Four clever celebrity eyeliner tricks to widen, lift and anti-age the eyes

Eyeliner is just a simple thing we use to give our eyes a bit of extra definition, right? Actually, when used correctly, an eyeliner can be a clever anti-ageing tool with the power to lift, brighten and shape your eyes in one simple sweep.

If you aren’t sure just how to use a pencil or a pen to your advantage, let the A-listers show you their tried and trusted tricks. From Victoria Beckham’s long-time brightening eye hack to Ariana Grande’s foolproof way of getting neat and lifted flicks, the celebs have all the youth-boosting eye secrets you could possibly want.

Here we explain five of their go-to eyeliner methods for you to try at home…

Kate Middleton 

To open her eyes in a youth-boosting way, it’s said Kate uses a brown eyeliner on the outer third of her lower lash line. This gives her a more rounded, wide-eyed appearance. Her top lids are then often given a neutral and soft smoky effect with a natural brown eyeshadow to complement the liner.

Copy Kate with a soft and smudgeable brown eyeliner like Eyeko’s Black Magic: Cocoa Edit Pencil Eyeliner in Brown, usually £16 but yours from just £7.50 in this month’s Recharge and Refresh Beauty Box – with products worth over £120. The texture of the pencil is creamy and easily blendable, yet sets to a waterproof finish that will stay put for up to eight hours. Perfect for recreating Kate’s hack.

Victoria Beckham

If you want to make your eyes appear rounded and brighter, VB has the perfect hack. In fact, she’s been turning to this trick for years to give her eyes a more youthful look. Her secret? A creamy coloured eyeliner drawn artfully on her lower waterline to give her eyes a wide-eyed and brightened appearance.

Her go-to product is her own Victoria Beckham Beauty pencil, but you can shop cheaper alternatives at Boots and Superdrug. Search for liners labelled “waterline pencils” as these are less likely to transfer and smudge during the day.

Beyoncé

This eyeliner hack comes from Beyoncé’s makeup artist, Sir John. To give his A-list clients defined and sultry eyes, he first creates a flicked cat-eye using black liquid liner. He extends this right along the lash line. Then, the magic happens. He lifts the upper eyelid and fills in the waterline with a soft pencil eyeliner, making sure to fully connect the waterline pencil with the liquid black liner.

Top tip: get a softer effect using brown eyeliner on for the flick and for the waterline. Again, Eyeko’s Cocoa Edit eyeliner is perfect for this method.

Ariana Grande

Ariana is the queen of a feline flick. The singer is rarely seen without her signature liquid eyeliner look, which has prompted fans to ask her repeatedly for a tutorial on how she achieves such neat and symmetrical flicks.

Ariana delivered recently in the form of a TikTok video called “performing my ‘signature eyeliner’ technique”. You do have to have quite a steady hand but other than that, her method is pretty foolproof. She lifts the skin beneath her brows to give a taut base and then draws a flick using a black liquid eyeliner pen in one clean sweep down from the upper outer corners of her eyes.

Finally, she uses the tip of her nail to drag the eyeliner slightly more upwards to elongate the flick further. The result is a neat and lifted liner effect.