Visions of Sugar Plums

Lancome Ink Artliner in Plum Tease

Plum Tease artliner is a murky violet shade. It is not exactly smoky but it is not a fresh plum picked from the tree. There is a little mystery there. I was impressed with the pigment power. The formula is whipped smooth and glides on the eye like a waltz. I found it to be smoother and creamier than Indigo Charm.

It contains no shimmer, metal sheen or spark. It looks smashing with grey or taupe eye shadows.

It retails for $23.50 and can be found at your local Lancome counter or online at http://www.lancome-usa.com/makeup/eye-pencils-and-liners/ink-artliner.htm?varcode=3605975038583

Disclaimer: A press sample of this product was provided by Lancome

The Tale of The Black Forest

Bobbi Brown's Forest Shimmer Ink Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner

This is a deep forest, slightly sooty green with gold pearl action. It is in the same family as MAC's Greensmoke eyeshadow. The depth of the color is astounding. It is gothic dark and mysterious. Bobbi Brown's gel eyeliners are whipped smooth but are tough as nails. It will not budge on the lid.
It retails for $21 and is available at your local Bobbi Brown counter.

Visit http://www.bobbibrown.com/ for more information.

Swatch Picture: From top to bottom-MAC's Greensmoke(wet), MAC's Greensmoke(dry) and Bobbi Brown's Forest Shimmer Ink Gel Eyeliner

Disclaimer: A press sample of this product was provided by Bobbi Brown

Bobbi Brown's Night Sky Long Wear Palette

Rockstar is a long-wear frosty silver cream eyeshadow. The pigment power is light but buildable. I prefer Rockstar in the metallic and diamond dust formulas. Ocean Storm is a beautiful steel blue gray. The pigment power was more substantial than Rock Star. It layered beautifully with MAC's Softwash Grey pigment. The rest of the palette was devoted to gel liners. I always love testing products after a Cavewoman blog project. She inspires me to revisit products and appreciate them in a new way. Bobbi Brown gel liners have great depth. The richness in pigment and texture are pretty amazing. The only complaint I have is lasting power. The liners smudge a bit yet complete removal requires a heavy duty cleaning solution. I had to use force to get every bit of the liner off.

Credit: Blogdorf Goodman

Disclaimer: A press sample of this product was provided by Bobbi Brown

The Line Up Project

Smashbox's Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner
Review by MUA's Cavewoman


If you haven't ever watched any of the Smashbox Cosmetics presentations on the QVC Shopping Network, tune in sometime to see. Holly Mordini, the president of Smashbox, appears on the shows, demonstrating products, giving application tips, explaining the performance you can expect from the products, and talking about how they were all developed to be used at the famous Smashbox photo studio in Los Angeles. Holly herself is a former model, beautiful and friendly and giving me the feeling that I can totally rock any and all of the Smashbox products as easily as she applies them. She's one of the most likeable of the beauty vendors on QVC, like a girlfriend sharing great secrets with you. A very, very pretty girlfriend.

Well, my "girlfriend" was showing me the newest of the Smashbox cream-style liners, called Jet Set Waterproof. I was so intrigued, watching her apply it not only above and below the lash line of the model, but also on the inner rims with a special bent-angle brush. I felt pretty smug that I already had three of those bent-angle brushes, and her endorsement of that style had me thinking I am no longer a novice at this cream and gel liner stuff.

Since my first Smashbox liner experience (with the three cream liners in the lid of that Wicked Lovely set) was not so positive, I thought I'd try the new waterproof version. I am still looking for a great black liner, so I chose the Midnight Black. I had to wait a bit because a friend of mine was sending it from Texas. Thanks, Andrea! When it arrived, I grabbed the Sonia Kashuk bent-angle liner brush and turned on my magnifying lighted mirror to apply.

The first thing I noticed was the completely slippery texture of the liner. I had not even realized that the surface of the product was so slippery that my brush hadn't even picked up any color! So I poked a bit at the surface to 'break' into the liner itself, and started to apply. Slippery is the best word I can use to describe how this product applies. And do not make a mistake, because it dries very fast and then it's almost impossible to make a correction. I could see right away that the matte black shade was really black and very pretty, but the Kashuk brush was laying down too thick a line, and it wasn't gliding on evenly. Even the smallest little goof shows up with the Kashuk. There's no room for forgiveness. You have to get this stuff right the first time. I did the best I could in smoothing out the liner and making an even, sharp edge, and ended up not liking how much I had applied. So into the brush arsenal I went, and found this super-thin Sephora liner brush that I had not used much since I bought it on a clearance rack at the Cleveland store. I had bought this brush because I didn't have anything at all like it. Now I was glad I had it. You can see from the photo how ultra-thin the bristles are, longish, and with a great point at the tip. I dipped the Sephora brush into the liner and was glad to see how easily I made a perfect, thin line on my other eye. I swiped the Sephora brush under both eyes' lower lash line, and off I went for the day.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to test if this liner were indeed waterproof. It poured rain all day. I left the house early, made a few stops and ran a few errands, and took a run to my Mom's to take her on more errand-running. Now, a dark, gray, ugly, rainy November day in Ohio may not sound perfect to you, but it did put the liner to the test. I didn't have a minute to check the liner during the day, but when I got home and all the hunting and gathering of the day was put away, I got to sit down with a soft drink and check my Smashbox.

