A comparison of some black pencil liners

I have a lot of liners, so many that I actually forgot to include a couple in here but never mind. I’m one of those people who feels naked without liner on my water line and that is all I ever use pencil liners for. I like gel or liquid for my upper lash line so I couldn’t tell you how these perform for that. I swatched them all on bare skin, left them for a few minutes to set then swiped at them to see how well they stayed put. Here are our contenders and their results. 

MAX Factor Kohl Pencil £4.99 – Nicely pigmented and holds up reasonably well on the swipe test. For the price you could do a lot worse. 

WetnWild Colour Icon Pencil (no idea how much this costs) – I got this with a palette that the lovely Tracy from Beauty Reflections kindly sent to me. It’s a lovely liner with flecks of glitter that really pop. Pigmentation is fab and lasting power is reasonable. Thanks Tracy!

Benefit BAD Gal black £14.30 – Overpriced and more grey than black. This is one of my least favourite black liners. Thankfully I got it free in a magazine rather than paying for it. It doesn’t last long on the water line either. 

Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero £13 – Fantastic deep black liner and the swipe test show that this has much more staying power than the other contenders. 

MAC Feline Kohl Power £13 – On a par with the Urban Decay in terms of pigmentation but much more prone to smudging and it has a tendency to run. I like this as a base for a dark smokey eye or when I want deliberately smudge my liner. This is ltd edition but it comes out quite frequently. 

Neils Yard Eye liner – I got this free in a magazine too and I remember the RRP for it being something ridiculous like over £15. It’s just awful. You can barely see it on my skin. Frankly I’m tempted to throw it away.

My personal favourite is the Urban Decay although Feline definitely has it’s uses. The MAC Factor holds its own against the pricier alternatives though and I do get a lot of use out of it. If you have access to WetnWild (you lucky things you) it’s a good bet but for goodness sakes please don’t buy the Benefit one. It’s just not worth it! X

*All bought by me unless otherwise stated*