How to Create the Perfect Cat Eye

As one of our favorite Oscars beauty looks this year, Olivia Wilde‘s cat-eye eyeliner gave us yet another reason to love the gorgeous mom-to-be. Plus, this winged look is so flattering for every eye shape, making your peepers seem bigger and wider, that it’s one of those red carpet looks that actually works in real life, too.

Since we don’t have a team of makeup artists to gussy us up before a night out, we wanted to find out how we can recreate the look ourselves. Here, makeup artist Jamie Park shows us the steps for mastering a perfect cat eye.

Step 1: Prep and Prime
Eyeliner will tug at dry skin and draw unevenly (and cause more wrinkles!) if you don’t moisturize first. Using your ring finger (since the skin around your eyes is thin and delicate, you’ll want to use your weakest finger), tap a bit of eye cream gently on the skin around your eyes, under and on the lid. Finish with a dab of eye primer on top to fill in fine lines, create a smooth canvas and help your eyeliner last. Give the primer a minute to set.

Step 2: Neutralize
Dip a wide eyeshadow brush (or your ring finger) in a neutral eyeshadow and blend all over your eyelid from lashline to browbone. Jamie’s tip: After dipping the makeup brush into the eye shadow, remove excess by gently tapping the brush against a table or your other hand. Keep the head of the brush facing up. This keeps product in the bristles of the brush and distributes it evenly into the brush head. We like Christopher Drummond Beauty Eyeshadow in Innocent.

Step 3: Line
Make sure the pencil is sharpened. Using the back of your finger, gently pull up the skin under the browbone to keep the eyelid taut. This will ensure your line will look smooth, and not jagged. Draw a line as close to the lash line as possible. At the outer end, draw the line upwards, following the invisible line your bottom eyelid would make if it extended up past the corner of your eye. Try Christopher Drummond Beauty Enduring Eyeliner in Absolutely Black.

Step 4: Set
Dip a flat eyeliner brush in a dark cream or powder eyeshadow, like RMS Beauty Cream Eyeshadow in Karma. Gently press the brush as close to the lashline as possible, covering over the liner. This will set the eyeliner, blot excess oil and prevent smudging.

Step 5: Clean Up
Use a pointed Q-tip dipped in eye cream to smooth out any jagged edges and even out the lines.