In coming! The dark, sinister, and moody underworld of goth eyeliner!
Say hello to eyeliner’s evil twin sister, goth eyeliner. She’s wicked, sulky, and serious, but if you get her on her good days, she’s also artistic, striking, and allusive. Whether you identify as a goth or just vibe with intricate and expressive makeup looks, we have various goth eyeliner styles that may intrigue you.
These 20 head-banging, punk rockin, goth eyeliner looks will channel your inner dark, eerie, and mysterious side. Depending on whether you are at the “it’s not a phase, mom!” phase of your gothic identity or feel you were born for the gothic vibes, you’re going to enjoy these looks.
How To Do Goth Eyeliner
Perhaps you are interested in goth eyeliner looks and styles but don’t know how to begin. To help kick-start your journey to the dark side, we have curated a goth eyeliner look for you to try. This look isn’t intricate or spooky, but you can build off it and create your own look if it isn’t goth enough. The photo above is what we are trying to replicate.
What you need for goth eyeliner:
- Black liquid eyeliner
- Eye primer
- Concealer
- Black pencil eyeliner
Step #1
Start by priming your eyes with an eyeshadow primer. You want a smooth base so your eyeliner glides on perfectly.
Step #2
Take your concealer and place a small dot on your eyelids and blend it out. This will eliminate any veins showing under the skin. Some goth eyeliner looks might call for that veiny aesthetic. But the focus of this look is the eyeliner, and we really want it to stand out.
Step #3
Use your liquid eyeliner and draw a wing. Take it out about an inch from your outer corner, flicking it upwards. Then, drag the eyeliner from the outermost tip to the middle of the eye. It should create an empty sideways triangle. Using eyeliner, fill in the gap.
Step #4
Very carefully, draw a thin line hugging the lashline from the inner corner to meet the middle of the eye.
Step #5
Connect that wing you made to the lower lash line. Create a thick line along the lower lashline past the inner corner.
Step #6
Create a small sideways triangle on top of your inner tear duct and fill it in.
Step #7
Using the pencil eyeliner, fill in your upper and lower waterlines. Make sure they are extra dark to match the liquid eyeliner.
Best Goth Eyeliner Looks
Whether you’ve decided this is a phase or not, we have the best goth eyeliner looks we think you should rock. Check out the 20 different styles you can try and experiment with below.
Graphic Eyeliner Goth
This graphic eyeliner goth style focuses on creative and out-of-the-box designs. Graphic eyeliner is a liner style more catered and stylized than regular cat eyes or wings. The graphic liner plays with shapes, colors, and placements, with the main objective being to look different.
Simple Goth Eyeliner
Perhaps you are interested in goth eyeliner but don’t want to go full gothic mode with crazy complex looks. A simple goth eyeliner look will be perfect for you. It focuses mainly on using dark eyeliner and shadows to make the eyes pop without taking things too goth. Even a pop of colored eyeshadow, blue eyeliner, white eyeliner, or any color on the lower waterline will help keep things light but goth.
Dramatic Goth Eyeliner
If you have a flare for the dramatic, this dramatic goth eyeliner look will bring out your dark side in a good way. The added shimmer eyeshadow overtop of the liner makes this look thrilling.
Goth Eyeliner For Hooded Eyes
The trick for achieving goth eyeliner for hooded eyes is to keep the wing dramatic and prominent on the outer corners of the eyes. Instead of using eyeshadow, use your eyeliner for the whole look and create this dramatic wing.
Don’t neglect the under-eye area, as it’s a great place to get creative if you have hooded eyes.
Trad Goth Eyeliner
Trad goth eyeliner is short for traditional goth. This goth aesthetic reflects the classic and original goth style of the 1980s. The Bauhaus, Siouxsie Sioux, and The Cure are examples of bands that sported this attire.
Focusing on making the eyes look bigger with dark shading will keep them heavy and gothic. A lash strip slightly below the bottom lashline will help give the appearance of larger eyes.
Cool Goth Eyeliner
The word cool is subjective. However, this goth eyeliner look is cool to us. We like to see color used to create depth and darkness rather than classic black. Using dark red eyeliner as eyeshadow is the perfect hack for greeting a grim goth look.
Butterfly Eyeliner Goth
This is one of the more contradicting goth eyeliner looks we’ve seen. However, who said goth couldn’t be beautiful? Practice makes perfect with intricate designs like this.
Other gothic-like designs you could try to recreate with eyeliner are:
- Spiders
- Spider webs
- Crosses
- Vampire’s veins
- Bat wings
Thick Eyeliner Goth
Check out this thick eyeliner goth style if you want to go a bit heavy-handed with your eyeliner. Smudging your liner all over the eyes and blending it out creates a dense, gloomy makeup look that is more pigmented than regular eyeshadow. This is the hack you didn’t know you needed.
