Archived Post
Rant & Rave: Gel Eyeliner
Tell us why/what you love, hate, or are indifferent about… GEL EYELINER!
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
44 Comments
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
Comments on this post are closed.
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
I like gel eyeliner because it give a nice deep opaque line I’m going for! Bobbi Brown’s gel liner is my fave!
Yes!!! BOBBI BROWN.
i love it because you can either do a thin natural line, or you can do a really thick winged out dramatic line.
the only bad thing is that you have to use a brush to apply it
I like most of the L’Oreal HIP gel liners. Black is a nice rich color with good intensity and staying power. Blue and Eggplant are passable. The brown just doesn’t seem to have the sticking-power or the smooth application of the other colors.
love my blacktrack fluidline from mac! I can’t go a day without this liner! plus its much easier to use than liquid liner!
I love gel liners, mostly for the accuracy of application with a good brush, and the fact they are virtually water proof and rub proof! I love the TIGI Bed Head ones, but rumor has it they are LE (don’t see why?). Otherwise I like L’oreal’s HIP ones, or the Smashbox ones. Revlon has some as well I heard, but I haven’t seen or tried them.
I love fluid eyeliner, just because it offers more possibilities – but I hate it – cause if you make a mistake….off with everything, and start from the beginning 🙂
I also prefer BB gel eyeliner, nice range of colors! But most say that Coastal Scents has done a really good job with their gel liners – the black is really BLACK….and it stays right where you put it!
I guess i fall into the “indifferent” category. gel liner, cream liners, anything that needs to be applied with an angle brush or this pin point brush is just too hard for me to put on. my hand is just not steady enough i guess and i always get so frustrated and wipe it off like a million times. with creamy, pencil liners, i am just able to get the perfect line on the first try. i’m sure practice would make perfect, but i don’t have the patience. i am also just sooo hooked on Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners that it would take a miracle product to sway me away from those babies. HA!
i love stila’s smudge pot. i have small asian lids so any other liner would transfer onto my bottom lid. i’ve used mac’s and i started to look like a raccoon in a hour. i’ve been using stila for about 3 years now and dont plan on changing. also loving the bronze color they have.
I love the way these go on, but all of my pots have dried out, (Clinque, Bobby Brown, Mac and Loreal that is) any tips on how to revive them??
You can mix a couple drops of eyeliner mixing medium and mix with a toothpick to recharge the product. It is recommended with gel liners that you grab the product with your brush, then turn the jar over upside down on a tissue or the cap. When the product is exposed to air it gets dry really quick so even during the few minutes/seconds you are applying on your eye, that exposure to air is going to dry out the product.
Thank you, this is a really usefull tip, and I even have the Mixing Medium for liners you are taling about. Great product, and now you just gave me yet another reason to love it. Too bad it is a PRO item, that I do not understand.
I love MAC’s Fluidline! that said, I HATE Coastal Scents’ Gel Liners. I ordered a bunch and they were all gooey and runny, not like fluidline at all. You get what you pay for!
AND later I found out that Coastal Scents actually gets a lot of their stuff on e-bay from Hong-Kong and such. their palettes, liners, and most of their brushes. yep.
Yeah, Coastal Scents doesn’t proclaim themselves as the creator of these products. They just buy them wholesale and sale them to us here in the U.S. I’ve never tried their gel liners, though. 😀
I love gel eyeliners, for me its easier to use than liquid eyeliners, and it stays on my eyelids longer than most pencil liners I’ve ever tried.
Gel liners are definitely better for me than liquid eyeliners. I just feel that they are a whole lot easier to apply. Also you can create very precise lines with a good brush.
I like gel liners You just have to find the right brush for you, Everyone was saying how they like the little angled brushes for Gel Liners but. I prefer the straight edge ones.
i luv luv luv the urban decay gel eyeliners, they go on like a dream. b4 i had the mac ones., but i didnt like how they pulled and tugged on my eyes , and sometimes the wood would scratch my eyelid, so now its just the UD ones. i love how they have a hint of glitter in them too.
Fluidline is a dream I absolutely looovvvvvvvveeeeeeeee it
I love gel liners staying power, but I’m not a huge fan of the “dryness” of the formula. I find I have so much more contraol with the mac pro creme liner…but it’s not waterproof.
Hmmm I think I’m “indifferent”. I personally find liquid ilners easier to use!
i love them! i just got my first mac fluidline over the weekend, and so far i love it! it is so much more precise and workable then liquid liners. just my opinion! and it last so long! i use the 210 brush
My favorite 2 types of gel eyeliner are:
1. Indelible Gel Eyeliner (like the ones sold at Aromaleigh.com) because it gives a lovely, even colored line now that I’m used to using it with a bent eyeliner brush, and it stays on until I take it off with makeup remover. It doesn’t smudge on me, like L’Oreal HIP liner did.
2. MAC’s Fluidlines
This stays on me and looks beautiful, too.
I love these now that I’m used to using them. It took me a while to be able to do thin lines with them, but now I often feel like pencil lines are too thick and clunky.
Phyrra, I am totally with you. You are the only person I have seen mentioning Indelible Gel Liners, beside my self.
