Review: Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner

I am admittedly not the best at applying eyeliner (despite watching countless 'how to's' on YouTube), but as they do say that practise makes perfect, and as a result I go through quite a lot of eyeliner!

For my upper eyelids I rely heavily on liquid liner, as I find that gel liners dry out before I get to use them properly (and i'm still searching for the perfect application brush) and pencil liners, whilst fine for a smokey, smudged look at nighttime, don't give a precise finish.

I have yet to find a 'Holy Grail' eyeliner (as with the majority of my makeup products!) and so have tried a variety from various (mainly highstreet) brands, with this one being the latest (bought for me by my lovely Mum):

Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner

♥ RRP £5.99

♥ Sold from 'usual' stockists including Superdrug, Boots and supermarkets

Packaging

♥ 'Felt tip' style - my favourite type of liquid eyeliner applicator, as it is far less messy than a brush and allows for continuous eyeliner flow when applying both fine and thicker eyeliner styles.

♥ 0.4mm brush tip - not as fine a tip as the L'Oreal Carbon Gloss eyeliner, for example, but still allows for precise application.

♥ Replaceable cap - I would have liked this to fit on the end of the eyeliner packaging like a standard felt tip pen lid would, as I am often in danger of losing the lid if I drop it on the floor!

♥ Despite the lid and Maybelline's various claims that the packaging has been designed to prevent the product drying out, I have found if I don't store this correctly (i.e. lid side downwards) it can seem to have dried out.



Shade/Finish/Staying Power

♥ At the moment (as far as I am aware) this eyeliner is only available in black.

♥ Not the most pigmented of eyeliners i've ever tried

♥ Matte finish - not glossy or shimmery

♥ This is by no means an 'unbudgeable' eyeliner - it has an annoying habit of transferring to my eyelids if I haven't used a primer, or if I get a bit hot and sweaty (nice), and as the day goes on I do find it wears off on the inner corners of my eyes or gloops up in my tear ducts. Lovely.

Cruelty Free?

♥ NO - Maybelline still carry out testing on animals.

What's the Verdict?

This is another one of those 'ok' products that will do me for now.

I wouldn't say it's worth £5.99, and I wouldn't repurchase it once it runs out.

One only for the Maybelline die hards I would say!

What eyeliner would you recommend I try next?

Melanie x

Review: Maybelline Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner 24H

(phew what a title!)
So following on from the reviews of the other day, i've got another eyeliner for you, this time a gel one: Maybelline Studio Gel Eyeliner (I condensed the full name down a bit!)

This gel eyeliner is one of the new "studio" products from Maybelline which were recently launched, along with the Eye Studio Quads, Eye Studio Mono Eyeshadows, and the Colossal One-By-One Mascara (which I am still debating about purchasing).

What Maybelline say:
Oil-free formula holds highly concentrated pigments in a clear gel base

Smudge-proof and waterwproof for 24 hours

Most intense line for lasting drama                                                    

Safe for sensitive eyes and ophthalmologist-tested

Contact lens safe

 

This was my first foray into gel eyeliners (having previously been using Barry M's liquid liner and the L'Oreal carbon gloss), and i'd heard quite good things about this one (on Blogs and YouTube of course!) so when I saw it on special offer in my local Tesco it quickly got put in the basket. I had originally wanted to try the No7 gel eyeliner from the Limited Edition Spring Collection and the E.L.F gel eyeliner, but the former is always sold out in Boots and i've heard the latter can be a bit dry and difficult to put on, so the Maybelline eyeliner it was!

 

For an RRP of £7.99, in the box you get the little pot of gel eyeliner (very similar to Bobby Brown/MAC gel liners) and a small eyeliner brush to apply it with:

Now as far as i'm aware only shade 950, Blackest Black, is available in the UK right now, but on the Maybelline Website they list 3 other colours: Brown, Charcoal (dark grey), and Eggplant (kind of purple).

The black is a true, intense black and very pigmented.

Using the little brush (of course you could use your own) the gel eyeliner applies like a dream: really smooth and quick/easy to apply.

Referring to the pictures below, the first is the eyeliner first applied at 8am, and the second is at 5pm after i'd come home from work.

