Too Precise? Review of Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner in Galactic Metal

Affiliate Links

I have to say that I am really into the metallic shit we're seeing all over the place this year. I like shiny things. (Mind you, there's a lot of stuff out there labeled metallic that isn't metallic, but that's a rant for another day.)

I picked up this Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner recently in part because it's shiny, but also because the design of the packaging seemed similar to my long time favorite liquid liner, L'Oréal Lineur Intense Felt Tip. Since the latter seems to be gradually disappearing, it would be nice to have a similar option that's less expensive. (Lancôme offers the same thing, but it's obviously much more expensive.) The main appeals of this style of eyeliner are (1) felt tip, not brush tip, and (2) the lid is longer than the wand--meaning that you can grip the handle down near the tip for better control, rather than several inches higher like this. That control is vital!

Though there are several flashier colors of these metallic liners (teal! gold!), I know from experience that I rarely wear any eyeliner that isn't black or brown, and I already have a whole collection of eyeliner pencils in other colors in case I really need to go there. So I gambled on the shade Galactic Metal. Since I was ordering online, and the name isn't very descriptive, I expected a sort of dark gunmetal. That's more or less what it is, though when you look closely it's more of a black base with silvery iridescent shimmer. Look at all the colors in this macro shot:

As for how this eyeliner performs, I'm quite happy with it. It's much better than the disastrous L'Oréal Carbon Black I tried a few months ago. "Master Precise" is a good name, in fact, both because of that long lid I mentioned that offers control, but also because the tip is super-mega-pointy.

In fact, it was a bit too pointy for me. I had a hard time not stabbing the inner corner of my eye where I start my line, and I also like to dot liquid liner between my lashes to fill in the gaps (i.e. tightline). This tip was so sharp that trying to do that was torture.

No problem, though. I just took a pair of (clean) nail scissors and snipped about a millimeter off of the tip. Now it's perfect for me. Maybe I can't get the end of my wing down to a micron, but that's not the kind of thing that's visible outside of a close-up photo anyway.

Here are some swatches in different types of lighting that I drew on the back of my hand before trimming the tip. You can get an idea of the shimmer and of just how thin a line you can draw with this eyeliner if you are so inclined.

On your actual eyelid, Galactic Metal is going to read mostly as black, but with enough shimmer to make it interesting. I found it easy to apply in a smooth, opaque line. When you go back over the line, the original liner doesn't get picked up, as can happen with some products. You can keep drawing over it to get what you need.

I applied the liner above after trimming the tip, so you can see that I probably could have got a thinner line at the inner corner if I hadn't done that (but, like I said, the stabbing!). I'm sure I could have made it thinner after trimming too, if I cared to, but that's not the kind of detail that is visible in person--certainly not behind my glasses. (Any flakes you see here are from my Maybelline mascara, briefly reviewed here, not from the eyeliner.)

This is the kind of formula that dries to a sort of plasticky film that you can almost peel off at the end of the day. It comes off in big chunks when you remove it. The advantage is that I've found it to be both water and oil resistant, which is unusual--often oil easily melts a waterproof formula and vice versa.

Here it is about 7 hours later (in worse indoor lighting). Not perfect, I guess, but in pretty damned great shape. My concealer, on the other hand, did not survive as well.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with this eyeliner and have no reservations about recommending it. It gives me a fun (shiny!!) option for my everyday makeup.

I'm curious now about the colors I didn't buy. Is it possible that the gold, for instance, could be as opaque and easy to use as this one? It's not uncommon for performance to vary by shade (again I remind you of my awful L'Oréal Carbon Black experience). Has anyone tried the other colors in this line? I'm not sure they're in stores yet--you might have to get them on Amazon or Ulta, like the corresponding metallic lipsticks. (I keep stalking the Ulta website to see if the lipstick is in stock in my local stores, because I bought the wrong color online and want to exchange it, but so far no luck.)

Drugstore Liquid Eyeliner Review Showdown: L'Oréal Lineur Intense Felt Tip Liquid Eyeliner in Carbon Black vs. Physician's Formula Eye Booster 2-in-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner + Serum in Ultra Black

Affiliate Links

I've recently tried two black liquid eyeliners in an attempt to replace the Stila liner (reviewed here) that ended up getting so frayed it's now unusable. Normally I don't like to have two products open at the same time that perform essentially the same function (much less three), but I disliked the first replacement liner I tried so much that I bought another. So here's a spoiler: the winner of the showdown is Liner #2, the absurdly named Physician's Formula Eye Booster 2-in-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner + Serum in Ultra Black.  I'm going to review the drugstore eyeliner that I do not recommend first (L'Oréal Lineur Intense Felt Tip Liquid Eyeliner in Carbon Black), and the much more impressive PF Lash Booster (hereafter) second.

