Gothic Eye Makeup Tips

White Face

You will never find a goth girl sunbathing at the beach. Sunscreen is a must in your beauty regime. Pale paves the way for all Gothic looks, so keep this in mind if your starting out. Gothic eye makeup tips

The goal of the white face is to make you look pale. If your skin is naturally dark, you need to cover all areas of your skin to make it look right otherwise go one or two shades lighter than your natural skin tone to make it look more natural. This will still look effective in achieving a pale, pure, porcelain effect. if you are of any significantly ethnic descent, then you may just be wasting your time. Think of Laurent from the Twilight movie that shows that dark-skinned immortals can be just as spine chilling.

If you do opt for and can carry off white face, then try to spend as much time as possible on the application of a light foundation followed by an application of a white face powder. Steer clear of cheap white face paint, as the consistency can be hard to apply and blend and can result in a splotchy and artificial finish. Opt for a liquid foundation up to 3 shades lighter than your natural complexion or splurge on a quality white face paint.

And finally stay away from blush completely. The goal is to have less color, not more. Go as white as you can go without looking like you are trying too hard or clown-like. Its important to get your base right to enhance your gothic eye makeup.

Blush and Dark Accents

If you really love blush or want added definition you can add a dark element to your gothic eye makeup palette. If you've got killer cheekbones, smudge a bit of dark grey shadow beneath them to create a sunken and chilling effect or try a deep shade of burgundy or a silver shade of blue to create a fantasy Gothic makeup style.

Perfectly Groomed Eyebrows

Perfectly groomed eyebrows are the beginning of good Gothic makeup designs. Your eyebrows are a visual point on your face so pay your brows some extra attention for a truly dramatic Gothic look. gothic eye makeup tips

Before you paint your eyebrows, pluck them to create the perfect shape. High arches are key to achieving something that really turns heads. Be sure to make them thin and shapely.

Some Goths even prefer to eliminate them completely and paint them on instead. If you choose to go this way consider the daily time commitment involved with this option. It is easier to pluck your eyebrows enough to clear the way for shadow and liner, then leave the rest up to Mother Nature.

Once you've plucked your brows into shape, fill them in with a dark brown or midnight black brow pencil. Don't be shy or light-handed about it; the key is to create intriguing, shaped brows.

Gothic Eye Makeup Tips

Strong Eyeliner

Thick, dark eyeliner is a Gothic eye makeup staple so it is essential to be creative with your eyeliner. You can keep it simple by lining your upper or lower lid, or both or you can get creative by adding ornate designs. Beautiful swirls or other designs will immediately draw people’s gaze directly to your eyes

Liquid eyeliner is harder to put on, but it definitely creates a darker, defined, smooth, sharp line. It can be tricky to work with so a steady hand is a must. An easier application is to use a small firm brush, dampen, then dip it in powder eyeshadow. Of course, you can never go wrong with black eyeliner, also try jeweled colors like purple, green and royal blue, even red and white can all look great lining the eyes.

Just remember that drawing thick dark eyeliner around your eyes will make them look smaller (dark colors recede). If that's the look you're going for, then great. If not you can still achieve the same look if you don't join the lines in the corners of your eyes or use white eyeliner on the inside of your bottom lid. This will make your eyes look bigger and brighter.

Gothic Eye Makeup

Gothic makeup is all about the eyes. They are the most powerful part of the Gothic style. With dramatic eyeliner and creative shades of color, your eyes will be what makes or breaks your Gothic eye makeup look.

Gothic eye makeup designs vary widely depending upon the type of Gothic eyes you are trying to achieve. People with pale faces and black hair are considered Gothic right alongside people with bright pink makeup over a pale foundation and brightly colored or platinum hair.

When applying eyeshadow you want to start with a sharp contrast to the majority of your pale face. Don’t be afraid to mix things up and use some color. Although the classic Gothic look may be black mascara, black eyeliner and dark grey eye shadow with a darker black shadow mixed in, that doesn’t mean you always have to stick with black. Try something different once in a while, such as hues of royal purple, blue, or a jewel green eye shadow.

The goth scene is also crazy about shimmery eye shadows where deep purples, royal blues, jeweled greens and whites often come into play.

What Colors Complement Gothic Eye Makeup?

Dark colors work well for Gothic eye makeup. Great colors for the traditional Gothic eye makeup look include:

Smokey grays
Black
Silver
White
Metallic greys, black and silver

Don't be afraid of color. Yes, black is Gothic, but so are all dark, jewel-toned colors, look at colors like:

Emerald
Plum
Dark red
Royal blue
Regency purple

Some Goths like to use bright stripes of color (great for new wave gothic eye makeup) like:

Bright yellow
Turquoise
Fuschia
Light green

The great thing about Gothic eye makeup is that there are no set rules. Some Goths will tell you that the more complicated and bizarre the eye makeup, the better. Other Goths swear by very subtle eye makeup, and then showcase other features on their faces with embellishments. Your eyes, however, are an excellent feature to accentuate when wearing dramatic Gothic eye makeup.

