Raise your hand if you’ve ever accidentally poked yourself in the eye with your eyeliner pencil? (So, that’s pretty much everyone.)

While eyeliner tends to be pretty straightforward for skilled makeup artists—the basic idea being that you just trace your lash line—there are some surprisingly tricky aspects that you can easily mess up.

The ultimate goal for most women is perfecting the liquid liner, which is like the cool clique of the eye makeup world and with enough practice you can get gel, liquid, and pencil liners down to an art form but honestly, have you got the time and patience?

Read on for the biggest problems with eyeliner application and why so many of my clients are deciding to have it expertly and permanently applied….

Problem #1: Constant pulling or tugging your eye when you draw on eyeliner

Pulling your eye back so your skin is taut and smooth seems more like common sense than a mistake, but, we’ve all been wrong about this one. “When you pull and then release your eye, it bounces back—and your eyeliner does, too. This not only adds wrinkles where we don’t want them but can also can create bumpiness, texture, and that dreaded check-mark shape hanging off the eye.

Problem #2: Using the wrong eyeliner product for your skin type

Liquid or gel liners can sometimes look too dramatic for everyday use, they also set so quickly on the skin that you have basically zero time for blending them in and softening the result.

Since blending is your best friend because it helps to soften and blur your lines making mistakes less noticeable you may be better off using a pencil especially if you’re new or have shaky hands when you apply.

Although some high-quality pencils will give you a little playtime for blending, they then have problems staying put without smudging or smearing throughout the day.

Problem #3: You only apply to your lower lash line

“Using a dark liner on the bottom without a liner on the top makes the eye feel unbalanced and bottom-heavy, dragging the eyes down. Plus, if you sweat or rub your eyes throughout the day, you could end up looking like a bit of a goth or like you’ve just been crying.

Add liner to the top lid for a more lifted, youthful effect. If you really, really want to go after your bottom lash line, try using a lighter colour there than you’re using on the top. This will still give you definition, but feels softer and more flattering.

Studies have also shown that applying eyeliner on the inner eyelid runs the risk of contaminating the eye and causing vision trouble as particles from pencil eyeliner can get into the eye causing corneal abrasion.

Problem #4: Closing your eye whilst you’re drawing

Here’s the annoying thing about eyeliner: You can draw perfectly on both eyes and then when you open up you realise that they’re totally uneven. Much of this comes down to placement and width. The solution? You have to keep your eyes open. When the eye is closed, you can’t see where the crease at the corner of the eye falls. This can also be tricky to do if you wear glasses or are visually impaired.

Problem #5: Winging it when you’re trying to wing your eyeliner

I know, I know: nobody’s got the time for a 10-step eyeliner application. But if your planning on being photographed or have a big event like a wedding or a job interview, it could be worth taking a more methodical approach to creating a dramatic look.

Tilting your head back and looking into a mirror (with your eyes open!) to give you full visibility of your eyelid and keep your lashes out of the way maybe your only option.

Line up your brush with the outer edge of your lower lashes at a 45-degree angle. Draw a dot as far as you want your wing to go. Then, connect the dot to your outer corner. You can then continue to draw the line towards the centre of your lower lash line.