My "girlfriend" was right. Not only did this liner not budge one single bit, it still looked as perfect (well, almost perfect due to the Kashuk brush) as when I applied it. Still a velvety matte black, no cracks, no wear, no peeling, no flaking, no gaps. And when I tried to remove it, it did not want to come off. I used two pads for each eye with the Benefit Gee That Was Quick eyemakeup remover, and still there was liner. I didn't want to rub or tug, so I took out a L'Oreal facial cleansing wipe and it helped greatly to remover the rest of the liner. I don't like using cleansing oil or oily eyemakeup removers on my eyes, I can't stand that film that gets in the eye. So the wipes will work fine to get this stuff off.

I'm rating Smashbox a happy 9 on the rating scale. I'd give it a perfect 10 if only it were not so tricky and slippery. You really need some good technique and skills to work this one. I'm getting there, thanks to a good collection of brushes. Now I can see that each one of these liners works well with a particular shape and style of brush.

Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof comes in only four colors at the moment, but it is a relatively new product in their line, and I hope to see more colors in the future. I'll be tuning in to the Smashbox shows to see what else my girlfriend wants to share with me.

Oh, I have to say Hi to my other new "girlfriend" -- a little boxer girl I met today when I was visiting a friend. Her name is Gracie. Gracie gave me some nice little puppy-licks. She got me right in the eye. The Smashbox didn't budge. That's just a little info in case you need to know that this liner is puppy-lick-proof!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: Bobbi Brown
Review by MUA's Cavewoman

I admit that I haven't been much of a Bobbi Brown Cosmetics fan. I used to stop at the counters and look at the 40 neutral-toned, matte shadow offerings. It all kind of looked dull and boring to me. I get her philosophy about the natural look, but I do like a tad of shimmer and a bit of color when choosing my makeup items. Her pre-made palettes are famous and very popular, though, and I'd read many raves about her gel liners. Recently, on a trip to Bergdorf with Miss Blogdorf, I noticed huge changes at the Bobbi Brown counter. Gone were the many dull round shadow pans, replaced now with a fabulous and ingenius system of square pans of shadows and blushes, which fit into empty palettes of two, three, four or six pans. The shades are beautiful, some with shimmer, and a lovely, creamy texture, and color! So many pretty colors! When you pop your choices into the palettes, the bottom of the pan shows under the palette so you can see the names of your colors. I can't wait to go see James at our Saks Bobbi Brown counter in Cleveland and make a custom palette of my own with the new colors! I may be a Bobbi Brown believer very soon!

When I started this liner series, I ordered a Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner from the QVC website, and I chose Black Mauve Shimmer Ink because the name sounded like a color I would love. It's not black and it's not mauve, it's more of a medium brown, and the shimmer is gold, which is subtle but definitely skews this shade a bit toward warm. It was very pretty, though, but just not something I would have chosen had I gone to the counter to see before buying. Setting aside my disappointment in the color itself, I set out to try the liner in terms of performance.

I used my Sonia Kashuk bent-angle liner brush on one eye, and the Shu Uemura 5F on the other. The consistency of the BB Long-Wear is creamy and soft, unlike the drugstore gel liners which are very dense and thick. The liner applied smoothly and evenly with both brushes, and it didn't even take a minute to line both eyes. I'm really developing a good skill with these liners! The BB glides on with no skipping or clumping. I really liked the color on my eyes, too, which was a pleasant surprise. It did not look as warm on the eye as it did in the pot. It was definitely a cool-tone, and I could see the shimmer, which I loved. I didn't have any other liners that even came close to the color of this BB, so I was glad I chose it. I had a day of errand running to do, so out the door I went, wearing the Bobbi Brown, and hoping the Long-Last promise would be true. I even checked the Bobbi Brown website and saw that this product comes in so many beautiful shades! I thought that I'd ask James to help me choose a few more colors that he'd think would look good on me.


Four hours was all I got out of the Bobbi Brown liner. When I came home from my errands, I checked to see how it looked. There was some definite wear in the liner, some fading of color, and some gaps here and there on both eyes (so it couldn't have been the two different brushes, the results were the same for both eyes.) I noticed a flake or two of the liner here and there on both eyelids. I had high hopes for the Bobbi Brown formula, it does get raves on the MakeUpAlley makeup board and the product review section, but it just did not last very long on me at all. There was almost nothing remaining at the end of the day when I removed my eye makeup with the Benefit Gee That Was Quick. I couldn't believe that I had gotten such dismal results with the BB liner, so I decided to test it again, a few days later. And this time, I used a powder shadow from Bourjois over top of the liner on one eye, to see if that would make a difference. I chose the gorgeous Noir Precieux, a black-purple shade with a tad of shimmer, and applied it over top of the BB liner with a very thin old Sephora liner brush I had in my stash. I put the liner on the other eye without setting it with the shadow.

The results were much better this second time around, not just with the eye that had shadow over top of the liner, but with the liner-only eye, too. I was pleased to see that both eyes looked great after seven hours of wear. The shadow-on-top side had a bit more color, but the liner on both sides still had the defined line that I had applied earlier in the day. I don't know why I did not have such good results the first time around. I'm as perplexed as you are about this. But I'm happy that I don't have to flunk the Bobbi Brown as I did the Clinique. And I have to say that I love the way the liner looked with the Bourjois Noir Precieux over it. This really did give that purple-black shade that I was hoping for when I chose the BB Black Mauve. I'll definitely be doing this again, and I will try this powder-shadow-over-liner technique with some of the other liners, too. I'll report about that in the future. In the meantime, Bobbi Brown gets a solid 8 in performance and now I am even more eager to go see James and choose more shades. And to make that palette.

