Pencil eyeliners might as well be an eyeshadow substitute for me. My eyelids are both greasy and somewhat hooded so basically everything migrates into my crease. Again, gross and unfortunate. Pencil eyeliners just don't cut it. I'm too impatient to wait for gel eyeliner to dry, but it stays ok. Ok, though, isn't good enough when I want my wing to be sharp enough to kill a man.
I googled 'best liquid eyeliner' and got a bunch of $20 products. What am I, made of money. I refined my search to drugstore, and decided to pick up Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner in Carbon Black.
 |
| T-B: Maybelline Line Stiletto (~$8), L'Oreal Lineur Intense (~$9) |
This sucker is fantastic. That's kind of a subjective statement, since different people want different things out of the squiggles on their eyes. So for the sake of simplicity and objectivity, I thought I'd break this shit down for you in the case you have an eyeliner checklist sitting on your lap.
1. Packaging
Admit it, pretty packaging is worth it. I could buy some generic brown-bottled Walmart perfume--or I can throw my $100 at a Sephora employee and get a fancy, breakable thing.
 |
| Source What are these? Why are they so ugly? Why do they appear in my house as though by magic? |
The Lineur Intense packaging is fine. It doesn't use comic sans and doesn't shed glitter. For the sake of a funny image, I google searched 'comic sans perfume', but instead I found Helvetica The Perfume. Yes, it's real. It's $32. It's also just distilled water.
Anyway, the Lineur Intense packaging is fine and functional. The tip isn't a brush that can flay out and get misshapen, but a nice, stiff wedge sponge. It has a fine tip and is flexible enough to not stab you in the eye. It's a little bit longer than Maybelline's Line Stiletto, if that matters to you.
I like how the handle is nice and long. For me, it makes it easier to draw a smooth line.
2. Product / Application
Being called Carbon Black, you'd expect this eyeliner to be black. It's black. It's very black in my swatch and in my eye (literally). Sorry if I misled you with the first line.
It applies very smoothly, and doesn't need more than one layer if you're precise. You may need to go over it again if you don't dip your brush in on the first stroke. The only problem is that you need to wait for it to dry before drawing over. If the eyeliner is still semi-sticky, then trying to mess with it will actually take off some. It dries very quickly, though, and I'd call the finish somewhat semi-glossy (although nothing awful like Maybelline's Glossy Liner), rather than a true matte. The Line Stiletto has a similar finish, but was significantly more prone to flaking when you tried to go over it again.
The bottle doesn't need much shaking. It's a nice consistency: not watery, but also not clumpy and dry. You don't get any patches when you apply and it doesn't tug at the skin. Just like with all liquid eyeliner, you probably should wait a few moments before looking up if you have hooded eyes. I've forgotten and gotten some on my lid, but a tiny dot that was super easy to remove.
3. Wear Time
This thing is fantastic at wear time. It stays on me for 12 hours and then some. If you didn't catch on, I have semi-hooded eyes and greasy eyelids.
I blink as much as everyone else and every time my eyeliner rubs the rest of my eye. Nonetheless, it definitely stays on. I've put swatches on my arm through the shower, and if I don't rub, they stay on fine through running water.
L'Oreal's Lineur Intense flakes. I, personally, think it's a nice combination of flaking and not. Like I said, my eyeliner is constantly rubbing my lids, but that's not enough to flake it off. I also fuck up my wings often and removing them is easy, but leaves a few flakes here and there. The eyeliner goes smoothly on top of them and wears the same.
Also a point to note: I never touch my eyes. Maybe scratch under my eye, but I never touch my lid. You shouldn't either, but if you compulsively rub or if you have itchy eyes, this eyeliner will flake off on you when you rub it: more if you're oily, much less if you're dry. It's easy to reapply, though, and if you clean it up with a wet q-tip, people probably won't notice you're missing a chunk.
I also conducted an extreme-extreme test. I applied my eyeliner in a less chunky wing than above (not much touching my lid) and wore it from 8am to 12am. That's 16 fucking hours on my oily skin. The only difference was some slight fading on the left side, and a few minuscule flakes on my eyelid. There wasn't even any fading towards my tear duct.
So there you have it. If your skin is less greasy than mine, your results should be even better.
Note: I have tried this eyeliner alone with a few eye primers and the results were worse than without. It seemed to smudge and crease and flake faster and easier.
4. Removal
I can find a kick-ass eyeliner--but if removing it is a pain in the ass, I'll probably never use it. Eyeliners that flake off are awesome. They just rub off. So easy.
If I wanted, I could just rub off L'Oreal's liner with my fingers. I'm not that filthy, though, so I use Yes to Cucumbers Facial Wipes and they easily get it all off. I have yet to find a decent mascara I can just rub off.
This eyeliner is fantastic.