First, let's look at swatches of both of them, with Stila's eyeliner as a comparison. On the left, I drew a single line to show the initial opacity and thinness of the point, and then I went back over the same swatch several time to show what happens when you add multiple layers.

Left to right: PF Lash Booster in Ultra Black, L'Oréal Lineur Intense in Carbon Black, and Stila Stay All Day Liquid Liner in Intense Black.

The Stila liner is more completely black on the first swipe than either of the other two and also has more sheen. Because of its frayed tip, that's as fine a line as I can get (and it's impossible to use on my eyelid, because there are fibers pointing in all directions). The PF Lash Booster is a close second, but you can see in the sheerer areas at the edges of the swatches that it's a warmer black than the Stila. It's also more matte, which can make it look darker on the eyelid. When you swatch all three of these eyeliners next to one another, the L'Oréal swatch in the middle looks almost brown. It's also much sheerer, even on the right where I tried to build it up.

Lackluster Liquid Liner: Review of Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Intense Black

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
Okay, maybe "lackluster" is a little harsh, but I have a hard time resisting alliteration. The fact is that this eyeliner is fine, but since I've so often heard that it's THE BEST and since it costs $22, I was hoping for better than fine.

Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner is felt-tip liquid liner that works like a marker, with the "ink" wicking up through the tip. This style of liquid liner is less messy than some other formats, but the downside, in my experience, is that the tip can get clogged or not flow immediately. If you apply your eyeliner after your eyeshadow, which you need to do to get the cleanest, crispest line, then it can pick up the product below and prevent the liquid from flowing properly. I also find that, even though I store the eyeliner vertically with the cap down, if I try to draw a line on my eye immediately after uncapping it, it's usually a little weak. I have to scribble on the back of my hand a little to really get the product flowing.

The other problem I tend to have with this style of eyeliner--and this applies to all the brands I've tried--is that the tip wears down quickly and becomes sort of floppy, which prevents drawing a perfectly sharp point. You can see that in the photo below, my wing is not "pointy enough to kill a man." It was the best I could get out of it after using this pen for a few months (though only a couple of times a week). The tip of this particular eyeliner also tends to end up with long fibers clinging to the end of it, which are part of the material of the tip. I have to pick them off with my fingers, making a mess of my fingertips. And it's hard to clean up (see below). On the plus side, I've been using it for months now, and it hasn't shown any signs of drying up.

The Black shade is a very dark, opaque, inky black, which is great. It has a little sheen to it--it's not completely matte. It's easy to draw thin or thick lines by varying the pressure. If you go over a line you've already drawn, the product below doesn't get picked up, which is has been a source of frustration for me with eyeliners in the past.

Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner definitely lives up to its waterproof claim, though not the "stay all day" claim, at least for me. It's very difficult to remove, even with a dual-phase makeup remover. I sometimes use this pen to label swatches I make on my arm, so that when I come back to my photos later, I know what's what. Here's my arm after trying to remove the marks with oil, makeup remover, and soap, AND THEN SHOWERING. I even used a scrubby Salux cloth in the shower, and the eyeliner isn't 100% gone. Maybe I should switch to Sharpie?

So if your main problem with liquid eyeliners is that they smear when your eyes water, that's probably not going to be a problem if you use this one. Unfortunately, despite being difficult to deliberately remove with oil, my oily eyelids devour this stuff just like any other eye makeup. Even with primer. Here's the state of my eyeliner after about 6 hours. And the photo below was taken in the winter, when I wasn't even at my oiliest.

You can see that the oil in my skin has sort of eaten the eyeliner away and caused it to crumble and flake, even though my eyeshadow has survived. The liner has completely disappeared at the outer corner of my eye where my crease dips low (for a clearer image of what I'm talking about, see this post). It still looked okay with my eye open, though the edges of the line had become more jagged and the tip of the wing was no longer sharp.

Overall, it's a decent liquid eyeliner. If I'm going to spend $22, however, I want something spectacular. I can find things that perform just as well as this, if not better, at drugstore prices. My favorite felt tip eyeliner is L'Oreal Lineur Intense ($7-10) (short review here), which I will write a detailed post about once I've used up this Stila liner. I am also curious about the Physician's Formula Lash Boosting eyeliner ($8-12) that Renee at Bad Outfit, Great Lipstick recently reviewed. I've added that one to my wishlist.

What do you look for in a liquid eyeliner? Have you found one that meets all your requirements?

Is H&M makeup worth it?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
I have some great clothes from H&M that were cheap and still look good years later. I've also bought some stuff that looked like shit after a few months. That's the fast fashion gamble. So what category does their makeup fall into?

