Fancy Eyes On The Cheap

These days its easier, and faster for me to do my eyeliner with a brush. This started years ago with my L'Oreal HIP Liner and just became a habit.

A few months ago I picked up this gel eyeliner from Sally's as I was waiting in line to pay. It sat in my bathroom for a while before I even gave it a go.

Ok...fine...I forgot about it. I finally picked it up and tried it out and turns out I love it! I've been wearing it almost daily for the last 2 months.

 Femme Couture Gel Eye Liner in black $6 at Sally's 

It's a great black color and is a super smooth gel consistency which is far more fluid than a cream liner but just slightly thicker than a liquid liner. Something about the word 'gel ' always turned me off about liners, but now that I've used them, I really like them. Gel liners give me the look of a liquid, but gives me much more time to work with it and also many more options, like smudging and layering color. 

This was under $6 with my Sally's card and was definitely a great beauty buy! It also helps that the little pot holds a lot of product, yet is nice and small, for traveling. 

I can wear this on my eyes without primer and the staying power is really impressive which I was not expecting. But for a real cat eye look, I usually wear it over primer and it doesn't budge at all! I've definitely woken up the next day with near perfect cat eyes...I know...muy bad for my eyes, but muy good from this product!

For my application, I use one of 2 brushes, sometimes both. 

Top: Bare Essentuals Slanted Eye Liner Brush $14. This is the brush I bought when I began using cream eye liners years ago. The slanted tip makes it easier for you you learn your application method without having to learn a whole new hand position. The tip of this brush is really fine so you really learn at your own pace because you can create the very finest of lines that you can build up on as you go. 

I use this brush to line my lower water line and tight lining in the quickest way possible. I also use this brush to create perfectly winged cat eye looks and even just for a quick upper lash smudgey line.

Bottom: Angled Eye Liner Brush. This particular one is something inexpensive I picked up along the way at a drugstore. (close match) It does the job and I haven't had the need for a new one, yet. This brush is a stiffer, thicker bristled brush that covers a lot more area than the slanted brush and therefore gives a much thicker line. I use this when I want a quick run out the door look and I just want to press some liner into my top last line to create something very natural looking. I also use this when I want a thicker line that I want to smudge on top and bottom. 

I've been known to use this brush to create a thicker cat eye look as well, but it's slightly harder to use this brush to do that than the slanted one, if you're a beginner cat eye wearer. 

A dry angled brush is also great to have on hand just to smudge a line or even to apply really concentrated shadow to a lash line. 

The eyeliner comes in navy and espresso also, which I keep forgetting to take a look at when I go, but I would definitely purchase those as well. I don't think I'll be needing another black one for a while since I've barely used any of it even though I wear it often. But I imagine I'll have to buy a new pot well before I run out. I'm not sure how fast gel liners dry out, but I would think it takes a lot longer than creams.

So here's to gel liners! and Sally's! Thanks for bringing me a great liner at an even better price!