Hands down, the best part of our job is learning about industry-approved beauty hacks to make up for our poor life choices. So, when we started hearing about the eye-opening effects of tightlining, we were all ears…err…eyes. Whatever.

“Srsly WTF is tightlining?” we hear you say. Well, we’ll tell you: God’s gift to a hang over.

Let us give you the low down. Think about the last time you woke up with puffy, hooded eyes courtesy of a night spent cosying up to a never-ending inbox of unread emails, a post-midnight Netflix binge-a-thon or a few too many glasses of malbec with dinner. To avoid the old, “Omg babe you look tired. You okay?” the morning after, tightlining is the make-up equivalent of a double-shot espresso. It’s a quick, barely noticeable application of eyeliner that instantly opens up your eyes without looking like you’re trying to hide something. E.g. aforementioned poor life choices.

Here’s the scoop: Tighlining works with the natural dark areas at the base of your lashes so it looks like you’re not wearing liner (but still makes your peepers pop).

It a tricky technique but once you get the hang of it it’s all G. Make sure the pencil you use is waterproof so it sticks.

Click through the images to see how it’s done.

OK, so the first step is the sharpen your waterproof pencil. It’s really important. The whole point of tightlining is that you’re using the eyeliner in between your lashes to make them look fuller.

We’ve used Chanel’s Stylo Yeux Waterproof Long lasting eyeliner in 921.

You’re going to be drawing the line just above your waterline, in the roots of the lashes.

Start on the upper lid and try and use really gentle stabbing motions in your lash line, like you’re colouring in.

Tip: hold your eyelid. It makes getting up in there so much easier. We tend to overshoot the lash line and then get dots above, and holding the eye taught helps avoid it.

Use the same technique on the lower lashes. Or don’t. You can do the top lids for a more casual look or line the bottom for a punchier, I-have-arrived, look. Both will make you look more awake, more alive, better.

Curl your lashes. Not a ground breaking tip, but we’re trying to help you look more awake here so bear with us.

You’ll feel more alive, awake, human, we promise.