Everyday Liners, Brown Black Taupe

A while back I swatched my various black, brown, taupe, mystery colors and took a couple pictures - promptly forgot about them! Poor things.


I think I started out comparing blacks and just kept swatching. I have bought a couple travel sets from Urban Decay from hautelook at a really great price, other pencils came in various palettes. They are rather expensive to buy full price, but the formula is good. Milani's Liquif'eye pencils are incredibly creamy, almost to a fault. It can be a little tricky to apply without making a mess. The Tarte emphasEYES Aqua Gel liner was nearly unusable as you'll see below. Laura Mercier Caviar Eye Sticks have an incredibly durable wear against water do I find sometimes they crease a bit with oils. Only an issue for me when in the crease area, work great as liner. Wet 'N Wild pencils are easy to work with and have a nice color selection but they will smudge, smear, transfer if you have issues with that. It's fine for my upper liner, but it's not budgeproof in the slightest.

Bottom row of swatches:
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Whiskey (warm medium brown)
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Perversion (intense black)
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Zero (medium black)
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Demolition (deep brown)
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Stray Dog (shimmery medium light gray taupe)
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Underground (shimmery warm brown taupe)
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Bourbon (medium brown with gold sparkles)
  • Wet 'N Wild ColorIcon pencil Taupe (light taupe)
  • Wet 'N Wild ColorIcon pencil Bronze (..shimmery bronze)
Top row of swatches:
  • Milani Liquif'eye Metallic Liner Black (intense black)
  • Tarte emphasEYES Aqua Gel Liner (intense black)
  • Laura Mercier Caviar Eye Stick Twilight (shimmery blue gray)


I use most of these liners on a regular basis, though I don't reach for Whiskey terribly often because it has an orange/red type of tone that can make my eyes look irritated when smudged. I do grab for especially the lighter shades of the Urban Decay 24/7 pencils that came in the Naked travel kit (Bourbon, Underground, Stray Dog, Demolition) like Stray Dog and Underground. Doing a thick line across the upper lashline and smudging out - the shimmer gives a nice effect as well as giving definition to my lashline region.

One item that I believe is discontinued though, I had the worst luck with. I am thinking I might have gotten a dud. The Tarte emphasEYES Aqua Gel Liner was too soft and once when trying to put in my waterline for testing it dissolved into this noxious mess that was extremely painful. When trying to apply to the upper lashline, it would usually break off when applying like in the picture below. Bizarre.


I would definitely recommend the travel kits from Urban Decay when on sale, it's a very good value for high quality liners with a lot of shades to choose from! What are your favorite "everyday" liners? Any hidden gems at the drugstore? 

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