Simple Tips To DIY Eyeliner At Home

Doing something yourself is always a rewarding experience, figuratively speaking — and also literally when it comes to budgeting. Basically anything can be recreated from the comfort of your own space. You can even make DIY hairspray at home. While DIY makeup might sound a bit scary, it's really not. Just remember that the ancient Egyptians used minerals, pigments, and clay to enhance their beauty thousands of years ago, and they had all the same basic products as we do now. If they could DIY their makeup, so can you.

Makeup can get pricey, especially with so many factors going into its production on a massive scale. If you love makeup, you'll likely go through your favorite products relatively quickly. Also, some products, like eye makeup, simply expire too fast. This is especially true of eyeliners. If you've unexpectedly run out of your favorite eyeliner or you'd like a specific shade you can't find anywhere, you can definitely DIY eyeliner at home with just a few ingredients you probably already have in your bathroom — ancient methods excluded.

The beauty of making your own eyeliner is that you can fully customize it to your needs. One of the ways to go about it is by using eyeshadow; this way, your DIY liquid eyeliner can be any color you wish. This is also a great way to save that broken eyeshadow palette you've been planning to throw away and turn it into something new.

Makeup artist Rachel Duncan shared her love for the DIY method in a conversation with Stylecraze. "Instead of buying liquid liners in different colors, you can use the shadow palettes you already have with a few drops of mixing medium, and boom, a creamy liquid liner that dries down beautifully!" she said.

Depending on the finish you prefer, choose either a shimmery eyeshadow or a matte one. Once you've decided on the color, add a few drops of water to thicken the powder and a smaller amount of eye primer to make the eyeliner last longer, Stylecraze recommends. However, TikTok users have been using micellar water as the mixing medium, which works just as well if you don't have primer at hand. In the end, mix it all together until it's fully blended, and that's about it. Store excess eyeliner in a clean container, and make sure to use it within the expiration date of the eyeshadow used. Apply the same as a storebought liner — using a guide if you're new to it — to create your favorite looks.

Gel eyeliners are generally easier to apply because of their creamy texture, so if you're not particularly makeup-savvy or you don't like the fickleness of liquid eyeliner, you can still use this hack to DIY gel eyeliner. However, the creamier texture requires slightly different products than the liquid version.

Let's be honest, nothing beats a good black eyeliner. For the ultimate DIY gel eyeliner in black, Blushin Classic recommends using coconut oil as a mixing medium with your black eyeshadow. Vaseline is also a good mixing agent for achieving gel consistency if you can't use coconut oil for whatever reason. Other than that, the process is the same; simply mix your shadow with the oil until it's smoothly blended.

For a more toned-down look, go brown. Brown eyeliner is perfect on natural makeup days, and it doesn't get much more natural than homemade eyeliner. Simply swap your black shadow for a brown one here and repeat the steps for either liquid or gel eyeliner. Activated charcoal and cocoa powder are more natural alternatives to black and brown eyeshadows if you'd like to go fully natural and toxin-free.