WITH A WINK AND A SLASH

JUST like that, a fashion shift hits that suddenly looks right to the eye. Or in this case, looks right boldly lined with a fat black crayon across the lid of the eye.

Pop phenom Amy Winehouse, she of the smoky soul songs and monstrous raven beehive, appears to also be moving many a young thing, from L.A. to London, to reach for the inkiest of black liquid eyeliner. Winehouse’s thick-winged look might be the most extreme, but she isn’t alone in her send-up of Elizabeth Taylor-does-Cleopatra peepers.

Fellow chart makers Beth Ditto of the Gossip and, to a more refined yet still noticeable extent, Cat Power and Lilly Allen love their liner. And it’s a signature for Laura Mulleavy of the Los Angeles-based sister design duo Rodarte.

There’s more than appearances to achieving this ruling look too, according to Gregory Arlt, MAC cosmetics’ director of artistry.

Start “by tilting your chin up and looking down into the mirror like a queen looking down at her people,” quips Arlt. If you’re new to liquid liners, he suggests the more forgiving gel formula.

Lift the brow slightly. “Mind you, this being L.A., it might be difficult to get any lift from that Botoxed eye. But try,” Arlt entreats.

Start at the inner corner and glide the brush outward and at an angle, which allows for more accuracy than drawing with the brush tip, he notes. The tip does have its uses if you’re a novice: Dot the lash line, then connect.

“If you think, ‘Oh my God, I went too thick’ -- perfect,” says Arlt, adding not to forget loads of mascara on the top lashes only.

“There’s nothing demure about this look,” he says, so it’s OK “with this much eye to do a strong lip in red stain or gloss. It’s a kind of trashy glamour, so play it up to the hilt.”

-- Rose Apodaca