What do you like about liquid eyeliners? What don't you like?

Tell us what you love and hate about...

Liquid Eyeliners

It’s not a formula I use very often, though I really love the look and inky quality it can have on the eyes!

— Christine

16 Comments

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Ariel Riley Avatar

Liquids are the only ones that don’t smudge for me! Even the cake liners I add water/duraline to work 1000X better than pencils. Except for the pretty colored liquids. I’m doomed to black only eyeliner forever!

Alili Avatar

Same boat here. I have tried so many pencils but they just won’t last.

I have found gel pencil that work for me too, but they dry out super super fast so it just does not make sense.

Maggie Avatar

When I have the ideal formula and brush/pen, I love the pinpoint precision and how gently and frictionless it tends to glide on.

However, it can be tricky to find the right formula and brush/pen tip: especially bc of hooded eyes.

Lesley Avatar

I like their precision. I can’t do much of a wing but I do like to turn the line up slightly in my outer corners and it always smudges when I try that with a pencil. If I am using black, I like the depth of color. I don’t like how the brushes splay eventually. The pens seem to work better for me.

Genevieve Avatar

Personally I don’t like anything about liquid eyeliners. In my teenage years I did try to use them, but with my poor eyesight I often ended up putting the line in the wrong place – and then there is the dry down time. With my hooded, mature eyes they just don’t suit me.

Ana Maria Avatar

I like the look and precision of a liquid eyeliner, I much prefer it to pencil.

My issues are usually related to bad formulas. I dislike when the eyeliner is too wet or dry, the brush frails easily, the color fades during the day or smudges easily.

Rachel R. Avatar

LIKE: I like them best for winged liner, especially when in pen form. So easy. I think glitter formulas work and look much better in liquid form than in pencil form.

DISLIKE: You need a steady hand. They can take a while to dry, which is especially annoying because I have hooded eyes. I hate when formulas that crack, flake, or aren’t opaque as they dry down.

Jennifer Avatar

I like the way they look and last, but dislike how they stick on my eyelashes (I tend to curl them after applying liner). Normally I do liner, curl lashes, and then quickly touch up eyeliner that comes off. But doing so with a liquid liner, which is more goopy, it can weigh the lashes back down again. More high maintenance than pen ink liners. Still, the color and depth of sparkle it can have is not easily recreated in other forms.

Raven Avatar

I want to love pencil eyeliners for my waterline but often find that they just slip across my skin and leave next to no pigment because the area is so moist. But gel and liquid liners? Epic coverage, useability, smudgeability and control for some of the more elaborate looks that I do. Pencils seem as though they would offer more control but it’s often liquid that gives me precisely what I wish.

Sadly, they often dry out or a company might put the wrong type of brush with a great formula. Or they’ll crack…

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