I’m a huge fan of brown eyeliner. In fact, that’s what I usually use most every day for work, because it’s more subtle and less “severe”. Black is usually reserved for nights out on the town (which by the way I rarely seem to do any more!), or when I’m going for a more dramatic effect for an event of some sort that I know there will be low lighting at. However, I do make one exception for wearing black eyeliner or a coal color during the day, and that is if I’m going to mix up some blues or purples for my eyeshadow.

Some women may even prefer to use a blue or purple eyeliner, I say go for it, but honestly for the majority of us women, those colors under our eyes just tend to be too overpowering or to wash out the rest of our face making our makeup look tired or mistinted. Also, those of us with brown or hazel eyes may “clash” with blues and purples in our liner, but it may be ok for us to wear them as a shadow since it’s not so close the the eye color itself.

Even when I’m wearing a coal colored eyeliner, I try to stay away from the deep, dark, true blacks and instead opt for a softer kohl color or maybe a grey black (unless the grey is too light, I don’t like this look either), so that you stay away from that overly done, goth sort of look, unless that happens to be what you’re into :) One of my favorites is soft black, and it usually comes in some shape or form from most cosmetic companies.

As far as purples and blues, if you’re gonna do it, do it right and go with something that may be a little more expensive, but something that is also more heavily pigmented, since washed out purples, lilacs and blues never look as good when they’re faded and always look their best when they’ve just been put on, or if they happen to be a heavily pigmented color drenched formula.

I like to use the HIP (Hyper Intense Pigment) from L’Oreal, since they are a lower cost alternative to others that are found in department stores like MAC, Lorac and others that typically tend to offer more pigment rich colors for the eyes. They are a great dramatic statement, and you can use them to add color accents to wearing black clothing if you want.