This Purple Outlined Cat-Eye Tutorial Will Make Your Jaw Drop

September 23, 2020

By: Alanna Martine Kilkeary | Makeup.com by L'Oréal

We’re fairly certain we’ve tried every kind of cat-eye on the planet — from hollowed-out cut creases to butterfly wings — but our love of the technique has only grown stronger as we focus our makeup looks “above the mask.” After exhausting all of our usual cat-eye tricks, we challenged Britney Delgado, or @GlamxBrit as she’s known on Instagram, to create a new version of the classic black wing. Learn how to recreate her epic purple cat-eye outline look below.

STEP 1: Prime the Eyes

Start the look by applying a concealer or eyeshadow primer to prep the eye. Here, Delgado used the Dermablend Cover Care Concealer all over her lid, extending it onto her crease and blending it up toward her brow bone with a flat brush. When you do it, don’t set it. Instead, leave it semi-wet so it can really grab onto the eyeshadow.
STEP 2: Apply Your Bold Shadow

Using the NYX Professional Makeup Ultimate Brights Palette, pick up the lilac (the second color down from the top on the right) shade and focus it on the outer half of your lid and blend inward, keeping the inner corner of your eye bare. Next, starting at the center of the eye, layer a darker purple shadow overtop and blend just past the outer corner of the eye. If you want to add a touch of sparkle, we recommend tapping Cyber Punk, a royal, shimmering purple, from the Urban Decay Ultraviolet Palette, onto the center of the lid to really amp up the look.

STEP 3: Start Your Liner

Start by creating a small wing at the outer corner of the eye, starting from the outer fifth of the upper lash line and extending it to the end of the brow. Use a black liquid liner like the NYX Professional Makeup Epic Wear Liquid Liner in Black for this step. Then, grab a lilac liner (Delgado used the Epic Wear Liquid Liner in Lilac) and apply a thin line above the black winged line you just created. A liner with a precision tip will allow you to keep your lines really crisp and delicate, but you can always clean up any mistakes with a pointed cotton swab dipped in micellar water. Try the Garnier SkinActive All-in-1 Waterproof Micellar Cleansing Water if you don’t already have one. You’ll just have to reapply a little bit of purple shadow if you do end up having to do any cleanup.
STEP 4: Create Your Outline

Using your black liquid liner, draw a thin line above the outer quarter of the lilac line, connecting it to the tip of the black wing below for an outlined effect.

STEP 5: Complete Your Eye Look

Smudge the lilac and purple shadows you used on your lid under your lower lash line, focusing the darker shade on the outer half of the eye. And finally, add a coat of black mascara, like the L’Oréal Paris Bambi Extra Noir Mascara, over a set of falsies for a head-turning eye look.