A while back when they had a free shipping sale on their website, I decided to pick up a few makeup items to see what they were like. I don't get to the mall much, and the makeup section in my local H&M store is kind of a mess anyway, so online shopping seemed like the way to do it. There was also a sale, so I got an additional 25-30% off the prices listed below. (I bought a pair of basic leggings at the same time. Major pilling in the crotch/inner thigh area after the first couple of wears. Sticking with Old Navy in the future.) I couldn't find many reviews of H&M cosmetics online at the point, so I just chose some things that looked interesting.

H&M makeup (taken with camera setting that distorted the shapes (oops) - they are all straight).

I got a liquid eyeliner, a lip crayon, and an eyeshadow brush, so that I could try out a few different things. Unfortunately I took a while to get this review up and it seems like the liquid liner isn't listed on the website anymore. You might see it in a store? Here are quick reviews of the three items I bought.

Swatches of H&M Lip Pencil in Red/Million Dollar Smile and Liquid Eyeliner in Purple

Lip Pencil in Red/Million Dollar Smile ($4.95): I posted a swatch of this one a while back when I was comparing all of my sheer red lip products. You can check that out if you'd like to see how it compares to other things you might already own. It's a good one. Not too sheer, goes on smoothly and easily, a little moisturizing, no scent or flavor, wears off evenly. It's more in the glossy lip crayon category than the lipstick/stain crayon one. I might pass it along to someone else, just because it's not a lot different from some other things I own and I need to downsize. Here's how it looks on my lips:

H&M Lip Pencil in Red/Million Dollar Smile.

Liquid Eyeliner in Purple (about $3.95): When my order arrived at my house, and I looked at this eyeliner, I thought, "Why the fuck did I buy this? What am I going to do with it?" It's not really the kind of thing I would normally use. Then I remembered this eye brightening tip (although I already have an eyeliner that works for that, so it's not a great excuse for buying it). It works for that, since it's a shimmery, pale lavender color. Unfortunately it's the style of liquid eyeliner that I despise, but you can see in the photo above that the wand doesn't get all gooey, and since it's so pale it doesn't make a huge mess when it splatters on my eyelashes. It applies well, and it wears well. It's a good product. No real complaints.

Eyeshadow Brush ($3.95): This definitely stands out as the best of the things I bought. It's soft and fluffy and picks up a lot of eyeshadow. I like the wide, flat shape, which is versatile. You can use it to apply shadow to large areas, just to the crease, or to blend. This is a better brush than most of the e.l.f. Studio ones, for only a dollar more.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with this stuff. It's on par with very good drugstore makeup. It's doesn't seem like crap that was added to the inventory just for the sake of selling makeup. I have too many makeup brushes at the moment, but if I were looking to buy some more, I would certainly consider trying some others from H&M.

Anyone else tried H&M makeup? Are there other things worth checking out?

Two cheap brown liquid eyeliners that are kind of shitty (Review and swatches of e.l.f. Waterproof Eyeliner Pen and Wet N Wild MegaLiner Liquid Eyeliner)

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.

Let me begin by saying that I have been doing winged liquid eyeliner for over a decade now (so old!), and I basically know what I'm doing. I'm not saying I'm an expert or that my liner is always flawless - just that I've been practicing for a very long time and I can handle it. When I put on eyeliner, and people look at my face form a normal distance, they don't think I look like a mess. Trust me, I have people in my life who would tell me. For evidence, here's a selfie from 2002 in which I thought I looked pretty artsy and hot. I like to think I've improved since then (but I used the same L'Oreal liner in the photo below as in that post - um, new tube - and I'll say more about that brilliant product at the end of the post).

My liquid liner game at 21.

I feel that I need to establish my credibility before you see some of the photos below, because they are a mess. The point I'm trying to make is that it's the eyeliner's fault, not mine! Or at least that I am only incompetent with a certain style of liquid eyeliner. 

First things first: the two cheap liquid eyeliners I'm going to review here are e.l.f. Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in Coffee ($2) and Wet N Wild MegaLiner Liquid Eyeliner in Dark Brown ($2). The e.l.f. liner is a felt tip pen, just like a marker, where the liquid wicks up through the tip. The WNW liner has a long narrow brush that dips into a pot and picks up the liquid that way. They are both kind of shitty, and I wouldn't recommend either one, but for different reasons.

Here are swatches of both:

Left to right: Wet N Wild MegaLiner Liquid Eyeliner in Dark Brown and e.l.f. Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in Coffee 

Now that you've mastered winged eyeliner (?), try this trick

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
So you've no doubt been spending the last 6 weeks perfecting your eyeliner game (as if you have anything better to do). How's it going? Here's something new for you to try! I call it: Using Eyeliner to Fuck with the Shape of Your Eye.