. Now I know.