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: Smashbox
By MUA's Cavewoman

I admit that I bought this little Smashbox Wicked Lovely Cream Liner And Loose Shadow set only for the absolutely gorgeous loose shimmery shadow that's contained in the bottom part of this jar. It is the most amazing, cool-toned taupey-gray color that rivals the sparkle of any Bare Escentuals glimmers. I couldn't resist this pot. I never even thought of using the cream liners that are encased under the lid. I would have bought the shimmery loose shadow even without the liners, but they came with, so I have them. And I decided I should test them for this series, because Smashbox claims to be the first company to offer cream liners. I am not sure that's true, but it isn't important here. What is important is how the liners perform. There are three liners in the cap of this little container, one is taupe, the center one is a coppery-bronze shade, and the third is a gunmetal gray. All three have some degree of shimmer, which I don't mind a bit. I chose the gunmetal color to use for this test, because I don't even like the other two, those are not colors I would ever wear.

Using the bent-angle Kashuk brush on one eye and the Shu 5F on the other, I found the Smashbox easy to apply. It absolutely glides on, it's easy to get an even line, but it seemed a bit sheer to me, so I went over it a second time with another dip in the pot. It's a medium shade that I would not ordinarily choose as a liner, but it did look very pretty and I was pleased. The shimmer seems to lighten up the color just a bit. I was done in a flash, and ran out the door to head to my Mom's for the day.

I didn't have a chance to check the liner until I got home, about five hours later. I was surprised to see that it didn't even appear to be liner, it looked more as if I had used a soft, shimmery, medium-toned gray shadow to line my eyes, the line had softened and wasn't sharp and crisp anymore, and it had faded into just mostly shimmer and not much like liner. It definitely looked lighter in color than when I first applied it. I noticed signs of wear, some cracking and some gaps, too. But it didn't flake, so there weren't any chunks stuck to my lids or cheeks. Thank goodness for that. There just wasn't much left.

What did remain was easily removed with the Benefit Gee That Was Quick eyemakeup remover.

Smashbox makes another formula in their cream liners, called Jet Set Waterproof. I am eager to try this formula, and when I do, I will report. But for now, Smashbox Cream Liner formula gets a dismal 2 in the ratings. One point for pretty, and one for ease of application. I'll hold out on giving it a 1 rating, although I can't imagine anything performing more poorly than this one did.
But we shall see. On to the next liner, tomorrow is another day!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: MAC Fluidlines
Review by MUA's Cavewoman

"Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"..... Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, Godfather Part III

My on-again-off-again relationship with MAC Cosmetics is on again in a big way. After years of loving all things MAC, and then having most of it sit, neglected and unused, in my cosmetics organizer, I thought I had learned my lesson. Look at the things at the counter, walk away, contemplate, read reviews, resist the buzz on the MakeUpAlley, go look again, buy cautiously, etc., etc., etc.! I've learned that I don't like MAC foundations, powders, skincare, and most of the lipsticks and shadows. I rarely like the holiday offerings, I try not to get seduced by the beautiful, shimmery pigments (so pretty, but I'm not skilled enough to use them properly,) and to test everything on my face before I buy. I still use and love most of the MAC brushes that I have, they are excellent, last forever, and perform perfectly. I like the glosses, love the dazzleglasses, and their original Amplified lipstick formula is still my favorite of all lipsticks. But I had never tried any of the Fluidline liners. Until now. A big thanks to Nicole, who raved about them, and did a custom purchase for me (she buys, I pay her) of a shade called Non-Conformist at her local Cosmetics Company Store. I can't thank her enough. Everything she said about Fluidlines is true, and the Non-Conformist is my favorite liner shade ever! I dedicate this review to Nicole!

Ask the MakeUpAlley members what the best liner is, and you'll get lots of suggestions, but over and over again you'll see Fluidlines listed, and lots of raves. I don't know why it took me so long to try one. When I received the little jar that Nicole sent to me, I was totally captivated by the shade. Non-Conformist is a discontinued shade of Fluidline that is a dark dark blue-based purple which has no shimmer or glitter particles. I was in love at first glimpse. You know how it is with MAC, but if you don't, I'll tell you. When you fall in love with something that's a Limited Edition, grab all you can. Chances are you won't see them again, unless you start scouring ebay. Sometimes that's the only way to obtain something from MAC that's long gone.

I tested Non-Conformist the day it arrived. I used the Kashuk bent-angle brush on one eye and the Shu Uemura 5F on the other. I knew right away this formula was something special. None of the other gel or cream liners applied so smoothly, so easily, and the saturation of color was amazing. Lasting power was beyond any liner I have tried so far. I couldn't wait to get my hands on more colors, so Miss Blogdorf and I set out for the nearest Lauder Outlet store.

There were not too many Fluidlines to choose from at the outlet, but I found an interesting blackish shade called Nightfish. I can't explain the name. It's not a blue-black, but sort of a warmish black, with no shimmer. The following week, on a trip to New York, we stopped in at the MAC Pro store where I bought the beautiful dark cold blue Waveline, a navy with a hint of purple, and two liner brushes, #209 and #210. See what MAC has done to me?

