If you’re like me, you have tons of eyeliners, Tons! I usually only sharpen my pencil eyeliners when I about to use them. Now here’s the tricky part...how not to get shavings everywhere.
I have been guilty of sharpening on to a Kleenex and then Ooops, I dropped the shavings on the floor. Where the kohl gets trampled into my carpet because I am too lazy to get out the vacuum to clean it up right away and then I forget about it and Oooops I walked over it and stamped kohl on my bedroom carpet. OR I did vacuum it up and the vacuum decided it would spit out a chunk of it in the living room where it got stamped on carpet. AAGHHHH!
So to combat that problem now, I use a cheap plastic snack container obtained from the local dollarstore. I place a folded Kleenex at the bottom and toss in my sharpener. My current sharpener is a Quo dual sized sharpener. It’s a pretty good sharpener. I have had it for a couple years now.
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| my trusty plastic container |
When I sharpen a pencil, I grab my trusty plastic container; sharpen the pencil over it, letting the shavings fall on the Kleenex. I also tap out the sharpener to get as much as the shavings out of it as possible. Then I dump the Kleenex in the toilet to dispose of the shavings. I used to just wrap the Kleenex and toss in the garbage but my dog likes to pull Kleenex out of garbage can under my makeup table L. Or if I am lazy, I just put the sharpener back inside and close the plastic container and deal with it later. LOL.
I clean my sharpener about twice a year. I probably should a bit more .... anyhoooo, when I clean it I use a couple cotton swabs, an old (clean) disposable mascara wand, my current eye makeup remover and some antibacterial soap. I take apart the sharpener and use one of the cotton swabs to run through the canal to pull out the tiny shavings and kohl chunks left behind. Next I run the pieces under hot water to soften up the kohl bits stuck to the blades. Then I squirt a bit of the makeup remover on the sharpener blades and then scrub with a cotton swab inside and out. You need some oil removing makeup remover to breakdown the kohl. What works for your eyes will work for this too. Currently I am using Avon eye makeup remover, it works quite well at breaking down the kohl. Then I use the disposable mascara wand the scrub the blades. A cheapy toothbrush would work just as well. I lather my hands up with the anti-bacterial hand soap and give the sharpener pieces a good lather. Rinse in hot water and volia! a clean sharpener!
A tip for those nasty kohl chunks that got stamped or melted into the carpet: I use a Martha Stewart tip I saw eons ago for removing candle wax from the carpet. Get out your clothes iron and a brown paper bag. Once the iron has heated up, place the paper bag over the spot where the eyeliner is. Press the iron down for a second or two – no more or you could melt the carpet fibers! Pull up the brown paper bag and put a clean part of the bag over the spot again. Repeat until the eyeliner has been soaked up. There might be a little discolouration left but it will be a lot easier for the eyeliner spots to come up when you do actually clean the carpets.
So go forth and sharpern with earnest!
