1. Don't apply facial oils or moisturizers that aren't oil-free over your eyelids.
Your eyelids get oily on their own, says Sir John, L'Oréal's newest addition to its makeup artist roster. If you add more oil and moisture to your eyelids, your eye makeup will certainly slip off before you're ready for it to.
If you want to use an eye cream and have makeup that doesn't crease, use the cream before you go to bed. Make sure to wash it off in the morning so you start with a clean eyelid slate.
2. Don't prime your eyelids with concealer or foundation.
"This is the biggest misconception when it comes to makeup," Sir John says. "While it might provide grip momentarily, both formulas usually contain oils that cause your eye makeup to move around on your eye, which is what you're trying to avoid."
Sir John, who tends to celebrities like Beyoncé, Chrissy Teigen, Joan Smalls, and Karlie Kloss, avoids applying concealer to the eyelids because he likes to keep the little color you have naturally there. "It adds to the groundwork of the shadow," he says. "When you use foundation to blank it out, you lose the definition that you woke up with in the morning, which can make you look too made up."
3. Look for long-wearing properties when shopping for eye makeup.
"You need to think like a swimmer if you want a budge-proof effect," Sir John says. If the makeup you're mulling over says "long-lasting," "water-resistant," or "waterproof," chances are it won't transfer, lift, or crease.
4. Use a primer if you need 24-hour color lock.
If you need your makeup to stay put from morning until way into the night, Sir John suggests using an oil-free primer or patting a pressed powder on your lid before applying makeup.
5. Scribble a gel liner over your eyelid and blend as the base for your eye shadow.
Really! After applying your eyeliner over your lash line, take a gel liner that matches your eye shadow and apply it haphazardly where you'll be applying your shadow. Then blend it around with your ring finger or brush so it doesn't look like random streaks. Try L'Oréal Paris Infallible Never Fail Lacquer Liner.
Surprisingly, gel liners are the best way to get stay-put shadow. They give your shadow the grip it needs and can double as your base shadow. But you have to work quickly: "When you're working with long-wearing products, time is not on your side," Sir John says, "so work on one eye at a time." He recommends using a synthetic brush that's packed tightly (instead of a fluffy one) or your ring finger to apply the color. Use a fluffy brush to diffuse any harsh lines around the crease of your eye.
Next, pat your eye shadow of choice over the gel liner. "If you want longevity, you need duality," Sir John says, "and patting your jewel-toned shadow over the gel liner will give you that long-lasting effect." Finally, apply nude shades with a fluffy brush to the outer corners of your eyes. This will soften your look. Try L'Oréal Paris Colour Riche La Palette Nude.
If you do all of these tricks and your eye makeup still creases, Sir John recommends following this advice:
Blend the creased shadow with your finger (the oil will help the color move around), then blot any excess oil away with a blotting paper. The sheer sheet will absorb the oil but won't lift the color.
Fun fact: Sir John once used the paper from a cigarette as a blotter on set in Brazil. "I didn't have any blotting papers. Someone on set had a cigarette, so I unrolled it, trashed the rest of the cigarette, and pressed the paper it was wrapped in up against my client's lids," he says.
Follow Carly on Twitter.
Carly Cardellino was the beauty director at Cosmopolitan. If you follow her Instagram, then you know she'll try just about any beauty trend or treatment once (the pics of her purple hair are on IG to prove it). But her favorite part about being in beauty is finding the most effective products, and then sharing that intel with others—because who wants to spend money on stuff that doesn't work? No one, that's who. Her most recent discovery: De La Cruz Sulfur Ointment, which will change your blemish-clearing game! Hopefully through the beauty stories she writes—and the experiences she shares—you can see exactly why she's in this business.
