Stage Makeup Tip: Eyeliner Wings

There are many, many products and methods for using eyeliner with stage makeup. My actual focus for this makeup tip is what direction to carry the lines.

PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Michael Baxter, Santa Clara, California.

Fanciful eye makeup is part of many dancers' overall look.

As I've said a million times, your head should look like it goes with your body... so if you are wearing a fancy costume, you should have a fancy head.

Making eyeliner "wings" extending the outside end of your eyeliner beyond the corner of your eye is fast and fun.

Whether you draw lines or actual little triangle wings, here is an important tip:

Angle the lines in a curve upward instead of a line outward or angled down. Outward lines and downward lines both look like "crows feet" wrinkles from any distance, as does any wing that emphasizes an outward or downward line overall.

My personal product suggestion is Maybelline Waterproof Ultra Liner. It's inexpensive, but it is the best brush-on liquid liner I have ever used. It's easy to control if you can handle a little brush. It goes on evenly, and stays in place throughout 8 to 12 Greek Independence Day restaurant shows without failure. It's easy to remove — it comes right off without any special remover product. (I personally prefer using dark brown instead of black.)

Do you have trouble getting even lines with a paint-on?
I was taught by the old sign painters and car stripers to use a "mahl stick". This is a stick you lean your painting arm against for stability. You can use your other arm as an improvised mahl by crossing your forearms in front of you with your painting arm on the outside and resting the inside arm on your chest — it's much more stable than trying to free hand without a rest.

Your head should never look like it was photo-edited onto your costumed body, so make the embellishment of your face match the level of embellishment of your costume.

Your mileage might vary, but you want to drive away from the idea of intentionally painting on premature wrinkles, don't you?

• Belly Dance Makeup to Go With Your Costume. Things to consider when choosing makeup colors and deciding how much to apply.

• Four Stage Makeup Tips for Older Belly Dancers. Suggestions for applying stage makeup to camouflage some of the signs of aging.

Saqra (Seattle, Washington, USA) is a powerful dance artist and a master instructor. Her fluidity, grace, and technical skill is highlighted by her friendly demeanor and clear joy of the dance. She did not inherit the diva gene.

Saqra won titles in Belly Dance USA (Oregon), Belly Dancer of the Year (California), Belly Dancer of the Universe (California), Wiggles of the West (Nevada), and many other competitions. She was voted "Best Kept Secret of 2005" and "Instructor of the Year 2008" by readers of Zaghareet Magazine.

Saqra's journey in this dance form began in 1977 and has led her to study with many of the best dancers in the world, including in America, Canada, Turkey and Egypt. Saqra continues to travel and study both in the USA and abroad and prides herself on proper research for anything she teaches. Folklore, fakelore, and stage creativity: all three are valuable, and Saqra clearly presents for each what they actually are. Saqra is constantly expanding her expertise in the traditional ethnic forms of the dance, the modern stage variants, and the continuing evolving fusion techniques, all these areas combined keep her material fresh and current.

Saqra is widely known as an event promoter, musician, music and instructional video producer, and a registered hypnotherapist in the state of Washington. That is enough stuff to start explaining what she has been doing in belly dance since 1977. Visit her at www.saqra.net

PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Michael Baxter, Santa Clara, California. In the photo, Saqra is holding her Teacher of the Year 2008 Award from Zaghareet Magazine.