How to Rock Bright and Bold Eyeliner Just Like Bravolebrities

We wouldn’t blame you for thinking that the super-gorgeous makeup looks you see on Bravo could never be replicated without the help of a pro, but turns out, a few MUA tricks are all it takes to translate those made-for-TV looks to real life. “Glam eyes might look complicated, but they aren’t impossible at all to recreate at home,” says makeup artist Caroline Blanchard, who’s prepped tons of Bravolebs before they head out under the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen stage lights. In fact, Blanchard assures us, the whole process is surprisingly easy, even for novices. 

Step one comes down to finding a Holy Grail liner that works with you rather than against you. “The right eyeliner has the perfect color and smoothest texture in order to glide onto the water line or just beneath it. It should be malleable and yet also not run down your face. Sounds impossible but it can happen!” she says. Then it's all about application. “Blending is the key to the mastery!” Ahead, Blanchard shares how to do it like a pro using the go-to liners that her star clients love as much as she does.

“I love Naomie’s doe-like big blues, so I wanted to focus on accentuating them by smoking them out, keeping it soft with browns and corals,” says Blanchard. The trick: tag-teaming two Urban Decay 24/7 pencils: ‘Lucky’ on the water line and ‘Bourbon’ just below on the lower lash line. “I like to use them together to add depth, plus they’re a great combination for blues eyes. Smudge out hard lines with a makeup brush to achieve soft liner look that’s glam’d out but not overdone.” 

“Dolores got my signature super-glam look here. She has gorgeous green eyes and a wonderful eyelid to work on—a makeup artist's dream lids. With her gorgeous thick long hair and stunning dress, I wanted to make sure her eyes carried the same va-va-voom impact!” says Blanchard. After graduating shadow from from light coral at the inner corners to deep bronze at the outer lids, Blanchard traced on Sephora liner in 52 Aloha. “Next, I went over the pencil liner with a deep Burgundy Too Faced shadow called Oh That’s Rich. This step helps keep the liner in place while adding more dimension to your eyeliner.”

“Rhylee has these deep blue-green eyes and a gorgeous mane of red hair! I wanted to accentuate all those natural features and colors without overdoing it, but she really wanted to be ‘turnt’ out’, if you will. So I thought I'd spice things up with an ‘80s inspiration,” says Blanchard. “I used corals and blue shadows on her lid—totally rad! Anything darker would have been too stark against her complexion and left her with a heavy-load look.” Blanchard's trick for working the look like a pro? Soften the line around the eyes with a small round brush from the inner corner to the outer corner. “It adds that soft, dramatic effect."

“Gina’s look here was what I like to call a CopperTone Sun Glaze!” says Blanchard. “She had this gorgeous dress with a bronze-like snakeskin pattern, so I didn’t want to go too nuts on shades for her eyes.” Instead, the MUA paired warm metallics from the Morphe’s The Jaclyn Hill Palette to make Gina’s green eyes dazzle. After dusting deep bronze ‘Jacz’ over the entire lid followed by a touch of illuminating ‘Firework’, she dusted a lighter shadow, ‘Queen’, on Gina’s brow bones. “For her eyeliner, I used Urban Decay 24/7’s bronze-tone Torch on her water line and the ‘Jacz’ eyeshadow again on her lower lash line, just beneath to catch and contrast her green eyes.”

“With this look for beautiful Hannah, I was going for ‘edgy glam’--it's a thing! When I first said ‘teal-green eyeliner’ to her, I got a quizzical look. I had to do some coaxing, but I swore it would work. Luckily it did! We all liked the outcome,” says Blanchard. “I wanted to widen her gorgeous, hazel, almond-shaped eyes for that ‘I’ll slay you--but with class’ look,” Blanchard explains, who complemented brown and coral shadows on Hannah’s lids with emerald liner applied to her water line and smoked-out along her bottom lashes. “I then dabbed just below the lower lash with a shimmery brown shadow to tame the teal and give it some depth on the outer edges of her eyes.”

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