Aug 06, 2021

Which Eyeliner is Right for You?

We get asked this a lot - which one of your eyeliners should I get? What's the difference? We have a liquid and a cream - both wear well, have a 6 month shelf life and are black, but after that there's some differences - let's dive in!

LIQUID LINER

PROS:

wears great - all day for most folks
skinny tip - very easy to work with to get a super clean wing or line
don't need a brush - one stop shop
very saturated inky black with a slight shiny finish (easier to see on next pic)

CONS:

if you're wanting a "soft" liner look this isn't it - crisp is the story here
hard to build up - you can do it if you want a thicker wing but if you're wanting to paint a lid or do significantly thick eyeliner this will take a long time as the tip is so thin
tricky to blend as it dries so quickly so if you mess up you have to do more fixing

For the picture above I wanted a serious wing on Emily and so I set my shape first with our Felt Tip Liquid Eyeliner and then went over it a bit on the wing itself to thicken it up.

When I did the makeup for this photo I was going for a classic soft baby wing at the corner on Jaclyn and Taylor and so the Felt Tip Eye Liner was perfect. If you look at Taylor's eye (right) you can see the shine on the liner itself as she's more in focus in this picture.

This video is from 2014 (cue face palm - I'll make us a new one soon!) but the concept is the same of how to use it. And I'm also wearing a TON of blush and a VERY strong brow so enjoy that 😂.

CREAM EYELINER

PROS:

great wearability - stays all day for most folks
gives you the option for a soft/natural eyeliner OR a winged liner
blends very easily (you have about 30 seconds) so you can fix mistakes or go for a smudgy look
can use to tightline or in waterline (though it is not waterproof)

CONS:

takes more work to get a crisp wing vs. a liquid liner which is easier
you need a brush (we have one!)
there's a learning curve since there's a brush (vs. a pen/pencil)

My friend Cotton (above) wears no makeup in real life and so she didn't want to look overly done up in her photos. I used our Cream Eyeliner to give a super skinny but "fuzzier", if that's the right word, line than a liquid liner would give. That way I was adding definition to her lash line without looking makeup-y.

These pics were taken on my phone and not super high quality but we're looking at eyeliner and these tell a story. On the left side I tightlined (inner eye on top) and lined my waterline (inner eye on bottom). Then I did a line on the top, above my lashes, and smudged it with my finger. On the right side I did the same thing but then also used the Cream Eyeliner as an eyeshadow (how-to is the second video below) - so we've got super smudgy eyeliner going on on the bottom + all the black shadow you see - that's our Cream Eyeliner. So it's versatile.