It was time to put my new Fluidlines to the test. I had an all-day event with my parish, a retreat for my students at our local park. I was going to be gone for most of the day, it was snowing and part of our day would be spent outside, and part inside in a lovely old pavillion. I decided to wear Nightfish, and I applied it on one eye with the #209 brush and on the other eye with the #210. As you can see from the photos, the #209 is a little thicker than the #210, but both performed with the Fluidline with ease. The #210 gives the absolute thinnest line possible, but it was easy to control the line with both of them. Off I went, at 8am, to our retreat.

When I got home, I crashed. I took a nap with The Godfather Part II on the tv and I don't think I heard a word of the dialogue. I woke up a few hours later, fixed myself a bite to eat, and came to the computer to check my mail. I didn't even think of the liner. Around 8pm, after reading someone's post on the MakeUpAlley regarding fluidlines, I remembered! I hadn't checked my Nightfish! So I grabbed the mirror.

What a shock, in a really good way! The Nightfish had remained exactly as it looked after I had applied it, now twelve hours later! No cracks, no wear, no fading, no missing chunks, no flaking, no gaps, no budging at all! I couldn't have been more surprised, and pleased. This is it. I've found The One.

It's interesting to note that many of the liners I have tested come from Lauder companies. MAC, Prescriptives, Clinique, and Jane are all under the Lauder umbrella, and yet they all perform differently. I'm happy to have been able to test them all, and I have one more to go. That's Bobbi Brown and I'll report on that next. But for now, I can't imagine anything better than Fluidlines. MAC has done it to me again. I'm happy to be back. Fluidlines gets the Perfect 10 rating.

I'd like to talk a little about the brushes. I think it would be more of a matter of skill level and personal preference, but I want to show the brushes I like the best with the gel and cream liners. I've talked about some of them in previous reviews. From the top, the Shu Uemura 5F, a synthetic brush with a flat-across-the-top edge and a thin profile, which I have no idea if it's actually for eye lining or maybe lip products, but it works well to get these liners as close to the lashes as possible. Below the Shu are the two MAC liner brushes, the #209 and the #210. Then, the silver-handle brush is from Dior, it's different from all the rest with its super-short bristles and rounded edges, a flat-style head, perfect for the most thin line in a flash, stiff enough to hold product and place it exactly where it is supposed to go, close to the lash line. I like it because of the stiffness of the bristles, even more than the Shu brush. Then you will see three bent-angle brushes, the Sephora Pro Platinum which is the most angled of the three, then the Benefit offering which is a short-handle brush perfect for travel cases, and the Sonia Kashuk at the bottom, used in many of these reviews and a solid performer, especially for the price. In terms of ratings, they all perform differently, so it would depend on the look you want to achieve, and your level of skill in application, but I highly recommend any of these for both novices and those more skilled at makeup application. The Dior and the MAC's get perfect 10 ratings, the rest get 9's. The brushes I disliked from the beginning have been banned to the brush storage case. They aren't even worth mentioning.

I can't believe that as I am writing this review, I'm hearing music from The Godfather coming from the television. I swear it's true.

Credit: Cavewoman and The Godfather
Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: Prescriptives
Review by MUA's Cavewoman

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of the Prescriptives cosmetic line. Their skincare is thoughtful and effective, their foundations are legendary, their color products are beautiful and wearable and user-friendly without ever being theatrical or too trendy, and their holiday palettes are a bargain for the price. Not to mention their fragrance called Calyx, a wonderful discovery thanks to Tania's review in "Perfumes, The Guide." I'm wearing it now, for a little inspiration, as I write this review.

Prescriptives offers the type of liner I've been reviewing here, the little gel or cream liners in the glass jars, and there are six basic colors plus one limited edition at the present time. It's called Perfect Every Line Gel Eyeliner. I chose the black, called Licorice, and the purple, called Eggplant, for my testing. I was particularly interested to see how these would compare to the Clinique, considering they are both Lauder companies, and in a future test I'll be reporting on a Bobbi Brown liner, also a Lauder company product.

I've already used both of these Prescriptives liners, but for today's test, I chose the Licorice, to have a good comparison with yesterday's black liner from Clinique. I wanted to see how black this Prescriptives was in comparison.
The consistency of the Prescriptives is thicker than the Clinique, but it seems that if the liner product is called "gel" rather than "cream," indeed they are thicker, drier, and more dense. But loading the brushes (the Shu 5F and the Sonia Kashuk bent-angle) was just as easy as could be, and I had a perfect line on each eye within just a minute. The Prescriptives formula was by far the easiest to apply of all that I have tried so far. It dried quickly to a very matte, black-black, almost identical to the Clinique, but I do think that the Clinique is a colder-toned black if indeed there is any difference at all. I even swatched the Prescriptives and the Clinique both on the back of my hand to compare them, and they are so close that it's almost impossible to tell the difference.
Again as before, the Kashuk brush does tend to lay down a bit thicker line than the other brushes I have used. So that would definitely be a personal preference. I'm getting pretty well-skilled at applying these liners now, so I can get an equal line with both the Kashuk and any other brush I am using in the testing.

Soon after I applied the Prescriptives, I got a phone call and had to run an emergency errand. I jumped in the shower, washed my hair, and got dressed. I was surprised to see the liner still absolutely perfect on both eyes! It's definitely waterproof, even though Prescriptives does not state that it is. All they say is "non-smudging, non-smearing, non-creasing." And in these descriptions, all is true. Seven hours later, both eyes still showed the liner as perfect as when I had applied it. Removal was a breeze with a few cotton pads soaked in Benefit Gee That Was Quick eyemakeup remover.

