The teal eye I put on almost everyone

I put teal on people who did not ask for teal. This is either the best or the worst thing about booking me, depending on who you ask, and it has been my most reliable trick for about seven years.

The sentence I hear most often is "color doesn't suit me". What people usually mean is that they once put a bright shade all over the lid, saw a lot of it, and decided the color was the problem. It was the quantity.

Why teal in particular

Three reasons, and none of them are mystical.

It sits opposite most eye colors on the wheel. Brown eyes especially — a cool blue-green next to a warm brown makes the brown look richer and more deliberate. Hazel eyes pick up whatever is next to them, and teal pulls the green forward. On blue eyes it is more tonal and softer, which is a different but perfectly good result.

It reads as intentional rather than as effort. Black liner is a default; nobody notices it. Bronze is safe. Teal is a decision, and a small amount of it makes a whole face look considered even when nothing else is going on.

It flatters warm and neutral skin without going orange. A lot of "color" ends up in the warm family, which on warm skin can disappear. A cool green-blue keeps its distance from the skin tone and stays visible.

The people it genuinely does not suit are far rarer than the people who think it does not suit them.

The five-minute version

This is the one I do on clients who are nervous. It is a line, not a lid.

1. Do the rest of the face first. Skin, brows, blush. If the eye goes first you will judge it against a bare face and panic.
2. A neutral wash on the lid. Something one shade deeper than your skin, blended into the socket. This is a background, not a feature — you should barely see it.
3. The line itself. A teal pencil or a small angled brush with a teal shadow, pressed along the upper lash line. Start thin at the inner corner and only build thickness in the outer third. Tight to the lashes — a gap between the liner and the lashes is what makes liner look drawn on.
4. Stop at the outer corner or flick slightly upward. A wing is optional and adds three minutes. Following the natural angle of the lower lash line upwards is the safe direction.
5. Smudge the outer third only with a small brush, so the line has one soft edge and one sharp one. That contrast is what stops it looking like a felt-tip.
6. Mascara, black, top lashes heavier than bottom. Skip the bottom lashes entirely if you want the color to be the loudest thing.

Total, once you have done it twice: about five minutes.

A thin line of an unexpected color reads as confidence. A lid full of it reads as a costume. Same product, entirely different sentence.

The turned-up version

For evening, shoots, or anyone who has decided they like it:

• Take the teal along the lower lash line too, outer half only, and let it meet the upper line at the corner. This is the single biggest jump in impact for the least work.
• Add a thin line of pale, slightly shimmery neutral on the inner third of the lid, right up against the lash line. The contrast between the pale inner and the deep outer opens the eye enormously.
• If you want the graphic version, lift the line off the lash line at the outer corner so it floats slightly above the crease. It is harder than it looks. Do it with a stiff flat brush and have a cotton swab with micellar water in your other hand.

Making it last

Teal pigment on an oily lid will crease like any other color. If it moves on you: a thin layer of a cream base or a nude pencil scribbled on the lash line first, pressed in, then the color over the top.

If you have used a pencil and want it sharper and longer-wearing, press a matching or near-matching powder shadow over the top with a small brush. Pencil for placement, powder for permanence.

The bit where I admit the bias

Teal is my signature. It is on my own eyes most days, it is why my kit is organised the way it is, and I am not a neutral observer.

But I have watched the same reaction happen too many times to think it is only me. Somebody says color does not suit them, we do a thin line, they look in the mirror, and there is a pause. It is my favourite pause in this job.

Try it once. Small. If you hate it, it wipes off in ten seconds — which is more than can be said for most of the decisions we make about our faces.