Duchess Sophie's makeup trick to enhance her features with subtle impact is so easy to put to the test

Duchess Sophie's makeup trick enhances her blue eyes and it's so easy to recreate for both daytime and evening occasions.

When it comes to makeup, women in the Royal Family tend to favour glowy bases and subtle pink-toned lipsticks for daytime engagements and special events. This beautiful fresh-faced makeup is something we see regularly from the Duchess of Edinburgh, though she’s a fan of a slightly bolder eye look. Applied flawlessly, the best eyeliners can help to define your eyes in a stunning way and dark eyeliner is a great makeup looks for blue eyes like Duchess Sophie's. 

She’s a fan of wearing black eyeliner along her upper lash line and we’ve seen Duchess Sophie’s makeup trick used to great effect on so many occasions. The senior royal's eyeliner appears to generally be applied with a slight winged look to it and the line isn't especially thick.

This is something that Woman & Home's Digital Beauty Editor Aleesha Badkar believes is incredibly effective. She explained that eyeliner like Duchess Sophie's is a "brilliant way to make a subtle statement" whilst still keeping your makeup looking "really elegant". Aleesha believes that the "addition of short wings adds a flattering fluttery appearance to the shape of the eyes" too.

Combined with lashings of black mascara on the top lashes and a more subtle amount on the bottom lashes, the Duchess of Edinburgh’s eyes also appear "bigger without losing definition".

As we saw with Duchess Sophie’s eyeliner look for the Commonwealth Day Service this year, she doesn’t always have pencil eyeliner in her waterline as well and this also helps to give an eye-widening effect. She went for a similar eye makeup look for the Order of the Garter ceremony in 2023 and the mascara and eyeliner being focused on the upper lash line added beautiful depth.

This came across in photographs of her at the event and the same is true of her makeup for Ascot in 2023 and the British Cycling National Track Championships earlier this year. Duchess Sophie’s makeup trick for all of these events makes her light blue eyes appear that bit brighter in contrast to the black eyeliner. 

Despite the eyeliner having such a noticeable effect, the way she keeps the rest of her makeup more pared-back and doesn’t often wear darker tones of eyeshadow as well means that her look remains very day-time appropriate.

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It’s easy to see why the Duchess of Edinburgh is a fan of black eyeliner and if you’re not sure how to apply eyeliner, you could choose to start off with a more blendable pencil liner before experimenting with liquid or gel eyeliners. Other royals are also a fan of wearing eyeliner in this way, including Queen Camilla. 

Her Majesty’s makeup artist Marina Sandoval previously explained to Harper's Bazaar that when it came to the coronation makeup, she used black eyeliner and mascara to enhance Queen Camilla's own blue eye colour.

"I very much wanted to make her beautiful blue eyes stand out, so I used a very black liquid eyeliner and a very black mascara," she shared.

She and Duchess Sophie are often seen with very similar eye looks, though you don’t have to have blue eyes to find black eyeliner along the top lash line gives a fabulous effect. The Princess of Wales has long been a fan of black eyeliner and even occasionally goes for the cat-eye flick.

On her wedding day she reportedly used Bobbi Brown’s long-wear gel eyeliner and over the years she’s continued to step out with a darker, defined lash line. This looks just as gorgeous on her as it does on Duchess Sophie and Queen Camilla, showing the versatility of eyeliner and what a key part it can play in your make-up bag.

Aleesha Badkar

Aleesha is Digital Beauty Editor at woman&home, where she gets to share her expertise into all the best techniques, sharpest tools and newest products - with a particular savvy in skincare and fragrance. With years of beauty product testing experience, she always knows what to recommend.