Guyliner, a Tutorial

We've all had our eyes lined before---Halloween, school plays, afternoons spent curiously fiddling around at Sephora...---often to a much too harsh, unflattering effect. Though I do maintain that men look their best natural and simply groomed, I'm also all for advocating the idea of men having the freedom to change up their look from time to time the same way women have fun with cosmetics. Guyliner may not be as everyday-wearable as concealer, but on the nights you decide to break out the huge Yohji Yamamoto coat and the floor-sweeping vintage Dior Homme scarf, having a pair of dramatic, intriguingly smoldering eyes in your arsenal might just come in handy. Our mangy make-up model Mike Shaeffer returns for another installment of my little series on make-up for men.

We tried on a few shades of brown and found that YSL's pencil liner in Leather Brown, a dark brown with undertones of gray, worked best with Mike's olive-pink skin. Brown blends with skin tones much more naturally than black, which when smudged shows some hints of green.

We started by priming Mike's eyes with the Auto Pilot primer from Napoleon Perdis. This isn't an absolutely necessary step, but this pre-makeup moisturizer helps the liner smudge more evenly and stay on longer.

Apply a very small amount over the lids and under the eyes, and wait to dry.

Then with the eye pencil, draw a line from the the corner of the eye to the tear duct, as close to the lash line as possible. Draw it in with little strokes until you complete a line.

The line needn't be perfect, you'll be smudging it anyway. Mike's slightly jagged job works just fine.

Immediately after application, before the liner sets, smudge the line gently across the lower part of the lid with your ring fingertip until all visible lines are blurred. Then, with the fingertip stained with the eye pencil, smudge some color to the outer 1/3 of the lower lash line to define the eye from below. Do this with a very light touch; heavy lower liner can easily look very severe.

Soften those stares with your secretly guy-lined smoldering eyes. You are one dashing dark dandy.

In and Out

What holds true for fashion, the same goes for the trends that matter most: those that ebb and flow within my own head. Change is constant, and in fashion, I never say never. A leopard-print shirt, eyeshadow, a kimono---never would I have thought---and now, denim and a necktie. Heavens, never would I have even thought I'd finish an entire burger of beef!

at In-n-out Burger, Los Angeles: Illesteva sunglasses, Thom Browne jacket, Uniqlo shirt and jeans, J. Crew tie, Black Fleece belt

I had a conversation with my friend and editor Kwannam about this new look I espouse. Where's the paint splatter, the twenty rings, the odd shapes? "Wear whatever you like," he says, "it's your blog." Look closely, I'm still very much in there.

tie clip by The Tie Bar via Park & Bond, diamond signet ring by Lanero, Bvlgari watch

plaid wool tie by J. Crew, Black Fleece pebbled leather belt

I've taken to painting my left ring finger nail a shade that suits my liking. This time it's vivid red, brighter than ketchup. In a wardrobe slowly being taken over by classic menswear, it's my last bastion of kook.

red nail polish by Essie

My favorite shoes are starting to crack fatally. Should I deep-condition them, or allow them to fray gracefully?

Out goes my vegetarianism, at least for the holiday.

the mother to my diamond ring

I left, dripping with grease.

photographs by Nikki Tuason

DIY: Make-up for Men: Easy Eyeshadow

Fellows, today I will teach you a simple, easy way to wear eye makeup. A cornerstone of Dandyism is challenging boundaries, with the Dandies of the 1700s wearing radical haircuts and unconventionally tailored clothing that pushed the limits back then. Here at The Dandy Project, I refuse to stay put and live forever within convention--though I usually try to execute it with some semblance of subtlety--and with that, I bring you this eyeshadow tutorial.

bare-eyed Mike. Our mutinously ungroomed grooming model Mike Shaeffer returns for this installment of the Make-up for Men series.

I like eyeshadow, applied subtly on men. I've seen it done countless times on the runway, and when done rather faintly (the idea is to be wearing "no-makeup makeup"), it is much more foolproof and much more flattering than the seemingly more socially accepted rocker lined eyes.

We used a matte medium-dark taupe shadow (Bali by Nars) just a couple of shades darker than skin tone and applied it casually yet precisely on the lower part of the lid with the ring finger tip.

Mike smudges it about, keeping the stripe of shadow relatively narrow, and sufficiently blended in.

halfway done: Mike's subtly shadowed right eye looks ever so slightly deeper-set, more expressive, and more tender than his naked left eye.

Blinking brings forth a splitsecond of pretty mystery,

but eyes open, they become ever so gingerly deeper-set and darker.

DIY: Make-up for Men: Cover-up

Many men wear make-up; most of you just don't know it yet. On a bad face day, you can't just Photoshop that pimple off of the tip of your nose and have your facade match the impeccable handsomeness of your new Belvest suit. I have a closet full of impeccably handsome clothes, and, lamentably, my fair share of bad face days. Luckily, having practiced concealing and blending with and on the women in my life, and having worked backstage at a handful of fashion shows, I have got a quick technique down pat. I've enlisted the help of my friend Michael Shaeffer, full-time menswear designer and part-time Brooklyn caveman, to demonstrate my easy-peasy technique.

bare-faced Mike

Mike has a blemish: a popped pimple, unmasked even by his jungly beard.

Here's what you do.

Squeeze a tiny amount of cover-up on the fleshy part of your hand. I use MAC select cover-up: it's handy, it's light, yet it conceals blemishes very effectively. Find the one that matches your skin tone the best. If you can't grapple with the idea of wearing cosmetics, try using tinted creams with benzoyl peroxide or tea tree oil and tell your gullible, delusional self it's medicine and not make-up.

Rub it around, warming it up with your finger. Use your ring finger to apply the product; this is the finger that would exert the least amount of pressure.

Dab the concealer, a little at a time, on the area to be covered. Start at the center of the blemish and take time to blend around it to make it appear as even as possible. Look in the mirror twice to make sure you don't look as if you have a glob of flesh-colored paste smeared on your cheek.

And smile, you are now obscenely handsome.

The idea is to have the product on as lightly as possible, and with the blemish gone, walk into your day electrified, forgetting you've got anything on your face.