I just have to add here that this review is for the Licorice shade only. What I am wondering is if the results would also apply to other colors in this line. I'm wondering if in each individual line, the results would vary or be different from color to color. So in the future, I'll be testing other colors in some of these lines, not all of them, but the ones with which I have had good results. I'll report on the Eggplant color in a future review, and I also will test and review some of the liners with an application of shadow over top of them, to see if that affects the wear and the appearance.

Prescriptives again does not disappoint. It's not often in the forefront of the makeup-world buzz, but this company offers solid performers that deserve some praise and recognition. I'm here to rave about the line and the liners. Prescriptives Perfect Every Line gets a 9 in the ratings. I'd give it a perfect 10 but I seem to be holding out as if I were judging some Olympic gymnastics or figure skating event, I haven't seen all the performers yet. We'll see if a perfect 10 comes along!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: Clinque
Review by MUA's Cavewoman

I posed a question not too long ago on the makeup board at MakeUpAlley. I was looking for the blackest black eyeliner, and I knew where to go to get the answer. It was BarbItalia who recommended that I run to the Clinique counter and get the Brush-On Cream Liner called True Black. She said it was the blackest, and lots of other people agreed with her. And so I ran.

I'm pretty sure that this Clinique cream liner appears very very black because it is matte. That means that it absorbs light, and reflects very little light due to the finish. As a photographer, this principle makes sense to me. When I would be photographing a still-life or doing portrait work, I always had some black velvet fabric with me. It is the one thing that reflects as little light as possible. I had high hopes for the Clinique.

The first thing I noticed is that this cream formula is very soft, and much easier to work with than some of the gel types I have already tested. Loading the brush is a breeze, and since this liner didn't come with its own brush, I chose to use the Shu Uemura brush 5F (the one I think is actually supposed to be a lip brush) and the Sonia Kashuk bent-angle liner brush. I started with the Shu. Just a teeny dip was enough to cover the brush and make swift work of lining one eye. That brush is great! It's flat but it's narrow, so it is easy to get very close to the lashes. I've found that the Kashuk brush generally gives a thicker line, but I'm getting pretty good at this cream/gel liner stuff, and I was able to get an equally thin line on the other eye with that brush. However, I did not seem to get the line as close to the lash line as I was with the Shu. But wow, did I see black! Blackest black! Serious, velvety black. I was really happy with the way this applied and how it looked. I was eager to see how long it would last.

About three hours later, I checked the liner in the mirror. The eye with which I had used the Shu brush showed more wear than the other eye. I don't know why. I had applied equal thickness to each eye. The liner was still showing very well just at the lash line and even in between the lashes, almost as if it had slid down into the lashes. Odd. The eye with which I had used the Kashuk brush still looked almost as good as it did when I first applied the liner, but it did show a little flaking on the lid.

An hour later, I checked again, and now the liner had pretty much disappeared on both eyes, flaked a bit under the eye and onto the lid, and was just only visible in the lash root areas.
Four hours isn't very long for a liner to last. I suppose I could go over it with a dark eyeshadow and try it again, but that would skew the testing a bit, and I'm not doing that with any other liners right now. I may try it in the future.

In terms of removal, well, there wasn't much to remove, and the remainder came off easily with the Benefit Gee That Was Quick eyemakeup remover and a little flat cotton pad.

The Clinique Brush-On Cream Liner in True Black was very black indeed (thanks, Barb!) but I sure do wish it had lasted longer. I'm giving it a 4 rating because it was a great black, and was easy to apply, but in terms of performance, it flunked. And performance is what I am seeking with these liner testings.
On to the next one!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: Brushes
Review by MUA's Cavewoman

I'm taking a little break in my liner reviews to talk about brushes, and the reason for that is I am finished reviewing all of the liners that I have that came with their own brushes. All of them were from the drugstore brands. I have more liners to review, but they come from the department store cosmetic lines, and none of them have brushes included with the liner. Many of these lines have brushes that were designed to be used with the liners, and on QVC some of the Smashbox liners are available to be purchased with a brush as a set, but I haven't done that yet. If I do, I'll post that review in the same format as my previous reviews. And so, in order to test out the rest of the gel and cream liners for Blogdorf, I've been digging around in my brush cases, and I've even purchased a few so I can do some experimenting.

In the first photo: top to bottom: Sephora, Stila, Smashbox (red), BeneFit, Sonia Kashuk, Stila, MAC #22, Chanel, and Shu Uemura 5F.


In the second photo, left to right, Dior (in the navy blue sleeve), Kashuk close up, MAC #22, Chanel (there's a story to this one below),and Shu Uemura 5F.

There are so many different shapes and styles of brushes for lining the eyes, and I present a few of my little arsenal here. Some of them I have had for a long time (two Stila, the slant-tip MAC, and the two Chanel) and some I have purchased recently just to be used with these gel and cream liners (Shu Uemura, Dior, Kashuk, and BeneFit) -- as I wrote in my preview, it would take forever to try all of the liner-brush combinations.
When I found the red-handled Smashbox brush in my storage case, I remembered buying it several years ago at Sephora, because it was the latest "greatest" style of eyeliner brush, to be used with their own cream liners, but I wanted to use it to line my eyes with shadow and not with cream liner. I found it to be too wide to work with, and not the right shape for the shape of my eyes. I stored it away with the Stila flat brush that had come in a travel set of brushes. Neither of these brushes work well for me, and they're going back into storage.

