Archived Post
Rant & Rave: Lip Pencils
This Week’s Topic: LIP PENCILS!
Your Mission: Tell us what you love, hate, or are otherwise indifferent to about lip pencils. What drives you bananas? What makes them necessary?
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!
30 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!
When I’m wearing a red lip I feel like I need a lip pencil. But on a day to day basis … no. They dry out my lips sometimes
I only ever use on – Dervish, by MAC. I like it because it’s pretty much the colour of my lips so when my lippie wears off, there isn’t this tell-tale outline left behind – something I find so hideous. I do need another colour – since buying a redder lipstick, I need something that works better with that shade but still won’t leave the ugly lipline behind. That’s what bugs me about lip liner – the large # of women who seem to think that brown or purple lipliner looks natural, no matter their own colouring – and who apply unnatural colours and so heavily that when their lipstick does fade (or even before), you really see the lip liner. Why not just use a Sharpie marker?
I don’t feel that they are necessary. I much prefer a lip primer if I am worried about staying power.
Lip liner makes lipstick, etc. look much more finished, unless you are lucky enough to have a nice natural lip line, which I am not. My personal preferences are Nars Marine and Lancome Portale.
Although i own so many, i dont really reach for them. Only when im wearing a vibrant colour that i have to wear a lipliner.
Love Chanel. Dislike Mac.
I used to wear Revlon Colorstay in Nude for years. Then I moved out to the east coast and noticed it would dry out my lips. Sometimes I wear MAC in Subculture or Rimmel, but mostly I stick to just a lipstick or a gloss without it.
Im using lip liners always , and I like Givenchy lip liners no.2( rosy nude )the most.
I love them! I’m really into bold lips these days, so a lip liner is essential for creating the perfect shape and adding to longevity. My absolute favorite is NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil. (Dragon Girl is my HG red lip, and I just bought Damned and Cruella yesterday!) It lasts all day, survives eating and drinking and all kinds of silliness.
I make sure my lips have been moisturized and exfoliated before ever applying a pencil though. It’s a good incentive to take better care of my lips in the dry climate I live in, if it means getting to wear sexy lip colors! LOL.
I feel that lip pencils are a necessity. My lipline has disappeared with age and a nice, creamy pencil really defines my mouth. I abhor pencils that are so dry that you can’t glide them on. A pencil should be creamy enough to glide on the entire lip.
if i am doing a red or otherwise bright lip on a client I will use a lip pencil to help the color last longer, but otherwise I use reverse lip liner because I feel it is less drying and does the job better.
I only wear lipliner when I’m wearing a red lipstick. I also have a nice nude lipliner I like to fill in my whole lip and then apply MACs Beachbound lipstick on it and the combo is such a nice nude/peach lip. I love how you can also use a lipliner as a nice natural looking stain. On somedays where I want red lips, but want it more wearable, I will lightly apply my red lip liner all over my lips and it gives it a nice red stain that looks natural.
i don’t wear lip liner 😀 i don’t need it and i don’t wear lipstick often
I only have a couple but I don’t really use them much..I did just pick up one from a German brand called P2 though called society girl and its by far the most nude liner I have ever seen, and it has this completly different texture as well, like you could just use it to outline your lips and then put a nude lipstick over, or because of how easily it blends out you can actually use it to lightly nude out your lip color in a flattering way..its actually the perfect color I love it..I like to nude out my lips a bit then apply a gloss with it rather than line them..the only other liner I have played with is Sex Machine by Nars, which I like as well.
I love lipliners but i hate that they’re so drying! Ppl with darker skin tend to have a natural lip liner but in order to wear some colors, we have to put on a mac or chanel ect lip liner. if only they made more creamy lipliners and in more variety of colors, i would be happier
What’s a lip without a lipliner ? The liner makes the lip look perfect that is if the color is right. I agree that a nice dark lip liner left behind when the lipstick or gloss wears off looks horrid. I use pencils that compliment the lipstick. I have one MAC pencil that I use from the To the Beach collections as a filler. Topped with a clear or more nude lipgloss it looks very pretty and it tends to last. My favorites lately are Urban Decay since they stay on so well.
I use the Buxom Big + Healthy Lip Sticks in Las Vegas and in Bombay. I’m glad I got the light pink one, because I usually need a base for really light lip-color.
I don’t use them every day but overall, I like them! The best I’ve found are Natio Lotus (the most perfect nude pink and the formula is fabulous) and Pupa True Lips.
I tried the EL Double Wear in Tawny and while I loved the colour, it was disconcertingly sticky!
I like to use them to give a slightly different tone to lipsticks, especially those on the sheer side – it gives them a bit more depth I reckon. 🙂
After years of practice I still cannot master lip pencils. Luckily my lips are naturally full so I don’t need much extra to bring them out.
I started to wear a lip liner now that my lips line is not as defined as before… I’m 36.
I really think it helps to make your lips feel fuller. I use a nude colour, very natural..But the staying power is terrible! Any lipstick or liner doesn’t last more than 30 min on me 🙁
But I try anyway…
I love lip pencils! I use the NYX ones they keep my lipsticks on a lot longer
I went years without using one and then got into red lipsticks and bought one to match the lipstick. Well, the lipstick wore off and I looked terrible. Now I don’t use them but I did like how tidy it made my lips. I’m curious about Lipstick Queen’s invisible lip liner. Has anyone tried it?
The only time I’ve ever used a lip pencil was with those “line and shine” duos by Revlon. Which were pretty great, in my opinion. Otherwise, I don’t bother, because I’m not much of a lip colour girl.
I love using a lip pencil, but I don’t like how hard it is to find purple shades. My favourites are MAC’s Lush N Lilac (discontinued) and Lancome’s Lilac.
The BEST one for me is trish mcevoy in barely there… loove the color and even more texture for me better than MAC and chanel.
I love using them. I have naturally full pigmented lips, but they lack that definition and color when it comes to the outer rims. I love using a rosy pink lip liner to outline and fill them in; it adds that needed definition without looking like I’m wearing a lip color. Plus, since it’s a lip liner, it lasts all day. I just put some lip balm on top to keep away dryness.
I love Boldly Bare by MAC!
i only wear them if im wearing a red lipstick. i feel as though they dry out my lips way too much. as least, the ones iv’e tried. if anyone can recommend any good ones that dont dry out lips? 🙂
Hmmm… Lip pencils, most of them dried out my lips. But I like my NARS though, I’ve got Sex Machine, Dolce Vita & Cruella. Sex Machine is my perfect pink (FYI, I’m NC37-42 in MAC)
I have really dry lips so when I need to define my lips (like a night out) I use a matte lipstick in whatever color I need with a brush to create the long-lasting base and use a creamier similar color over it. Can’t use lip liners at all so that’s what I’ve discovered =/