A Rogue’s Ode to Brown Eyeliner: Classic Tips and Looks for the Everyday Adventurer!

Greetings from the depths of a rogue’s beauty adventuring kit, fellow adventurers!

As you may have noticed from previous posts on this site, I tend to get distracted by bright colours and glitter. I’ve never been the *most* enthusiastic purchaser of neutrals (unless they have fabulous packaging and count as purple neutrals). Sure, I have and love the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, but I tend to feel like that more or less does it for me. Barring the occasional sexy looking taupe or incidental champagne shimmer shadow, I don’t tend to lust after ‘neutrals’, and get slightly frustrated when brands fill half an otherwise exciting palette with yet more neutrals. Is this a rational view? Probably not. Do Rae and Liz keep posting beguiling reviews and swatches of Clarins neutrals? Well, yes. But a rogue’s predilection for things that are jewel toned and sparkly runs deep, you know… 😉

Remember this? I can even make my eyes look jewel toned and sparkly if you give me MS Powerpoint and 10 minutes!

 

Anyway, there’s one ‘neutral’ sort of thing that I will always have a deep love for, and that is brown eyeliner. Brown eyeliner is a marvellous thing, and doesn’t get nearly enough credit, or time in the spotlight as far as I’m concerned. And so, in a post inspired by the aforementioned Rae‘s recent mention of mud coloured liner, I’m going to wax lirogueical (TOTALLY A WORD) on that humblest of liner colours, and offer up a couple of reasons why I think you should bust out a chocolaty liner tomorrow (unless you were going to anyway, in which case, we need a secret handshake or something).

Does anyone else have a super sensitive inner-second-quarter to their eyelid? As soon as I touch it with anything, I blink and smear whatever it was up my lid 😛

 

Let’s step slightly to the side first, and start with the undeniably fabulous crowd-favourite eyeliner: black. There are many reasons why black eyeliner is so popular, not least of which are its accessibility (if they make no other colour of liner, a brand will probably have a black one) and its classic, kittenish, lashline-bolstering nature. However, when you’re as fluorescently, vampirically pale as I am, black liner can start to prove troublesome. Even if you’re not putting on a thick line, black can look undeniably harsh and ‘unnatural’ on very fair skin. Usually, this is not a problem, as if I’m putting on black liner, I don’t want ‘natural rogue’, I want ‘sex kitten rogue‘. However, for everyday purposes, it can be a lot more HELLO MAKEUP YES than I’m looking for.

 

Chatting at the office water cooler, Ogg and Grogg suddenly realised that they had fundamentally different views on eyeliner. Their friendship was being tested to the utmost.

 

This is where brown liner comes to the rescue! Brown liner is the rogue in the party. It comes in a million different varieties and shades, it’s a multitasker, it can be stealthy, or can fly at you with both daggers rasied of need be. It disarms the traps of unnatural looking liner and opens the treasure chests of easy everyday looks for the phosphorescent among us. It forgives small errors in application and doesn’t stand out so much against un-liner’d lash roots. It tints the lower waterline to make the eye stand out without leaning toward ‘smokey’ or closing the eye, but you can still totally do a smokey brown look with it if you want. In thick lines, it doesn’t make the lid look as heavy. If it has a second tone of shimmer or glitter in it, this often stands out better. It’s appropriate for every occasion. I could go on. 😉

My favourite brown liner, as most of you are probably aware, is Urban Decay’s Demolition: a matte deep-but-distinctly brown. I have several other brown liners from the same brand, however, and love all of them for various reasons. A current favourite is Twice Baked from the Ocho Loco 2 set, which was LE, but can be effectively duped by a couple of other shades from the permanent range, and probably others from different brands. In fact, the look in the very first image is Demolition, although I’ve obviously messed with the colour and saturation for artistic effect there. 😉

 

How about a few (well, 5) examples of the fun, versatility and loveability of brown eyeliner? 😀

 

Brown liner is great for keeping ‘in tone’ with more colours of eyeshadow, especially most of our beloved neutrals, but also brighter shades such as blue, purple and green. This look can be found here.

Brown liner still looks great just grazed onto the skin for a really simple, light look that still defines the lash line. Alternatively, it displays colours that are smoodged on top of it more clearly than black, so you can easily add a bit more interest if you want to.

Even a thick line of brown liner doesn’t look too obvious or overwhelming on pasty lids! It can also be easily blended into other neutral colours if you want a bit less or an ombre effect, or if you made a mistake and don’t have time to bust out the makeup remover and cotton buds.

Three essential tools for a classic everyday rogueish eye – you’ll note, the liner is that matte brown wonder, Demolition 😉

Although I realise that brown liner is by no means ‘ignored’, I hope this post has given it some fresh attention! It’s true, you’ll never prise my fingers away from my purple and turquoise liners either, but there’s something so satisfyingly easy and ‘rogueifying’ about brown liner, that I hope you”ll join me in paying homage to that unsung hero! If you actually hate brown liner, though that’s totally OK. We can still be friends and raid dungeons and stuff ^_^.

Which colour of liner do you prefer for everyday? Do you think there are any colours of liner that are particularly underrated? What’s your favourite brown liner, if you have one?

Until next time, fellow adventurers, don’t forget to check for traps!

Syl

I am an adventuring rogue, not a mercenary for hire, and as such, all opinions expressed here are my own, based on a genuine fondness for/interest in this product. If you have any queries or suggestions, please do not hesitate to pin your parchment to the board (contact me) at thepaintedrogue [at] gmail [dot] com., or use the contact form provided! All images and text on this blog are the property of The Painted Rogue unless otherwise stated. If you nick off with any of it, be prepared to find that your morning hot beverage tastes a little…different than usual. Didn’t the rogue say something the other day about that new poison that makes your inner ear itch maddeningly for the rest of your life? I think she did…