Ode to Green Eyeliner
At my reunion last weekend, my friends were disappointed to learn that I had scaled back so dramatically on my cosmetics purchases over the years. I was the one who could be counted on for having a zillion lip and nail shades, even the ones that didn’t suit me, because I’d gotten them free or just couldn’t throw them out.
In college I had a favored eye compact from Christian Dior, back when they had the 4 little squares of shadow. Yellow went on my lid, green was dusted along the upper lashes over a bright green pencil, orange was in the inner nook of the brow, and blue was swept along under the bottom lashes. This was complimented by Dior’s 
bright blue mascara, which smelled of roses. It was a trashy look, but I loved it, and wore it day and night until those colors were discontinued. I still feel a puff of nostagia for them now and then, as I did when I remembered it over last weekend.
For me, the key part of the look was the bright green. I have been able to find a good substitute, Humid by MAC, which I use as a liner with a wet flat brush. I also like the dark, bright blue of MAC’s Contrast. (Don’t trust the online color chips. They aren’t accurate.) Smashbox has a product called Off Set that converts powder shadow to liner. A neat idea, but given that I rarely wear colored liner anymore, day or night, water works just fine for me. When I do, though, these colors help bring me back to my cosmetics heyday.