#21 Winged Eyeliner Can Make You Fly

I read this joke for the first time, “Never ask a woman with winged eyeliner why she’s late.”  Well, that can be true. I have done all kinds of angles, swoops, and lengths to get the wing I am going for. You can’t quite get each one how you want. Something I have learned in the process of perfecting my eyeliner is that your wings can never be twins. They will always be sisters. Sometimes I get the thin elegant line and sometimes it lays on thick. Either way, it seems to go with my mood. Cat-eye because I'm feeling sexy. Elegant line because I feel classy. Ever so often it takes multiple tries and lots of smearing. Occasionally it is an absolute challenge and you can't get it right and it looks like you have been crying for hours. Those occasions usually land on a bad day. It is not going to lay on the way you hoped, but you work with it. The thing you wouldn't know the difference and yes, you should never ask why I am late. 

I am someone who wears winged eyeliner every single day. I have been wearing it for as long as I can remember. In high school, I wore it in my under eye and that slowly evolved into wings. If you know me, then you know that winged eyeliner is my signature look.  It is a lot cooler than you think it is. It is Amy Winehouse, Marilyn Monroe, Sophie Loren, Cleopatra, and David Bowie. It is timeless.

I don't remember a time when putting my eyeliner took more than five minutes. I have watched all the videos and tried all the different brands and I have it down to a T. I have a secret. When I commuted to my job, there was a specific stop light I would do my eyeliner. I am not one to do makeup in a moving car, but the only makeup I do is eyeliner and it can be easily done at a stoplight right at the exit of the freeway. The light takes long enough for me to do both wings. Another stop light would allow me to do the final swoops that make me fly. I would fly for the rest of the day. Winged eyeliner feels like a superpower. 

For some winged eyeliner is such a statement that it is deemed unprofessional. Nonsense. I was at a restaurant job where a white uniform was mandatory and your hair had to be covered by a hat. We all looked the same and the the only way I felt we could show our individuality was through our faces. Whether it was earrings, makeup, our smiles. After a few years, they decided we could not have more than one earring in each earlobe, and wearing colored eye shadow, lipstick, and/or winged eyeliner was unprofessional. If we wanted to wear any of those things it had to be simple stud earrings, neutral colors, and your eyeliner could not extend past your eye. I laughed. If it did they would ask me to fix my eye liner so it did not extend the parameters the job requested. I would go to the bathroom, wash my hands, smile at myself in the mirror, and walk back out.  What are they afraid of? My wings are too long that I am going to fly away? Why the sudden change?  My wings are too sharp and someone might get hurt? 

In my research for this post, I found out that winged eyeliner was censored due to its association with prostitution. I had no idea! Today it is apparently too overwhelming and unprofessional in job interviews and some jobs. Eyeliner goes far back in time and has flowed in and out of eras and yet it continues to float on and fly. It seems to be “...The Only Makeup Look Sharp Enough to Kill a Man”. So I guess someone can get hurt. 

You close your eyes and you know that someone is admiring the angelic swoop of your eyeliner. You can admire your other brothers and sisters with the wings. Winged eyeliner creates an optical illusion. It will change the shape of your eye and make you look more mysterious and alluring. It is dramatic anywhere you go. It is the staple item. I can go to a wedding and it’s a look. I go to a music show and it is a whole other look. Victoria wears it and she is Lana Del Rey.

I carry my go-to eyeliner in my purse, one in my car, and one at home. If I need a touch-up, I am set. If I wake up late, I do not need to worry. My friends need an eyeliner pro, I am your girl. I am feeling lost, my eyeliner is thick. If I am happy my wings are short and sweet.

Winged eyeliner is a statement. It is expressive. It can make your eyes pop, your eyes look bigger, and feel less naked. While others have lipstick, mascara, contouring, or eye shadow; I have my wings. It is my staple. It makes me fly. It adds that finishing touch. It is bold and I like it. It is a salute to all the winged eyeliner friends before us and those who come after us. It is a salute to those who are fashionably late. And on that account, winged eyeliner can make you fly, but it can not make you be on time.