Not all makeup looks are created to be practical — some of them are just made for the fun of it, or to exercise some creativity or spark of imagination. Eye lip art popping up around Instagram, and the trend has makeup artists and beauty aficionados create life-like eyeballs across their mouths. Rocking detailed irises, razor sharp "eyeliner," and even fluttering lashes, it's like falling into a surrealist world and trying to figure out why there's an extra eye on a person's face.
The look is a little unsettling at first glance. But once the skill and inventiveness of the idea sinks in, your mind is blown.
It all started with Diana Moisa, a makeup artist based in Copenhagen and a MAC Resident Trainer. She was inspired by a Jenna Marbles video, where she used face paint to draw on a "third eye" across her mouth. Not quite as skilled as a makeup artist with pots and paints, the clip shows her hilariously failing and admitting face paint isn't her calling. But Moisa thought she could take her own stab at it, and decided to dump all her makeup onto a table and get to work.
The result is mesmerizing. Using only MAC products, she painted on a hyper-realistic eye using lipsticks, eyeshadows, White Chromacake, liners, and lashes, shading and highlighting her way to an eerily real green pupil. But the real clincher here was the fake eyelashes. That's what makes the eye look so life-like.
Featuring doll-like lashes across the top "lid," and a fluttering of spiky lower lashes on the bottom, this eye looks so real you can expect it to blink. It's complete with an inner rim, tear duct, champagne-shadowed "eyelid," and mascaraed lashes. It's pretty much the real deal.
To create the look, Moisa tells Bustle that she used lashes #2 and #3 to add more fullness on the top lid, really creating that dramatic lash line we all strive for. She then used lashes #31 for the bottom lip to create a lower "lash line" and border the inner rim. As for the iris, that's where the fun really kicked in. Moisa used lipstick and eyeshadow, but basically used her makeup bag like a painter's palette.
"I really just made a big mess on my table and used everything I thought would give me the effect I wanted," she shared. She just followed where the inspiration took her.
While truly impressive, Moisa isn't the first or only one to play with the idea on Instagram. There is the beauty lover @btthl_lip, who created her own version using the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette, Urban Decay Pulp Fiction Palette, and Too Faced Born This Way Foundation to create her own eye.
Look at that crisp cat eye flick, though! Perfection. Most of us struggle to do it that straight on our own eyelids, let alone our lips.
As for the lashes on this look, @btthl_lip used a bunch of old lashes she had leftover to experiment with. This version might not be as detailed as Moisa's, but it's interesting to zero in on all the details, like the "rimmed" inner eye with eyeliner, and the mod, white eyelid.
Another user created a spooky, skeleton-oriented look around her own attempt, which is perfect for Halloween. It looks very ghoulish, but then also slightly Picasso-esque with her neck bones being attached to her eyeball.
While this might not be a look you wear out for drinks with friends, it's really fun to use your makeup like paint and turn your face into art. After all, beauty is creativity.
