How To Wear Eyeliner Without Foundation (Easy Guide)

Eyeliner works great to open up your eyes and create a dramatic effect. But can you wear eyeliner alone or do you need to do a full face of makeup? Can you wear eyeliner without foundation? The answer is yes, why not!

Wear Eyeliner Without Foundation

Yes, you can only wear eyeliner and no foundation. There are no rules about wearing eyeliner with other types of makeup. In fact, wearing only eyeliner is a quick way to change your day look to an evening look. 

Tips For Applying Eyeliner with No Foundation

Wear concealer or primer on your lids

If you’re going for eyeliner only, a tip to make your eyes pop more and last all day is to apply a small amount of concealer or eye shadow primer to your lids. 

This helps prevent smudging and helps the eyeliner adhere to the skin better.

Use liquid eyeliner

Although pencil, gel, and powder eyeliners are fine, if you’re going to do just your eyes, a liquid liner can deliver a variety of looks to define your personality and your eyes.

Use color

If you opt for no other makeup except eyeliner, your eyes are your statement makers. 

Using different shades of eyeliner that compliment your natural eye color instead of your basic black or brown can create an eye attention wow factor.

Can You Wear an Eyeliner Without Mascara?

Can You Wear an Eyeliner Without Mascara

We often think eyeliner and mascara go hand in hand. Can you wear eyeliner without mascara? Yes, you can.

Wearing eyeliner alone will create statement eyes and often there is no need for mascara.

 Plus, eyeliner has a few more benefits as it allows you to:

  • Experiment with different eyeliner styles
  • Let you create a different eye makeup style every day
  • Give your eyes definition and attention.

This is one of the joys of makeup. It has no limitations allowing your style to be discovered. 

If you’re using liquid eyeliner, you can even use this as a substitute for mascara. Simply add a bit of eyeliner to the applicator brush and you’re on your way!

Both mascara and eyeliner are meant to define your eyes, so either can work standalone or together.

Can You Wear Eye Shadow Without Foundation?

Yes! It’s entirely possible. Go ahead if you just want to give your eyes some attention and only go with eye shadow. 

You can keep it simple with one shade only or rock out all glam. 

Note that this may make your look feel incomplete, but that is fine if you can rock it. 

Opt for warmer tones, glossy shimmers, or shimmery shadows if you want it simple. 

Better yet, if you have a bronzer, try that on your lids, then do some shadow to add some oomph and dimension to your lids. 

Should You Wear Eyeliner If You Have Dark Circles?

Dark circles under your eyes are a significant nuisance, often making you appear tired or much older than you really are. 

While there are several reasons why you can end up with dark circles, when it comes to applying makeup, we want to make sure to diminish their appearance, not enhance them. 

We love eyeliners, though, and the sight of nicely lined lids appeals to us. 

However, lining your lower lid may draw attention to your dark circles. 

If you like to use an eyeliner, use a darker shade only on top; then if you have to line your lower lid, go for a lighter hue.

Makeup tips for dark circles

Use Eye Moisturizer

An under-eye moisturizer is significantly more effective if you use it in the morning before applying makeup than it is at night. 

A thick layer of moisturizer under your eyes will rapidly prepare and brighten your skin. 

It will also lessen the likelihood of your concealer creasing.

Chose a Concealer Lighter Than You Foundation

Yes, we’ve all heard the rule that your concealer should be one shade lighter than your foundation, but this isn’t true for people with dark circles. 

Instead, go for one or two shades darker. 

Due to pigmentation, people with dark circles have deeper-looking sockets, so using a concealer that’s a shade lighter than their foundation may give their skin an ashy appearance.

Don’t Be Afraid of a Color Corrector

In addition to foundation and concealer, a color corrector should be part of your dark circle arsenal. 

You might be off-put by their strange pastel colors, but it works.

Consider the color wheel—colors on the color wheel that are opposite each other cancel each other out. 

As a result, using the peach color corrector can help to conceal dark circles.

6 Tips on How to Wear Eyeliner

Tips on How to Wear Eyeliner

Now that we know you can wear eyeliner without foundation, here are six tips on how to do it:

1. The Classic

The classic is your simple classic line that follows your upper lids lash line from inner to outer corners. 

Liquid, pencil, and gel liners work well to achieve this look. Nothing is applied to the bottom lids.

2. The Wing-Tip

Creating the wing-tip look is done the same way as the cat-eye look, but with a bit more dramatic flair or “wing” at the end. 

The fun about the wing-tip is that you can make it as stubble or as bold as you want. 

The wing-tip look can be achieved using any type of eyeliner, but top precision liquid and felt tip liners that feature tapered brush heads are favored most for creating the look.

3. The Cat-Eye

The cat-eye is like a traditional classic liner method except with a bit of flick upward at the end, creating a raised appearance of your eyes. 

4. The Waterline/Tightline 

The waterline also termed “tightlining,” is an eyeliner technique that can be applied to both the upper and lower lids, mainly on the lower lid or waterline right next to the lash line. 

It is primarily used with smoky eye looks to add more prominent effects or used with a light pearly color to draw attention to the eyes. 

You apply it like the classic liner; it is best created with either regular eyeliner pencils or gels. 

No liquid liner due to this style is applied so close to the eye.

5. The Smoky Eye

To create a smokey eye look, you will start like you are doing the cat-eye look, but you will also apply it to the bottom eyelid. 

Then smudge out the liner, especially under your eyes and outer corners. This look can be done with various eyeliners. 

For example, use liquid liner on the top lid, then pencil or cream liner on the bottom to help create the smoky eye look. 

Even eyeshadows can be brought in for a more intense smokey-eye look.

6. The Under Eyeliner

Some people think eyeliner is unnecessary for the under-eye, but you can if you don’t feel complete without it or plainly like the look. 

Apply precisely like you would do the classic, following the contours of your lower lash line. 

Choose pencils, creams, or gels to approach this look, as you can accidentally get liquid liners into your eyes if you use liquid liners.