EYELINER & EYEBROWS

Eyeliner

You can line your eyes with your eyeshadow  instead of buying special pencils for the purpose (Although Winks pencils are cheap enough at under $1 each). Use a fine eyeliner brush or a square-shaped eyelining brush for the most control in making fine lines. You can use a narrow sponge-tip applicator if you want a wide line. Smudge with an eyeshadow brush. I prefer to line with shadow applied over pencil. Shadow over pencil is very long-lasting. Pencil alone smears and does not last. Some women like to wet the eyeliner brush and use powder shadow to line the eyes. If you do this, only wet the same corner of your eyeshadow each time because once wet, it will no longer work well for dry application.

If you only wear liquid eyeliner occasionally, you can use your mascara instead. Dip the tip of a fine eyeliner brush on the tip of your mascara wand and apply like regular liquid eyeliner. This may not work as well with the thicker mascara formulas. If it does not go on smoothly, wet your eyeliner brush, and dab a blob of the mascara onto a piece of wax paper or tin foil. Only dip the wet brush into the blob of mascara and not into the tube to keep from contaminating your mascara tube with the water. Wash the eyeliner brush after each use. You can use an eyeliner brush recycled from an old tube of eyeliner. Just wash it out thoroughly and let it dry before you use it.

Fixing the texture of eye pencils. If you have a pencil that is too soft or keeps breaking when you try to sharpen it, put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. For a pencil tip that is too hard, try warming it between your fingertips. If that isn't enough, try rubbing a drop of baby oil or moisturizer into the tip. Wipe off the excess and test on the back of your hand first. For a pencil that has really dried out or hardened, you can let the tip soak in a little bit of baby oil. However, this probably means the pencil is too old to be using and you should just toss it and buy a new one. Yes, I have taken a match to the tip of a too-hard eye pencil, but for safety's sake I'd rather you just trash it and spend the extra buck on a new, soft one.

Eyebrows

The best eyebrow brush I have ever found is a soft child's toothbrush. Anything you buy specifically for the purpose I guarantee will not work as well. Again, something for nothing. Even one of your old adult-sized brushes will work fine. Just wash it well with soap and water, and let it dry. Used mascara wands also work really well. When you are ready to toss your mascara, save the wand and wash all the mascara off it with soap and water. After it dries, you can use it for all the same things as a toothbrush. Either one you will have to wash after each use if you use a brow-control product.

The stores also sell all kinds of concoctions to keep your brows in place. I once tried a drugstore brand clear brow gel. It did not hold very well at all. Recently, a woman doing my make-up at a department store counter applied this clear eyebrow gel on my brows. It was thick and gooey and you could tell that it was difficult for her to work with. Once it dried my eyebrows were going nowhere! They were hard as a rock and still looked thick and gooey. I didn't like how she had brushed them, but there was no way I could fix it without washing it all off. I don't know how much it cost, but your money is much better spent on other things than these types of brow products. This is a good area to skimp in:

For light hold, spray a toothbrush with hairspray and brush through brows.
For more hold, use hair styling/setting gel on a toothbrush
For maximum hold use a small amount of clear or white moustache wax on a toothbrush. Moustache wax is available for just a few dollars at the drug store.While it is the more expensive of the three options, it is much cheaper than cosmetic products sold for this purpose. It holds well, without drying to a hard finish so your eyebrows still look and feel natural.

To add color and control in one step. Moustache wax also comes in colors and if you need to color your brows as well, you may want to experiment with them. However, I have never tried this nor spoken to anyone who has, so let me know how it turns out! Another option is to use your mascara to color and hold your brows in place. Even if you have to buy a different mascara color just for your eyebrows, it can still be cheaper than many alternatives. Wet 'n' Wild protein mascara has a good thin consistency that goes on very lightly and is well-suited for this use (and it is a little over $1). Brush your mascara wand very lightly through your brows being very careful not to get it on your skin. You may need to wipe off your mascara wand with a tissue first.

For coloring the brows, I like the idea of using products that can do double duty so you don't have to buy a separate product for your brows. As you know, you can use eyeliner pencil, and you can also use regular eyeshadow and a brush (please, no frost here!). Well, I guess I'm wrong,  you may have to buy a brush specifically for the purpose. If you already own an eyeliner brush you can use that. Some women prefer to use a fine eyeliner brush, others prefer the slanted brushes made for brow coloring. Experiment at the department store with different tester brushes to see which you prefer.