There are two Chanel brushes. One has a short, stubby shape, and it actually was a lip brush. I have had it for ten years. I took it on a trip to Italy 9 years ago, and it was too long to fit in my makeup case, so I whacked a few inches off of the end with a wire cutter, sanded the rough wood with an emery board, and painted the end with a black Sharpie. Instant travel size brush! I don't recommend doing this, since now there are such great short-handle brushes at all the counters and drugstores, and when I mention it to my Chanel SA Chris, she laughs but she laughs with a little bit of a cringe! Still, this brush has served me well over the years as a liner brush with other products. The other Chanel brush is their liner brush, thin and longer, flexible but not too soft.

The two bent-handle brushes are the Sonia Kashuk which I've already been using and talking about in these reviews, and the BeneFit version which is almost identical but with a shorter handle and slightly thinner tip.

I have not used the MAC #22 brush yet, the one in the photo with the slant edge. I'll report if and when I use it with future testings.

The Shu Uemura was a find at the Lancome outlet last year. It's the 5F and I have a feeling it's another lip brush. I used it today for the first time with another one of the gel liners. Review to come!

There are two Stila brushes, one short tip and one flat tip.

The Sephora brush is a nicely balanced brush for those who prefer a long handle. The head of the brush is thin, with long bristles.

Last but not least, the latest brush I've added, in the navy blue sleeve, this is the Dior liner brush. I have high hopes for it. The head is flat, but the edges of the bristles taper a bit, as you can see, in contrast to the sharp flat shape of the Stila and the Smashbox. The Dior is smaller, and I think that the rounded edges will work much better with my eye shape. I can't wait to try it! And I will, soon!

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up: Jane Be Pure Mineral Gel Liner
By MUA's Cavewoman

The last of the drugstore gel/cream liners in the Line Up series is Jane Be Pure Mineral Gel Eyeliner. Jane gel liners come in a little glass jar, .17oz or 5g, inside a box which also includes "Natural Hair Brush," a little flat, slant-edged brush. I would never have guessed this brush to be natural hair unless the box told me so! But, it's more on the soft side than some of the others I've tried, although I am not sure if natural hair versus synthetic has any effect on application or wear. I'm still pretty convinced that it is the shape of the brush that makes more of a difference than what the fibers are.

I purchased the Jane liners in Navy and in Wine, and chose the Wine for this testing. In terms of color comparison with my Revlon Line Fantasy, the Jane Wine is a bit more red-based than the Revlon, and the Revlon is darker. As in my previous tests, I used the Jane liner with its own brush on one eye, and then with the Kashuk bent-angle liner brush on the other.

The Jane liner has a dense, dry texture, but was easy to apply evenly with both brushes. It took me less time to achieve a satisfactory application than with previous liners I'd tried, and again the Kashuk brush seemed to give a quicker application, even though I'm liking these slant edge brushes. The color was a deep reddish-plum metallic with no particles or fallout, and didn't look lumpy or clumpy at all. I liked what I saw, and set out to spend the day with Miss Blogdorf.

One thing Annie noticed right away was that the eye with which I had used the Kashuk brush showed a bit brighter color than the eye with which I used the Jane slanted brush. Other than that, she couldn't tell the difference in terms of thickness or thinness or sharpness in application. Off we went to the outlets to shop on a brilliantly sunny, beautifully warm Fall day. Later, at dinner, I asked her what she thought, and she said both eyes still looked great, there had been no fading or flaking or wear. And that evening, about 10 hours after I'd done my eyes that morning, I still liked how the liner looked, totally intact, no fading or gaps or wear. I removed it easily, again using the Benefit Gee That Was Quick eyemakeup remover.

Jane Be Pure Mineral Gel Liner comes in four colors, black, brown, navy and wine. These appear to be permanent additions to the Jane line, which falls under the Estee Lauder umbrella of brands. They are a bargain at $6 each, and an even better bargain when the drugstores have a Buy One Get One Free sale, so watch for the drugstore ads in your Sunday newspaper, or check here with Blogdorfgoodman to find out the deals of the week.

I'm happy with the performance of this formula, although for color, right now I prefer the cooler purple of the Revlon. I'm not sure that the red-based plum of this Jane was the most flattering color for my cool-toned skin and dark brown eyes, but I was pleased with its performance. I can't wait to try the navy (with my new Bobbi Brown shadows that I snagged at the Estee Lauder Cosmetics Company Store during our shopping trip at the outlets!)

Jane's gel liner is a great product for the price, worthy of trying, worthy of all the buzz on the makeup chat boards, and worthy of a solid 8 rating.

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: L'Oreal HIP
Review by MUA's Cavewoman

Another option in drugstore brand gel/cream liners comes from the HIP High Intensity Pigments line of L'Oreal Cosmetics. These little jars hit the shelves with much buzz from makeup chat boards, and sold out fast during their launch. The cult favorite at the time was the teal color, which I bought for a friend but never did get for myself. Instead, I bought two shades, the Eggplant (a beautiful metallic purple) and the Midnight Blue, which is pictured here. When I opened the jar, I was blown away by the color, a dark, rich cobalt blue with the metallic quality that is not quite a shimmer but definitely has that car-paint quality to it. I couldn't wait to try.

The HIP liners come in a box, and the jar is glass, .159oz or 4.5g. Included in the box is a little applicator brush as well. I like that the brush shows "HIP" on the handle. It is a nice touch. Again I used the included brush on one eye and the Kashuk on the other.

