Every poet knows the eyes are the window to the soul, and for millennia women have used eyeliner to draw attention to that ‘window.’ The legendary pharaoh, Cleopatra VII Philopator (known to history simply as Cleopatra), may be single-handedly responsible for popularizing the Egyptian look, which included outlining the eyes with thick, black kohl, which spread across the Mediterranean region to neighboring Greece and Rome, and still exerts a potent hold on make-up trends today.
Of course, each generation (and by generation, we mean whatever happened in the fashion industry five minutes ago) puts its own twist on the classic Cleopatra look. According to Good Housekeeping magazine, when it comes to eyeliner, Ombre Blue is the new black, and winged eyeliner (known by previous generations as cat eyeliner) on the upper lid has replaced Cleo’s thick kohl on the lower lid as the style de jour.
But that doesn’t mean you must abandoned your lower lid. Applying a smudgy pencil liner on your lower eyelid in combination with winged eyeliner on your upper lid will produce a fetching look that falls somewhere between uber-cool rocker and elegant pinup.