There’s a moody movement happening in makeup to counteract the clean girl aesthetic. Things are getting darker, grungier and if the “witchy liner” that we keep seeing is anything to go by, it’s getting a whole lot more mysterious, too.
Of course, as soon as the days get darker, our mind and mood shifts accordingly, but the witchy vibe has been bubbling and brewing for some time with #witchtok forming its own sub-cult on TikTok. A massive coven of followers have been bewitched by what the witch stands for: power, independence, defiance, intuition. Now? It’s spilling over into our beauty routines as another outlet to explore a different side of ourselves.
The best part is you can lean is as much as you want – so even if you’re not yet smudging sage, you can start with your eyeliner.
Which brings us back to witchy liner.
What is witchy liner?
We’ve seen eyes getting played up with sharper, slicker, extended, more exaggerated liner. There’s no exact formula to witchy liner, it simply sees us experiment with a regular cat eye to create something more experimental, intentional or expressive. Jet black framing is a given, but while it’s a strong look, there’s something delicate and mystical about it, too.
One of our favourite renditions comes from top celebrity makeup artist, Harold James, who told us “to create this exaggerated liner, I was inspired by women who are openly embracing the darker side of their femininity.” And that in a nutshell is exactly what witchy liner is all about. His creation sees a sharp but smudged thorny liner angled up and elongated toward the end of the eyebrow, then ensnared in a haze of deep purple sparkle across the crease. It’s pretty, it’s quietly powerful and it’s spell-binding.
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How to create a witchy liner?
As for how to create it, go wherever the wind takes you. But, Harold has some pro tips to help…