The first thing I noticed with the HIP liner is that it's creamier than the first two I have tested. It was easy to load each of the brushes, but that's where the similarity ends. The brush that's included with the HIP liner has a definite slanted edge, and it's thicker than the brushes that were included with the NYC and the Revlon. It was difficult to get a thin line with the HIP brush, but the slant edge is interesting, and I think I'll try some of these pot liners with an old MAC slanted brush that I have here, that I bought ages ago for use with brow products and never used. I think the slant edge might work well if the brush were thin. Using the HIP brush under the lower lash line was not good at all, way too much, too thick of a line. The Kashuk brush worked beautifully. No clumping or uneven application with either brush, and the HIP liner glided on easily and evenly with my Kashuk, the bent-angle brush with the white handle that you can find at Target stores. I made the most of the beautiful cobalt color by designing an eye look with my MAC Mineralize Sea And Sky shadow, a swipe or two of BeneFit Bad Gal Blue mascara (it is ok, not fabulous, just ok) and I was very impressed with the blue colors on my eyes. Take that, Paula Begoin! These colors seem to make my eyes look bright and well-rested, which I assure you was not the case this morning! I applied my makeup at 10am and the man and I set out for a day of voting and errand running.

I didn't even get a chance to check the wear on this HIP liner until mid-afternoon. Surprise! It was still perfect! No wear, no flaking, no "bald spots" -- it looked as if I'd just applied it! I think maybe this is due to the fact that HIP liners have no particles in them to make them shimmer, and thus flake off, it's just the metallic effect that they have achieved without having to put in the shimmer particles. I'm impressed.

Now, at the end of the day, almost 11 hours later, there has been no flaking or uneven wear. It is just slightly worn off a bit on my top line, but just barely. The brightness of the blue has faded slightly, but it's still definitely blue. Removal was a breeze with the BeneFit Gee That Was Quick, leaving nothing behind and nothing stuck to the base of my lashes.

This little L'Oreal HIP is a winner. I'm so delighted with the results, I am giving it a 9, and I am going to check Blogdorf's Drugstore Deals And Steals right now, to see where I can snag the teal color on sale.

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project: Revlon Line Fantasy
Review by MUA's Cavewoman

Limited Time Only! Those words get me every time. Limited Editions are those grab-while-you-can items that have makeup addicts running to the stores and counters to obtain these little gems before they're gone, whether they are drugstore or department store. And then when they're gone, we are swapping or ebaying or asking our buddies to check around to help us find the elusive goodies. Just ask any MAC fan!

I can't say that these Revlon Line Fantasy cream liners have flown off the shelves since their release a few months ago, I'm still seeing them even at my grocery store. Four shades are offered, black, brown, indigo and plum. I chose the latter two, during a Buy-One-Get-One-Free sale at a local drugstore. Blogdorf alerts us to the great sales each week, so there's no need to ever pay full retail if you just wait a week or two.

I chose to start with the Plum. It's a beautiful true purple with shimmer, perfectly balanced between red and blue. You can see how these are packaged in the photo. The jar is made of glass, and the weight of product is .16oz or 4.6g. As soon as I touched the brush to the surface of the liner, it appeared even more shimmery. It was easy to load up the little brush that comes with. I like the short stubby bristles, more firm than the NYC brush. It's flat and has a slight taper. The product itself is more workable than the NYC, which was hard as a rock and took a real serious poke with the brush to break the surface. This Revlon isn't as thick as the NYC, but it still has a very dense texture, a bit on the dry side. Application took a bit of work, though. As I applied again from the center of the eye outward and then inward, I noticed that I didn't seem to be getting a nice opaque application. It looked a bit sheer to me. So I went over it and instead of pulling the brush across the lash line, I dotted it on. That gave a nice opaque look, the shimmer was very pretty, and the color looked beautiful with the Chanel Stage Lights quad I chose to wear today. A great match! Again as in testing the NYC, I used the Sonia Kashuk bent-angle liner brush on the other eye, and again the application was easier, but I still found it to go on sheerly and did the dotting technique to get my desired results.
I loved how it looked!

During the day I kept checking for signs of wear. The liner lasted equally on both eyes, so it isn't the brush that is a factor in how long the liner will last on the eye. About four hours after application, I noticed that the liner did seem to have worn off a bit, but it was not coming off on my lid, and it wasn't flaking off onto my face. I don't know where it went! 9 hours later, the color had seemed to fade a bit, and there was some clumping in areas and gaps in other areas. But I can't say it smudged or smeared. I think the clumps resulted in the dabbing technique I'd used.
I did notice a bit of shimmer fallout onto my eyelashes.

Removal was not quite so easy. I used a cotton ball with BeneFit Gee That Was Quick, a non-oily eye makeup remover. The liner color itself took a bit of work to remove, and when I was finished, I did notice that some of the liner and shimmer particles were still stuck to my eyelashes. At least I had gotten pretty close to the lash line! My application techniques are improving!

In the final analysis for Revlon Line Fantasy Cream Eyeliner, here are my thoughts. Staying power is very good, the colors are beautiful, application is moderately easy once I got the hang of it, and the best part is that there was no flaking when it wore. Don't rush to the drugstore for this one unless you see a BOGOF sale. But when you do, that's a good time to try. I'm pleased with the results. I give it a 7 in my rating system! Now I want to try the black. I'm waiting for a sale, but I'm not waiting too long, you know how it is with those Limited Editions.