As you can see from the second picture the eyeliner has hardly moved, and still looks almost as intense as it did on the initial application. I've heard some people complaining that it rubs off onto the upper eyelid, and given that I have hooded eyelids I would have expected this to happen to me, but happily it didn't! I think using an eyeshadow primer (I used Mac Prep and Prime) really helps its staying power, so i'd recommend that if you have oily lids. It does have excellent staying power, but its really easy to remove, and obviously if you rub/touch your eyes it will smudge. There have also been comments made about the brush (i.e. it hardens up and is difficult to clean) but so far i've had no problems and have continued to use it daily. I know that gel eyeliners can also have a reputation for drying out, but as i've only had this for a short while i'm going to keep an eye on it and report back later.

 

Overall however i'd definitely recommend this - it's helped make eyelining easy for even someone like me!

 

Have you tried it?

 

Melanie

Avon Supershock Mascara and Gel Eyeliner Review

Evening all,

I mentioned the Avon Supershock mascara and gel eyeliner in my Feb Faves, but thought I would review in them in (slightly) more detail here, now that I've had a couple of weeks to use them and incorporate them into my daily make-up routine.

First up, the Supershock Mascara.

Surprisingly, the Avon website says very little about this product, stating only that it is a Thickening base coat and plumping colour in one for volumised lashes. Now, going by that statement alone would have made me pass over this mascara completely, but I am an avid follower of the the model Ruth Crilly (find her blog here) and she had highly recommended it along with the eyeliner, hence the purchase from this Ebay seller (for a grand total of £2.20 compared to the RRP of £8.50!)

So for your money you get 10ml of product, and you have a choice of either Black or Brown Black (mine being the latter). The "brush" itself is not actually a brush as such but a plastic "wand", similar to that of the Max Factor Great Lash, if somewhat longer and slimmer with more plastic bristles (see below for comparison: Supershock on the left, False Lash Effect on the right).

I did have concerns the length of the brush might make me smudge mascara all over my eyelid, but this didn't happen and the multitude of silicon-plastic bristles helped grab and hold onto my lashes, giving a really nice effect when the mascara was worked into my lash roots then brushed up the lash (does that make sense?!)

I don't tend to do many coats for daytime (however see the pic below which shows how thick/dark it makes my lashes look when my eyes are closed!), but it still gives a natural, "fluttery" effect to your lashes.



Thanks also to those fine little bristles the mascara is less likely to clump, and compared to my previous mascara, L'Oreal Voluminous, it hardly flakes or smudges. It's also easy to remove, and, in terms of price, is a good mid-range priced mascara (and bear in mind you can always get it cheaper from the likes of Ebay!). I've not yet tried it with eyelash curlers therefore I can't comment on how good it is on holding curl, but if you're looking for a mascara which provides buildable length and volume, then this is the one for you!

Now onto the Supershock Gel eyeliner. I purchased this (again from Ebay, this time from this seller, for £2.99) with the intention of using it on my waterline, as I tend to prefer pencil here and gel/liquid liner on my eyelid which tends to get a more precise result. Avon says it is a smooth-glide eyeliner for bold,intense colour that lasts for hours, and many bloggers/YouTubers are hailing it as the cheaper (RRP £6.00) alternative to the cult-classic Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil.

                                      

                                      This was the eyeliner applied at 8am on my waterline.

Picture at 5pm. As you can see, the eyeliner is still on my waterline, albeit slightly faded, and it has disappeared from the inner corner of my eye.

When swatched on the hand the black colour is INTENSE, and, like the 24/7 pencils, after a few seconds the pencil has set, making it quite difficult to budge, although still easy to remove with make-up remover. It's very creamy, making it easy to apply on the top lid without drag (even for someone like me!) - indeed similar in that sense to a gel eyeliner- and before it sets it can be blended/smudged for that smokey look.

One problem with the gel formula however is that it can be hard/messy to sharpen, but to get round this simply pop the liner in the fridge for a couple of minutes before sharpening and you'll produce a lovely pointy tip!

Currently the colour range for these pencils is very limited - only black and silver are available on the UK Avon website at the moment, and I think (from looking at other blogs etc) gold might be available abroad - but I can only presume that Avon will expand the range in the near future.

If like me you can't quite stretch to paying £11.50 for the Urban Decay 24/7 pencil, I'd say this was an excellent alternative at £6 (and even better when you can get it for £2.99 off Ebay!)

Have you found any good highstreet dupes/alternatives lately?

Melanie x