Gel Eyeliner - A Cautionary Tale!

I'm one of those people who, for whatever reason, feels compelled to share her failings with others. Perhaps I shouldn't, but I always feel like I need to point them out before anyone else notices. So here I feel I must put my hands up and say...

"I can't make gel eyeliner work!!!!"

There, I said it. Now you'll all be pleasantly surprised if one day I become a world champion in the application of gel eyeliner.

So here's the thing. Liquid eyeliners, the ones that come with either a tiny brush on a wand or a felt-tip like pen, are supposed to be harder to work with and less precise, whereas gel eyeliners, the ones in little pot which you use with a separate brush, are supposed to be foolproof. Well, they certainly hadn't met this fool.

There are a number of famous gel/cream eyeliners on the market. Most notably by Bobbi Brown and Clinique. I decided a few months back to buy the Clinique one, seeing as it was only £13 and had received rave reviews online. I really thought that it would be my most used make-up item and that it would make lining a cinch. I expected it to go on smoothly, last all day and remain blacker than black. I imagined myself purring with delight when I would glimpse my expertly lined cat-eyes in a mirror, all thanks to the miracle of gel eyeliner.

Clinique Brush-On Cream Liner

Nothing could be further from the truth. I have tried three different brushes. The tiny one it comes with (useless), the Boots No7 eyeliner brush (doubly useless) and a flat slanted angle brush (useless and messy). At the end of each attempt I felt, and looked, like a 5 year old trying to replicate her mum putting on make-up. Try as I could, I couldn't manage even the shortest of straight lines, not even with short strokes. The product would smudge everywhere, and it was really really hard to remove the smudges.

The other day I thought I'd give it another go. Mistake. I was already in a rush that morning, and after trying carefully to create a decent line on both eyes I still managed to end up looking like my eyes were going in different directions! Bad, bad, bad..... For the first time in many many years I had to cleanse my eyes and start all over again. Only the pesky stuff wouldn't come off easily. By then I was horrendously late for my French class but I refused to leave the house looking like a toddler had drawn on me with a crayon.

I removed as much as I could and then whipped out my L'Oreal Carbon Gloss liquid liner. Ahhhhh, that's more like it. Who on earth decided that faffing around with a mini pot and brush was easier????

L'oreal Super Liner Carbon Gloss

Well, to each her own. The Clinique gel liner appears to be great for some, and indeed I've watched girls apply it perfectly in a matter of seconds. Maybe I've got the brush wrong, maybe the liner is just a bit too soft and creamy, maybe I'm just a bit pants..... who knows? I certainly got on a lot better with the Smashbox cream liners which were much firmer in texture, but then again I only used those for pushing colour close into the lashes with a flat brush, I never tried them for creating a flicked eye liner look.

For now the dinky little pot of black ink will remain in it's box until I regain the confidence to try again, and with a different brush.

The moral of the story? When you're in a rush don't faff around, simply STICK TO WHAT YOU KNOW!