Credit: Cavewoman
Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up Project
By MUA's Cavewoman

It's very fitting that I should start the Line Up eyeliner series with this little jar from the local drugstore. Annie and I are in a New York State Of Mind right now! The NYC brand boasts great products at super low prices, and with the buzz on MakeUpAlley about this limited edition MetalEyes Cream Shadow/Liner, I thought I'd give it a try. I'm pretty sure it was just around $5. The color I chose was Onyx, a steely dark dark gray but not quite black, with tiny silver shimmery particles. Pretty! And, comes "with Professional Brush" -- even better! The package shows the weight of the product at .11oz, or 3.1g, and the liner comes in a little glass jar with a silver lid upon which is printed all the info you need after you toss the box. One note I must add here, the box states "Not Tested On Animals."

I thought I'd try one eye with the brush that was included in the box, and the other eye with the Sonia Kashuk bent-angle liner brush (white handle, at Target stores.) I'd already bought the brush in anticipation of the switch from pencil or twist-up crayon liners to pots of cream or gel liners, so I was ready.
The first thing I noticed was how thick and dry the formula was. It took a bit of effort to break the crust, so to speak, to load the little synthetic orange bristles with product. The brush is flat, but the edges are a bit tapered, not like the older totally flat across the top styles like Trish McEvoy's or Smashbox, which I think were the first companies to do liner brushes like these. Since I am a novice at this, I started to apply the liner in the middle of my top lash line, and worked my way outward and then inward. The brush felt fine and not scratchy, but it wasn't laying down much product at all. And, I wasn't getting as thin a line as I wanted. I had better hopes for the Kashuk. But the same thing happened on the other eye, I couldn't get a thin line. So since I used two different brushes, all I can think is that the thickness and dryness of the product itself causes it to apply too thickly, no matter what the brush. I used the brushes to apply the liner under my lower lashes, too, and then I checked out how it looked. Not bad! In fact, very pretty!!
The effect of the NYC MetalEyes in Onyx is a soft charcoal look with the shimmer visible but not glittery or disco. I liked the softness of the color, it would be great for someone who wants dark but not black for a liner color, and doesn't want to go to a color or does not wear brown.

And now for wear. My goal in trying all of these liners is to find one that will stay put for at least half a day. I don't know why I have such trouble with liners staying on, maybe it's my aging droopy crease area, but it's a challenge. In fairness during the testing, I'm not going over any of the liners with a powder shadow to set it and to see if that could affect the wear, but I am sure I'll try that sometime in the future. The NYC liner lasted for about four hours, but when it wore, it wore off in chunks. I had gaps in the line and pieces of liner stuck to my lids. Not pretty. What is odd is that the liner lasted longer on the eye with which I used the Kashuk brush, and didn't chip off as much as the eye with which I used the enclosed brush. Score one for the Kashuk!
Removal of the liner was easy, with a cotton ball and some BeneFit Gee That Was Quick. However, I did notice some silver particles stuck to my lashes even after removal.

Should I give a numerical rating to all the liners I will be testing? Ok, I will! On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Absolutely Horribly Miserably Awful, and 10 being Holy Grail Perfection No Need To Ever Try Anything Else, the NYC MetalEyes receives a solid 4.

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.

The Line Up, A Preview
By MUA's Cavewoman

When Annie and I first started talking about this new Blogdorfgoodman project, I was just beginning to explore the world of gel and cream liners that are applied with brushes. My old Almay Amazing Lasting eyeliner pencil, the twist-up crayon type, had had a change of formula, and wasn't even lasting an hour. I dabbled in other lines, from department store to drugstore, and could not find a crayon-type pencil that lasted very long at all. And so with the advice of some very wise buddies on the MakeUpAlley, I set out to try the gels and creams. And to acquire a few brushes to go along with them.

The possibilities and combinations of brand, formula, color, and brush, are almost endless. I got to thinking of how in the world I would accomplish this project. It reminded me of a class I took at Youngstown State University when I was an advanced student in the art department, working in independent study. I chose, under the supervision of my professor, who himself had never done this kind of work before, to do hand sensitizing in cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, and platinum printing. Only one student in the department had ever done these before, and he wasn't in town to help me. So I started my research, dug deep in the school library, mailed away for chemicals, scoured the stationary stores for Crane's cotton paper, and bought myself a big fat notebook. And into the darkroom I went. After seven weeks, my professor wasn't happy that I had not produced one single print for him to evaluate. At that point I handed him my binder, two inches thick with my lab work, pages and pages of notes, combinations of film and film processing chemistry, exposure data, chemical formulas, proportions and measurings, and all the little pieces of test strips that I had done in order to find the perfect combination of film, film processing chemicals, developer, fixer, and the formulas for the printing paper which I had to make by hand in total darkness. Sometimes even one tiny drop added or subtracted from a formula was the key to success. I documented every minute and every trial. He didn't say another word to me until our final evaluation, when I presented three perfect prints in the cyanotype and the Van Dyke Brown, and four in platinum. When he saw my final portfolio, he told me that I had achieved the most perfect platinum prints he'd ever seen. It took ten weeks.

Dear reader, I do not intend to take my eyeliner research to those levels, but it would be entirely possible to spend that kind of time testing each brand, color, formula and applicator! But I'll try my best to experiment, test, wear, evaluate, and report on the ones I can find and try.

I present to you two sample prints of a small still life that I did as I was working out my formulas, one in cyanotype and then the identical negative printed in platinum. And a little photo of a few of the liner pots that I've started to test. I've got work to do. Lots of it. I'll start reporting soon!

Credits: Cavewoman
Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this review were purchased by the reviewer.