L'Oreal Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner retails for around $9 for 0.05 fl oz ($180 per fluid ounce), depending on where you buy. For comparison, Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner retails for $19 for 0.058 fl oz ($327.58 per fluid ounce).
 |
| L-R: Maybelline Line Stiletto, L'Oreal Lineur Intense |
Anyway, the Lineur Intense packaging is fine and functional. The tip isn't a brush that can flay out and get misshapen, but a nice, stiff wedge sponge. It has a fine tip and is flexible enough to not stab you in the eye. It's a little bit longer than Maybelline's Line Stiletto, if that matters to you.
 |
| L-R: Maybelline Line Stiletto, L'Oreal Lineur Intense |
I like how the handle is nice and long. For me, it makes it easier to draw a smooth line.
2. Product / Application
Being called Carbon Black, you'd expect this eyeliner to be black. It's black. It's very black in my swatch and in my eye (literally). Sorry if I misled you with the first line.
 |
| L-R: Maybelline, L'Oreal, L'Oreal after a vigorous rubbing. Maybelline was noticeably more watery. |
It applies very smoothly, and doesn't need more than one layer if you're precise. You may need to go over it again if you don't dip your brush in on the first stroke. The only problem is that you need to wait for it to dry before drawing over. If the eyeliner is still semi-sticky, then trying to mess with it will actually take off some. It dries very quickly, though, and I'd call the finish somewhat semi-glossy (although nothing awful like Maybelline's Glossy Liner), rather than a true matte. The Line Stiletto has a similar finish, but was significantly more prone to flaking when you tried to go over it again.
The bottle doesn't need much shaking. It's a nice consistency: not watery, but also not clumpy and dry. You don't get any patches when you apply and it doesn't tug at the skin. Just like with all liquid eyeliner, you probably should wait a few moments before looking up if you have hooded eyes. I've forgotten and gotten some on my lid, but a tiny dot that was super easy to remove.
3. Wear Time
This thing is fantastic at wear time. It stays on me for 12 hours and then some. If you didn't catch on, I have semi-hooded eyes and greasy eyelids.
 |
| Awkward photo of my eyeballs. See how much of the eyeliner touches my crease? |
I blink as much as everyone else and every time my eyeliner rubs the rest of my eye. Nonetheless, it definitely stays on. I've put swatches on my arm through the shower, and if I don't rub, they stay on fine through running water.
 |
| I don't have a 'before' picture (it looked perfect, trust me), but here's a 10 hours later image. Looks fine from afar, I would totally go out like this. |
L'Oreal's Lineur Intense flakes. I, personally, think it's a nice combination of flaking and not. Like I said, my eyeliner is constantly rubbing my lids, but that's not enough to flake it off. I also fuck up my wings often and removing them is easy, but leaves a few flakes here and there. The eyeliner goes smoothly on top of them and wears the same.
|
| In this swatch, I rubbed the last one rather hard. Harder than I would rub my eye. My eyes are really oily, so it flakes much easier on my eyes than my dry hand. |
 |
| Here's a closeup of 10 hour wear. No one will be looking this close at my eye when it's closed, so I'm ok with it. And don't forget I am super oily and this is a pretty extreme case. |
 |
| On the other side, for the sake of a test, I gave my eye a quick rub. Again, extreme case. Dry people will experience less flake. |
Also a point to note: I never touch my eyes. Maybe scratch under my eye, but I never touch my lid. You shouldn't either, but if you compulsively rub or if you have itchy eyes, this eyeliner will flake off on you when you rub it: more if you're oily, much less if you're dry. It's easy to reapply, though, and if you clean it up with a wet q-tip, people probably won't notice you're missing a chunk.
I also conducted an extreme-extreme test. I applied my eyeliner in a less chunky wing than above (not much touching my lid) and wore it from 8am to 12am. That's 16 fucking hours on my oily skin. The only difference was some slight fading on the left side, and a few minuscule flakes on my eyelid. There wasn't even any fading towards my tear duct.
 |
| It looks like my eyeliner is uneven, but trust me, that's just the bad-flash-photo angle. My eyebrows stayed on awesome too. Four for you, Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade. |
So there you have it. If your skin is less greasy than mine, your results should be even better.
Note: I have tried this eyeliner alone with a few eye primers and the results were worse than without. It seemed to smudge and crease and flake faster and easier.
4. Removal
I can find a kick-ass eyeliner--but if removing it is a pain in the ass, I'll probably never use it. Eyeliners that flake off are awesome. They just rub off. So easy.
If I wanted, I could just rub off L'Oreal's liner with my fingers. I'm not that filthy, though, so I use Yes to Cucumbers Facial Wipes and they easily get it all off. I have yet to find a decent mascara I can just rub off.
This eyeliner is fantastic.
L'Oreal Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner retails for around $9 for 0.05 fl oz ($180 per fluid ounce), depending on where you buy. For comparison, Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner retails for $19 for 0.058 fl oz ($327.58 per fluid ounce).
No comments:
Post a Comment