Brown Eyeliner on Brown Eyes? Here’s Why I Think the Combo Is Stunning

On the heels of writing about my current obsession with these 3 brown eyeliner looks, I'm going to try to explain why I think brown eyeliner works so stinkin' well on brown eyed girls.

There's obviously no touching black insofar as the most popular eyeliner colour on the block, but I think it deserves that place and forever will remain lodged in the top spot.

Still, there's room for a solid second best, and I think for brown eyed girls, that spot should definitely go to brown liner.

Don't get me wrong, I think there are many instances where brown liner actually works better than black eyeliner.

If you're going for a softer look, I think it's the absolute best option you've got to work with.

It doesn't matter how much you smudge your black eyeliner, it's never going to give you that same soft look as brown liner.

So I'd say it might tie black eyeliner for the #1 spot.

At least in my books. And specifically for brown eyes. I have brown eyes and haven't really paid enough attention to how I like it on other eye colours, to be honest, so that's why I said specifically for brown eyes.

But back to the softer look - because you could suggest something like grey for cases like these.

You want a little less oomph than a black liner will give you, it makes sense to essentially reduce the harshness by grabbing a shade that's got a little more lightness to it, and that makes grey.

The problem with grey as I see it is that it washes you out.

Black is a really popular clothing colour because it makes you look slim, sure, but also because it makes you stand out, pop, look sleek.

I think the same is true for eyeliner colours.

Grey? Not so popular a colour to wear. It doesn't have the same end result as black, never can and never will.

So the second most popular colours to wear, as I see them, are the warmer-toned brown shades - from light to dark, beige to chocolate brown.

Grey just doesn't have the same effect because it feels like it washes you out. Our skin isn't grey.

Even those with cool toned skin look good in grey, sure, but their skin still isn't actually blue. It's a shade of brown.

There are plenty of variations on the colour of course, lighter, darker, warmer, cooler, but at it's core we still all have skin that is at its core a shade of brown.

So it would make sense to me that brown is way more flattering on pretty well near anyone than grey.

Black is the exception in the same way that it is for clothes because it's what happens when you darken any colour to the point where it's pretty much no colour, an absence of it (if you're talking about light) or all of the colours (if you're talking about pigment).

So if browns are the most flattering, than the darkest shade of brown, which would technically be black, would also be flattering. If grey or blue or green or any other colour is the most flattering this would be true as well.

Black and white are both extremes of colour or the non-existence of colour (again, depending on if you're talking about light or pigment). So again, all this makes sense to me.

Okay, back to the brown eyes and brown eyeliner.

The reason I feel like some people don't like how it looks is because they find one brown eyeliner and they don't like how it is on them and so they give up. But there are so many different brown eyeliners out there.

Some will be too light, sure. Some will be too cool toned to suit your warm skin or too warm to suit your cool skin, alright, find a different one and give it a go.

I've had brown liners that were too red toned for my liking, others that were super yellow hued, but they worked for me. Some that were too shiny or the formulation was just way too smudgy, it's a trial and error thing for sure.

Ideally, you'll end up liking one that you can build because it's good to have the ability to go darker if you want to.

Buy a couple different ones and mix them in the same look. One of my favourite techniques is using a lighter brown liquid eyeliner to make wings and then filling in around my eyes with very deep brown pencil eyeliner.

It gives the effect in the picture below, where your focus is on the iris, and you have a more precise looking wing because liquid liner is easier to achieve that with.

(Used these two liners together to get the look above by the way).

You can do softer looks where you smudge the brown liner a lot.

Basically anything you can do with black liner, you can likely do with brown eyeliner and you might find it makes your eyes look even better.

There's an effect to black eyeliner that draws attention to your eyes.

I think this is incredibly subdued when wearing brown eyeliner. Even if it's nearly as dark.

I feel like the brown liner subtly brings out brown eyes and makes them the star of the show, rather than the focus being on the liner like it often is with black.

Both good looks, I love 'em differently, but there's definitely something to be said about making your make up do the job of drawing attention to your good features.

I think that's pretty well near the best way to describe what brown eyeliner does to brown eyes.

It echos your iris, and pulls away the attention from the liner to your eyes instead. Like wearing lip gloss instead of bright red lipstick. It's about enhancing what's there instead of (as I feel black eyeliner does) making more of a statement and demanding more with your look.

The same look in black is quite a lot more harsh. Even when brown is harsh, it still stays soft somehow.

In the end - it works. So stinkin' well. And if you have brown eyes and haven't played with brown liners, you should absolutely do it.

My two favourites (in case your interested) are these two liners, but go wild because there are so many options out there, and they likely play nice and mix better together in the same look than you would think.