I’ve always been haunted by thin eyelashes. Anything that I can do to thicken my eyelashes, or to make them appear thicker, I do it. One of these techniques is called tightlining.

Tightlining, as the name suggests, involves lining your eyes with eyeliner tighter than regular (from the top) applications of eyeliner. With tightlining, the eyeliner is pushed into the lashes, creating a far more natural look.

Over time, I’ve found that it becomes easier to use tightlining than regular eyeliner application techniques, so I end up using this technique on a daily basis. With practice, you can make it look completely natural while making your lashes appear fuller.

As an added benefit, tightlining gives you slightly more canvas space for your eye makeup, if you’re doing something like a smokey eye look. With the eyeliner at the bottom of your eyelid instead of above your lash line, you don’t have to worry about uneven coloring above and below your eyeliner line.

I don’t use eyeliner pencils for this, since it seems to mess my eyelashes up, poking them in all different directions. Gel liners work, but you can use eyeshadow in a pinch if you’re careful, just make sure not to drop powder in your eyes. I’ve been there a few times, and it’s not fun at all!

To start, grab your gel eyeliner (or eyeshadow, if you’re using that) and a small, narrow makeup brush. Hold your eyelid up with one hand while applying the eyeliner from the bottom, making sure to push it through the lashes. I was paranoid about poking myself in the eye at first, but eventually I got over it.

With the brush there, wiggle it slightly side to side to apply the eyeliner, then move to the next part of your eye. Dragging the brush won’t work here, since you’ll be brushing your eyelashes all over the place, making them look haphazard and unnatural.

Repeat this across the entire lash line, making sure to get even coverage. There isn’t a very good way to blend this, so take your time the first time you do it. I did it about ten times before I got something I liked, so don’t worry if it isn’t perfect at first.

The same applies to your lower lashes, except that you don’t have to hold your eyelid up. Bring the brush in from underneath the lower lash line, and apply directly to the base of the eyelashes. As the lower lash line, I put far less emphasis on the eyelash base than on the upper lids, but it’s important to do a bit of darkening here, again to keep everything looking natural.

If you’ve done it right, the bases of your eyelashes will appear darker. After adding mascara into the mix, I can actually see my eyelashes, which is amazing by itself. I can still apply slight winging to the eyeshadow (pulling the outside of the eyeliner into the crease on the outside of the eye) without it looking too noticeably unnatural.