Droopy eyelids: A celebrity makeup artist swaps the liquid liner for a smudged pencil to create a wide-eyed, much more modern look
With droopy eyelids, applying eyeliner often turns into a beauty nightmare. The line gets caught in the crease, disappears as soon as you open your eyes, or makes your eyes look heavy—even though you were trying to make them look their best. Charly Salvator, a star makeup artist with over 950,000 followers on Instagram, shared a method in June 2026 that he considers both simpler and more modern than the classic felt-tip pen technique.
What Classic Eyeliner Really Does to Droopy Eyelids
On droopy eyelids, liquid eyeliner rarely produces the desired effect. As soon as the eye opens, the line smudges, fades into the crease, or creates a dark line that pulls the gaze downward. Thus, this step—which has been a staple of beauty routines for decades—often works against those who need it most.
There are already other ways to get around this problem. For example, you could try the “reverse eyeliner” technique or replace the black marker with a smudged brown eyeshadow. However, Charly Salvator offers a different approach, which he sums up in the caption of his tutorial video as “simple and foolproof”—and, according to him, much more modern.
“Just a pencil, some powder, and the right brush… and your eyes are perfectly accentuated.”
Why the felt-tip pen is the first tool to be abandoned
The makeup artist is blunt on this point. He addresses his followers right at the start of his tutorial: “Why do you keep trying to apply eyeliner when, as soon as you open your eyes, you can clearly see that it doesn’t look right at all?” This observation applies just as much to beginners as it does to people with droopy or mature eyelids.
This is because the felt-tip pen, with its stiff tip, produces a sharp line that leaves no room for imperfections. In contrast, an eyeliner pencil offers a softer texture, making it easier to work with on an eyelid that lacks firmness. It is this first substitution, then, that changes everything in Charly Salvator’s method.
The Four Key Steps of the Charly Salvator Method
The technique is based on four precise steps, designed to open up the eyes and address drooping eyelids without creating a stiff or heavy look. Here’s how Charly Salvator breaks it down in her tutorial:
- Replace the felt-tip pen with a pencil. He draws a small flick at the outer corner of the eye, slightly angled upward toward the eyebrow, gently stretching the skin with a finger. As for color, brown and black work well, but he personally uses Bang Bang Cosmetics’ Eternal Pencil in the shade Mystic Fig, a deep purple that he believes flatters all eye colors.
- Blend rather than outline. Using a fine, angled brush, he blends the pencil inward toward the eyelid, right along the lash line. He then repeats the same motion under the eye to create a seamless look.
- Set it with powder. Loose or pressed powder is applied over the line and across the entire eyelid. According to the makeup artist, this “creates a smoky, slightly blended effect” and prevents the makeup from smudging due to heat.
- Finish with mascara. A coat of mascara makes the eyes look more open. Here, Charly Salvator usesL’Oréal Paris’s Extensionist.
The smoky effect as an alternative to clean lines
By blending the pencil with an angled brush, Charly Salvator achieves a look that’s more like a soft smoky eye than a sharp, precise line. For droopy eyelids, this approach offers a practical advantage: it eliminates the harsh line that marks the crease and replaces it with a gradient that visually widens the eye.
In addition, the powder serves a dual purpose. It sets the pencil to extend its wear and further softens the line. As a result, even on a hot day, the makeup stays in place without smudging under the eye. This is a significant consideration for drooping or mature eyelids, which are often more prone to smudging.
Why This Method Is So Effective—Beyond Just Drooping Eyelids
Charly Salvator’s tip isn’t just for those with droopy eyelids. It’s also perfect for anyone who’s never been able to draw a clean, even line of eyeliner. That’s because a pencil, by its very nature, is more forgiving of slight wrist tremors than a marker with a rigid tip.
Furthermore, the resulting look is in line with current trends. The soft, natural-looking makeup with a slightly smoky finish aligns with the beauty trends of 2026 rather than the bold, graphic styles of previous years. It is, therefore, a technique that combines practicality and modernity—two points that Charly Salvator highlights in the caption of his video.
For drooping eyelids, the technique of slightly lifting the outer corner of the eye toward the eyebrow is particularly effective. It creates an upward direction that visually counteracts the eyelid’s natural droop. Combined with a final coat of mascara, this technique produces an immediate lifting effect without drawing a single straight line. It is precisely this approach—focusing on correction rather than embellishment—that makes Charly Salvator’s method so effective for drooping eyelids.
