The Cat Eye Lash Effect

The cat eye is a technique that makes the gaze sharp and alluring and visually stretches the eye toward the outer corner. It’s ideal for almond eyes, or for elongating round and prominent eyes. It helps to work across different maps, from classic to 2D and 3D volume, use L, D, and M curls, and dial in the right length to build the cat eye. (In the US this map is the cat eye; the trending fox eye is a related but separate, sharper style.)

Cat eye maps in M and L curls

Cat eye and winged hybrid map in C and M curls (swipe the gallery)

Elongated cat eye in an M curl

Cat eye in 3-4D volume, L curl

A soft cat eye map

Wet-look cat eye, plus the lash map

Clients ask for the cat eye all the time, and combination techniques are catching on too: a cat eye in an L curl with wet-look spikes, or a doll-cat-eye map. Popular requests include a 2D cat eye, a cat eye in a D curl, a wet cat eye, and a cat eye in 3D volume.

It’s not enough to master the basics; you want to be able to adapt the cat eye to any eye shape, smartly combining length, thickness, curl, and volume.

And so your photos sell your work without a word, see also:

How to photograph lashes the right way

How to edit your lash photos beautifully in 75 seconds