Big Goth Eyeliner
Go big or go home!
Big goth eyeliner is all about creating a massive eyeliner look that’s irresistibly cool and unique looking. This liner style is similar to puppy eyeliner, just much more exaggerated and expressive.
Goth Winged Eyeliner
Winged eyeliner is a staple in almost everyone’s makeup look. It’s great for elongating the eyes and giving them a snatched appearance. To take things over to the dark side for goth winged eyeliner, kill two birds with one stone by using your liner as a shadow and eyeliner.
Zohna Tip
Use pointed Q-tips during clean-up to help get your wing edges super sharp and clean.
Goth Girl Eyeliner
If you are a teenager or pre-teen playing around with makeup to determine what you like best, and you’ve landed on gothic makeup, we have a perfect look. There are tons of goth makeup trends out there, and many are complex. This goth girl eyeliner look is ideal for starting as it’s simple and easy.
Cute Goth Eyeliner Looks
To us, what makes goth eyeliner cute is the use of color. This red eyeliner look is incredible and super impressive. This is more of a graphic eyeliner style, but you can try different eyeliner looks with color to create a cute goth eyeliner look. Check out the table below for the different goth eyeliner styles you can try in color.
| Cute Goth Eyeliner Looks | Description |
| Puppy eyeliner |
|
| Bold Waterline |
|
| Doll Makeup |
|
| Shadow Liner |
|
Black Eyeliner Looks Goth
If you want your black eyeliner to look extra goth, use lots of it. The trick to goth makeup is layering, blending, and blending. Placing eyeliner under where you plan to put eyeshadow is a great way to ensure your shadow stays all night and looks more pigmented. This hack only works with darker eyeshadows and eyeliners.
Bat Wing Eyeliner Goth
One of the most impressive eyeliner styles is this bat-wing eyeliner goth look. This look is great for Halloween, or every day, depending on how much you like it. Channel your inner flying mammal self with this bat-wing eyeliner.
Under Eye Eyeliner Goth
A unique way to do goth eyeliner is to focus on the under eyes. This ‘under eye eyeliner goth’ style can look like many things, but this specific technique has to be our favorite. We love the way this eyeliner look drags the eyes down slightly, giving them that deep and dead look.
80s Goth Eyeliner
Big hair, fishnets, and eyeliner were the epitome of 80s goth. The 80s were all about excess and being bold and bright. Despite the goth aesthetic often lacking color, the 80s goth eyeliner look was filled with color.
Pastel Goth Eyeliner
Don’t be afraid to use color in your goth eyeliner looks. This pastel goth eyeliner is a unique purple eyeliner and eyeshadow makeup combo that screams gothic energy. This look might even spook Satin.
Extreme Goth Eyeliner
The extreme goth eyeliner look is about letting loose and letting the dark side take over your hands to create this look. Drawing on thin eyebrows and using fake piercings is a fantastic way to take this look further into demonic depths.
Mall Goth Eyeliner
If you want a goth eyeliner look that you can wear in the mall or in public without getting judgmental glares from on-lookers, we suggest this mall goth eyeliner look. It’s simple but still encapsulates that dark, moody goth energy.
Heavy Eyeliner Goth
Don’t hold back with this heavy eyeliner goth look. The more, the better. An eyeliner pencil will be perfect for smoking out the eyelid and lower lashline for that dark, mysterious look.
Top Goth Eyeliner Picks
Now that you have seen our favorite goth eyeliner looks and know how to do it, we wanted to share a few products that will be ideal for you.
NYX’s eyeliner pencil in Berry Goth is a dark plum shade perfect for creating moody but colorful goth eyeliner looks. This pencil has up to 36 hours of wear and is powerfully pigmented, waterproof, smudge-proof, and fade-proof. This glitter eyeliner has a metallic finish, making it perfect for festivals or adding a dramatic flare to your goth eyeliner.
NYX’s Jumbo Eyeliner Pencil is fantastic for creating smokey goth eyeliner looks. This eyeliner crayon is a blendable double threat. It can be used as a creamy eyeshadow or eyeliner. It has a smooth tug-free formula, ideal when used as eyeshadow.
Maybelline’s Hyper Easy Liquid Pen is perfect for creating graphic eyeliner designs and sharply pointed wings. This formula glides on smoothly and has a hyper-easy brush tip that gives you optimal control over the application. Your goth eyeliner looks will stay on for 24 hours with this product!
Goth Mania!
Goth eyeliner isn’t for everyone, but if it’s for you, we couldn’t be more excited for you to enter the dark and dreary, yet cool and artistic underworld of goth eyeliner. There are tons of unique looks to try out and play around with. Makeup and gothic aesthetics go hand in hand, as both are about expressing yourself however you please.
