Black Eyeliners : Real Talk

Longwear Black Liner : Comparisons

Black liner. This makeup product is constantly being used, improved, and remarketed. I think that the latest batch of black liners have become something amazing; they're incredibly pigmented, they apply smoothly, and they last for hours. Keep reading to check out how these 5 liners compare to one another and how they wear.

 

Let's break down each of these pencils:

1) Noir Long Wear Liner - I got my first one of these pencils in a Birchbox and I fell in love with it. It's not as dark as some of the other pencils in this set (you'll see in the swatches below), but it applies smoothly and it stays for hours and hours. I like it because it smudges well before it dries and I can apply it below my eyes without worries of it giving me raccoon eyes. I bought a second one of these for $15.

2) Milani Liquif'Eye Metallic Eye Liner Pencil - This needs to be stated first, this is NOT metallic.The other colors in this line are metallic, but the black is a matte finish. If you want an extremely pigmented black liner that is very long wear, then this is for you. I find all of my Milani products at CVS and I think that this liner is somewhere between $7 and $10.

3) Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion - Basically, take everything I said about the liner right above this and apply it to this. There are really only two differences between the UD pencil and the Milani pencil; the UD pencil is not as soft as the Milani, which in my opinion is a good thing. Perversion offers a little more control since the pencil is harder, which does not mean it's hard, it's still incredibly soft... just harder than Milani. With both pencils, if you plan on smudging at all, you have to work quickly because these dry quickly and you'll see how much they budge down below. This pencil is slightly longer than the Milani and retails for $19.

4) Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes liner in 0L - This liner's color is more comparable to the Noir liner, but out of all of these liners, this has to have the best staying power. Even when rubbing against the swatch on my wrist, it didn't move. Since the color payoff isn't as good as the Milani or Urban Decay, you need to keep this one sharpened to make sure you get the best results. This retails for $18.

5) Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero - Take everything I said about Perversion and then scale down the color intensity to be more comparable to the MUFE and Noir versions. Retails for $19.

Here is a swatch of all of the liners and their numbers correspond to the numbers above. As you can see, the Milani and Urban Decay (in Perversion) liners are the most pigmented. Each of these lines is one swipe of the liner pressed down with, what I would hope to be, the same pressure that I would apply to my lid. In defense of the MUFE pencil, it wasn't very sharp and I had to apply it at an angle.

And here is the smudge test; I pushed down hard with my pointer finger and dragged down my arm, hopefully harder than you would ever apply pressure to your eye. One thing to note with tests like this is that your arms generally don't get oily like your eyelids might. Most liners, no matter how awesome they are, will smudge a bit when they are introduced to oil. Looking at the above, you can see the the MUFE pencil literally did not smudge, it passes the test with flying colors. The Noir and UD (in Zero) pencils smudged a bit, while the Milani and UD (in Perversion) smudge the most. I think that because there is so much pigmentation in the latter two pencils, they are going to be the most prone to smudge.

So there you have it, 5 matte black pencils that are all great quality. What do you guys think? Any out there that you want to try or have already tried? Let me know in the comments below!

(all photo copyright Allison Richardson Photography and not available for use without permission)