I love them bacuase they are so reliable; waterproof, smudgeproof, non-cracking, pigmented and cheap. And comes in a lot of colors.
I too love the fluidline, they have a bit better consistency than Indelible, wich can variate a lot.
But I don’t find fluidline has the same stying power as indelible, so for weekdays I like fluidlines and for going out or rainy days or days I am goint to the gym, I switch to Indelible.
Two fab products, have met nothing to give them competition…
I think I’d rather use a pencil liner – gel and liquid liners take some time to get the trick of application (although gel is more solid and easier to apply than liquid) and I like the smokey, smudged look better. Unless I want random liner dots trying to smoke out gel/liquid liner, I’ll stink to my beloved MAC Powerpoints! Can anybody give me tips on smudging liquid liners?
it’s hard to smudge them because they dry so quick. What I do it to go on top of it with the same color matte eyeshadow with a slanted small softer brush or a pencil brush, so you get the smokey effect and it lasts even longer like that ’cause the e/s sets it 🙂
i LOVE gel eyeliners! i wear black eyeliner almost everyday, whether it be a thin line to define my eye a little bit or something more dramatic. i use l’oreal HIP liner in black. I swear this thing does not move. Only way to get it off is with makeup remover. I honestly can’t remember the last time I used a pencil liner to line my eye other than using it on my lower waterline.
I actually like the gel liners I bought from CS – maybe I just made the right choice or it is people-oriented. I don’t find them runny or such and they work great. But if there’s anything to be said about gel liners are that: since they tend to be waterproof, they are stuck to skin beneath the lashes when applied as thin lines. I find that hard to clean up-it takes more than just cotton swabs because one time I fidn out that even after two days, there’s still liner bit near my upper eye area. It maybe a good thing for people with oily lids, but I’m darn too tired to clean it up!
I love my MAC fluidline..its the best !!!
Gel liner is like crack. It’s crap, but I just can’t stop using it. It bleeds and runs on my oily lids, does not go on smoothly on my older skin, and dries out no matter what I do. I prefer my cake liners, but that one tiny additional step of wetting the brush gets me every time.
Hi Pavlina
I had the same problem as you. I tried all well known brands, all generic brands and finally I stumpled upon Indelibel Gen Liners.
They are 100% waterproof, smudgeproof and stay put no matter what you do. They only comes off with waterproof eyemakeupremover.
So give them a try, they are cheap.
Find them on StudioDirect’s web page.
PS. I am almost 36 and I too have wrinkles, that makes it hard to make a perfect liner.
But with practice, the right brush (MAC 209) and pulling my skin smooth, I can apply it perfectly.
I really love gel liners as they give such a sharp and clean line as compared to pencil/kohl liners and are much easier to use the liquid. However sometimes if I’m too much of a hurry I skip applying these and opt of kohls/pencils instead as gel liners do take a longer time to set.
I love my Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner! The only thing is that I take longer in applying it and because of its smooth use, I can easily mess up my line! I always go for a kohl liner for daily wear just because of habit. I bring out the gel liner if I have more time to get ready and always for an evening look.
I love gel liners. Color is very clean and pigmented, with better staying power compared to a pencil eyeliner. I also think that it’s easier to apply compared to liquid eyeliner.
I really dislike the coastal scents gel liners. They smudge like crazy for me no matter what I do. No UDPP, powder, waiting for it to dry, etc works for me.
So far, the L’Oreal HiP liner is workign pretty well for me.
gel eyeliners, liquids, pencils are the same to me, just depends on what I grab first. I can get a clean sharp line with any of them (I use an angle brush with a pencil to get a sharp line) or I can do smudgy smoky lines. I love gel and liquid liners as eyeshadow bases. One of my favs was Frostlite Fluidline for the entire lid.
i love how gel eyeliner looks on the eyes! but too bad i haven’t really got one that stays on the eyes. i have MAC Fluidline and tried BB ones before…but they just smudge and disappear after a few hours 🙁
I love my gel eyeliners! I have 2 Stila smudgepots and begged a friend of mine to get me 2 HiP liners when she went to the US. I love that I can draw really fine lines and that they won’t smudge when they dry. Most pencil liners will smudge on me if I rub the corner my eyes a bit, even though I have dry lids and wear a primer.
I really love them… Until they dry out and are hard to use 🙁
OMG…I just got L’oreal Hip gel eyeliner at ulta the other day and I am in love!!! The skin around my eyes is not very tight, so when i use liquid liners and my un steady hands, I would get the most messed up line ever!!! NOW, I get perfect lines, b/c the gel eyeliner is so think, you can never mess up!! I apply it using a Sonia Kasuck brush, I will never go back to liquid liner again!! Although I have been wanting to try the penultimate by mac
I love gel eyeliners because they are easy to apply and they last all day. My faves are Indelible Gel Eyeliner and Avon Daring Definition Gel Eyeliner.
i love the staying power, but i hate how its so hard to remove !
I love MAC fluidlines. I haven’t got too many but the ones I have I use them so much, especially blacktrack.
I love gels, they’re so much easier to work with than pencils.