Since the 1960’s the mantra for bold eyes and nude lips has been played out worldwide. This particular style, known as ‘cut-crease’, shot to fame in the infamous film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, where Audrey Hepburn pioneered the look that launched a 1000 copies, and it has remained in limelight ever since
Even celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Kardashian, Dima Sadek and Adele have patronized this trend in many of their movies and daily life. Be it day or night, those trendy peepers are carefully outlined, blended and highlighted to perfection, using simple methods that once mastered, can enable any woman to achieve that flawless, wide-eyed gaze.
To create the cut-crease style, there are several rules to follow:
Look at your eye-colour and work with it. Chocolate brown and taupe eyeshadows are great for blue eyes, whereas golds, greens and greys work beautifully to make brown eyes stand out
Get the kit. Invest in two great brushes: a bushy one for blending and a flat, precision one for cutting the colour.
Create the perfect base. To ensure that your eye makeup stays firmly in place, use a primer such as Bobbi Brown Long Wear Eye Base that lasts for a longer time
For more hooded eyes, leave your eyes open whilst sketching the initial line to create a crease and give you a guide to follow.
Part of the reason this make-up staple has worked for so many decades is because it is flattering for every face and eye shape, meaning that with only the occasional update it can be brought out at any time. Once you’ve mastered the techniques, you can easily adjust the colours and contrasts according to your preference. More muted tones and a nude lip are the perfect combination to carry you through any occasion, but you can always try experimenting with a bold shade.
Here’s our step-by-step guide to creating the perfect cut-crease eye:
Ensuring eyes are clean and makeup free, apply primer to the lids and under eyes using your index finger to pat it into place
Create the outline using a light kohl pencil – sketch a line from the middle of the crease of your brow outwards to just past your eye, and a line from the corner of your eye that wings up to meet it, creating a sideways ‘V’
Now choose a dark colour, follow the kohl line, making it thicker and heavier directly in the brow crease
Next, load up a blending brush with a complimentary lighter shade, and start from your brow gently working this colour down towards the dark crease line, blending slightly to soften.
Then, using the same colour, repeat the process from the inner eye outwards and up to the brow crease Using a gel liner like Bobbi Brown Long Wear Gel liner in Black, and a pointed brush, start from the inside corner of your eye and draw a solid line outwards to meet the outside edge of the shadow line you created.
Again, thicken the line as you work outwards and gently curve upwards to create ‘wings’ On the lower lash line, use the lighter colour on a precision brush and gently run the colour from the inside corner of your eye to the middle.
Then, using the darker shadow you started with, work from the outside edge of your lower lashes and sweep in until it meets.
Finally, finish this gorgeous look with mascara on both top and bottom lashes, holding the wand at the roots and wiggling it to the ends to both separate and lengthen.