Tricks to Make Your Gothic Eyes Pop

These Gothic eye makeup tips work no matter what type of look you're going for. It's especially effective when the rest of your makeup is dark.

Apply a silvery-white shimmery shade to the inner corner of the eye.
Line your lower inner lid with a white or beige pencil. (match it to the color of your eye whites. we all don't have white eyes)
Try brushing some shimmer along your brow bone, just under the brow.

You will be amazed at how much this will open up your Gothic eyes and make the darker eye shadow stand out.

Gothic Makeup Designs You Can Use On Your Eyes

Raccoon Eyes

Your Basic Goth Look

Step 1
Start by covering your whole eye in white - eyelid to brow.

Step 2
Fill in just your eyelid with black. You can use a darkish grey instead of black to accent your eyes. Start at the lower edge and move up the crease while filling in the eyelid. Blend into the white.

Step 3
Time to pull out the all necessary eyeliner and mascara. Be generous in your application of eyeliner. There's no room for timidity here. Apply several coats along the top lash, followed by a thick line on the bottom. Ideally, you should use a liquid formula in black, but pencils are acceptable if you simply can't deal with applying liquids.

More Gothic Eye Makeup Tips - Try filling in your eyelid to the crease with another color. You can also try adding a cat-eye type stripe of darker color along the crease.

Cat Eye

Start off with a light background color, like white, yellow or pink. You can even try silver or grey.
Apply a darker shade of eye shadow along your eye’s crease. It should look darker at the outer edge and lighten as it goes in towards the nose. Make sure you apply the color in an upward pattern, similar to a triangle or an arc and then blend.
Start with black liquid liner. Line the inner corners of the upper lids all the way to the outer corners, flicking the line up at the end. For extra drama, you can add a straight line under the eye.
Define and fill in brows with short feathery strokes, then finish with a coat of mascara.

More Gothic Eye Makeup Tips - To open up your eyes you can use some white eyeliner. Just line inside the lower lash line with a white pencil liner, extending the line out over the eyes' outer corner.

New Wave Stripes

Get creative here. You can contrast colors, play with horizontal and vertical striping. Just think 80's. You can also choose colors that complement each other and then graduate from light to dark.

Step 1
Begin at the inner corner of your eye with the lightest color. Make a solid, vertical and slightly angled stripe from the inner corner of your eye to the inner tip of your eyebrow.

Step 2
Repeat with the next color. Don't blend

Step 3
With your third color, create a curved line connecting the tip of your outer eyebrow to the corner of your eye. Don't blend the edges together.

Eye Embellishments For Dramatic Gothic Eyes

For truly dramatic Gothic eyes, you can add other elements to the area around your eyes.

Experiment with:

Glitter – especially when dark and metallic colors are utilized.
Stickers are sometimes used for extra decoration.
Unusual contact lenses can bring out your Gothic eye makeup in a spectacular way. Gothic contact lenses in white, red, or black lenses even bizarre designs can enhance your Gothic eye makeup.
False eyelashes. Long, black lashes can certainly add to your Gothic eyes. Try lashes spiked with silver tips or feathers. This will draw plenty of attention to your eyes when coupled with dramatic Gothic eye makeup.
Use your eyeliner as a paintbrush and your eyes as a blank canvas. Try Gothic makeup designs like spider webs, vines or batwings.

Lipstick

Lips are an important part of a Goths look. Traditionally, a red or black lipstick is worn. Gothic makeup palettes border on deeper, less traditional colors, so feel free to dabble in maroon, burgundy and blood-red hues. In addition to the most popular red lipstick choice, you can opt for an ethereal and cold choice by wearing a silver or muted blue hue.

If finding the right shade borders on impossible, then apply lip balm to your lips and blot a brush into your unique eye shadow instead.

Baby Doll Lips

If you want to try something creative, try baby or china doll lips.

Before applying your lipstick, apply foundation to your lips to hide your original shape.

Dust powder over your lips to seal in your foundation.

Use a lip liner pencil to draw your new lip outline before filling them in with red. They should be more plump then straight, almost like a heart.

More Gothic Makeup Tips - Lip Tricks

Create some fun tricks with lip liner and a pencil.

Outline your lips in black and then fill them in with white, midnight blue or red
Draw vertical lines that look like teeth
Use a black pencil to draw a "V" shape on your cupids bow or a contrasting horizontal stripe on the bottom lip.

Nail Polish

Finish your Gothic look with black nail polish. Try shades different dark shades of red, purple, and midnight blue.

And Finally....Practice, Get Creative and Experiment

Take the time to really learn these Gothic eye makeup tips so you can pull off your Gothic look with confidence. Use the Gothic community for guidance and ideas for Gothic eye makeup tips. Once you've honed in on the look you're after, you can start to use your creativity and experiment with a multitude of Gothic makeup designs.