Nicki Minaj’s recent eyeliner mishaps are seriously bumming us out

by Souzan Michael November 24, 2014

A photo posted by Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj) on Aug 8, 2014 at 8:58am PDT

See Nicki Minaj’s latest eyeliner mishaps »

You guys, we like Nicki Minaj. We want only the best for her, really. Which is why we can’t sit idly by any longer, scrolling through her Instagram feed and pretending that everything’s okay. Minaj has recently gone through a breakup (her boyfriend of 14 years!) and, as one does, has adopted a minimalist(ish) style. Gone are the days of pink wigs and neon makeup. Instead, she’s streamlined her look and it now includes a black bob (good), lots of Alexander Wang pieces (great), and her new signature: winged eyeliner (awesome…you would think).

Somewhere along the way, someone forgot to tell her makeup artist to learn how to do a proper cat eye. Sometimes it looks shaky, like it’s been done in the back of a moving car, and sometimes it’s weirdly blunt and long, but who among us hasn’t been there? At first glance, she looked great at last night’s American Music Awards, wearing a cut-out dress from the Alexander Wang (told you) Spring 2015 collection. But while many tweeted that something about her looked off, we immediately knew what it was: the eyeliner.

If we had to guess, the problematic eyeliner is being caused by an attempt at a one-swoop application, as well as the skin around her eye being stretched out during that application. Both seemingly innocent procedures that more often than not, go terribly wrong. Instead, the cat eye flick should be drawn first, following the shape of the bottom lash line, with both eyes open and relaxed. Once that’s done, small flicks or dots can be softly drawn along the lash line. When you have the shape you want, it should look like a page of connect-the-dots, and then feel free to, well, connect the dots. Our Beauty Panel has some great winged eyeliner tutorials and you can flip through our list of celebs who have mastered the cat eye look.

To everyone suffering from wonky cat eyes, there is help. Even Beyoncé isn’t immune to the struggles of liquid eyeliner.