Cleopatra Liner Is Officially a Makeup Trend at the Spring 2018 Fashion Shows

This isn't news to anyone, or even a particularly revolutionary statement, but here it goes: black eyeliner will never go out of style. Not in the real world, not on the fashion runways, not ever. It’s classic, it’s versatile, and it looks pretty damn great on everyone. Year after year, season after season, we see black eyeliner backstage at shows in some variation: Winged and sexy, smudged and rock ‘n roll, greasy, matte, shiny, and sometimes drawn around the eye rather than on it. But the iteration I’m seeing over and over again at the Spring 2018 shows is something I haven’t seen trending in my eight years of covering fashion week, and that makes this tidbit newsworthy: Cleopatra liner is officially a thing.

What is Cleopatra liner? Well, I kind of made the term up (which is the case with any beauty trend, really…I mean, chocolate mauve hair? Squiggle brows? They had to start somewhere ). But it’s true — the black liner looks we've been seeing over and over again are reminiscent of how Cleopatra wore her eyeliner; or at least how we believe she wore her eyeliner: supergraphic, superpointy, superdramatic, and heavier along the bottom lashes.

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We first saw the look back in May at Chanel’s Cruise 2018 show in Paris, when makeup artist Tom Pecheux traced the eyes in black and brought the liner to sharp points on both the inner and outer corners of the eyes, smudging the pencil along the lower lash liner to make it look a little softer.

The most recent leader of the trend, however, has been makeup artist Diane Kendal, who kept the black eyeliner rather bottom-heavy at Carolina Herrera. A few days later, at Marc Jacobs, she circled the eyes in black liquid liner, extending the wings into a razor sharp points at the outer corners, and adding sharp points along the inner corners as well.

Jason Lloyd-Evans

Then today, at Roberto Cavalli in Milan, Kendal created yet another version of the look — equally as sharp, equally as intense — but with much shorter wings, giving it more of the rock ‘n roll feel that the Cavalli brand is known for. To create the wings, she used a felt tip liquid liner (either Troy Surratt Auto-Graphique Eyeliner or Marc Jacobs Beauty Magic Marc'r Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner), and then used a pencil to fill in the waterlines. "We didn't want it to look retro in any way, which is why we lined the inner rims," Kendal said backstage. "We just wanted the girls to look strong and powerful.

And what better way to evoke power than the signature makeup look of one of the most famous female rulers in the world?

Check back later to see how this trend progresses at PFW, but until then, get your fashion week fill by clicking on the below:

1. The Best Beauty Looks of MFW Spring/Summer 2018
2. I Just Discovered the Easiest Contouring Trick Ever From Tom Pecheux at No. 21 Spring 2018
3. Fendi Put Mermaid Hair on Kendall, Gigi, and Kaia Gerber

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