Nina Leykind is the co-founder of Eyeko, the eye makeup brand that has taken the world by storm since its launch in 1999. Along with her partner Max Leykind, Nina has created a line of eyeliners, mascaras, brow gel and you get the gist – essential eye makeup that every girl needs and in the process, this British brand has unsurprisingly reached cult status.
The award-winning brand recently made its way to our shores and thanks to our friends at Sephora, we managed to speak to Nina about all things eyes and what’s it like working with Eyeko’s creative consultant, Alexa Chung.
For girls who have yet to be part of the Eyeko cult, what should they know?
Definitely the Eye Do Liquid Eyeliner that Alexa swears by. It has her own handwriting on it. It’s blacker, more waterproof and it has WIDELASH™ and it’s going to help your lashes grow. In just 15 days you can see three times more length and volume. That’s why everybody loves this eyeliner. Not only are you getting that on trend look but you’re getting treatment at the same time – what’s not to like right? And then with our mascara – this is a signature one that Alexa did as well – it’s got a skinny brush and that’s helping your lashes grow as well. These two products together, they’ll make a big difference to your look.
Who are some of the celebs who love Eyeko?
Jennifer Lawrence, Nicole Kidman and Salma Hayek – they love Black Magic. That’s their favourite. And then Adele, she wore the Skinny Brush Mascara in her “Someone Like You” video. Normally we see her with her fake lashes on but in that video, she’s got no fake lashes just this mascara but she still has that look of falsies.
Tell us more about brows for this season.
We’ve got a brow gel that’s meant to help you get brows like Cara Delevingne. This is just the thing to boost your brows, that’s why we won the Cosmopolitan beauty award for best brow booster. When you open it, it’s quite wet-looking because it’s got so much serum in there that’s going to grow the brows but at the same time, you’re styling, shaping and defining.
What’s it like working with Alexa Chung?
Fabulous! She’s very easy, very passionate. She lives in New York, we’re in London so we’ll just get emails in the middle of the night saying, ‘Hey, how about this for the name of the product?’. She’s very personal as well so even on the Eyeko shield, this comes with every mascara, it’s a little lid there so when you apply the mascara you don’t smudge your lids and that’s her own design. She’s very hands on. She always says, “I’m naked without my eyeliner” and she loves it because it goes with any outfit. She has her cat eye on which takes her from day to night.
So the cat eye will never go out of style?
Never! It’s all about classic looks and you can update it in so many ways. You can do a little flick of fine line or a dramatic funky look. It suits everyone’s style doesn’t it? Liquid eyeliner is never going away. And now more than ever, we saw the beauty trend reports and we saw Pat McGrath in Milan and it was all about brows, lashes and mascara. Every single show! And she was doing a lot of cat eye looks and lashes.
For Asian girls who don’t have double eyelids, what can they do to make their eyes pop?
I think the combination of liner, doing a cat eye look and mascara – the main thing to do with your mascara is to use more than one, that way you’re going to make the best of your lashes. I always start with the Skinny Brush Mascara because it has a very narrow and slim brush. And with this brush and the shield and you’ve short straight lashes, you can really get into the roots of the lashes. Once you have the length in, then you add the volume. Or you can add the curl, depending on what effect you want to have.
Even for me as my lashes are getting straighter as I grow older, so the perfect trick is to combine the mascaras. All our lashes are water resistant but they’re very soft and even if you have sensitive eyes, they’re gonna feel good – they’re paraben free with natural botanicals in the blend. We make them in South Korea because we used to make them in Italy where most European brands do but because this is our company and we’re very passionate and obsessed – we went to Seoul and this is the best formulation and right now, they are leading. Once they try Eyeko they never look back.
Some makeup artists say that if you’re wearing a bold lip colour, you should keep the eyes simple. But sometimes it can appear washed out…
You must always have mascara. When Alexa does a red lip, she wears Black Magic Mascara because you need to have the lashes to balance out the lips. Even if you skip the liner, that’s fine although just a little red lip is quite a classic look but if you want to skip liner, Black Magic is our blackest mascara yet so you get so much definition with just one product. You get really stand out lashes that makes a perfect balance and then you can forget about your eyes because you don’t have to think, ‘Oh, is my mascara doing panda eyes? ’ because it will stay put while you’re fussing with your lips.
Eyeko is available in all Sephora outlets.
