Product Review - Eyeliner Sealer

I started wearing make up at eleven. I know stuff. I don’t know everything, because who can be bothered? But trust me on this one – eyeliner.

I have pale skin and pale eyes, so eyeliner has always been my one most important cosmetic. Although concealer is rapidly catching up. But I have tried every kind. Eye pencils are really good for beginners, and the come in a wide variety of colors. But they smudge off really easily. Liquid eyeliner holds better, but requires really good technique, and even then it can look too harsh. At some point – I am thinking early in college – I discovered Clinique’s water resistant eye liner:

It is like a watercolor. You run the brush under the faucet for a second, until it is wet through. Then get some “paint” on the brush and paint the eyelid. Good product. I used it for years.

At some point, when I determined that I really should keep foundation around, I tried Bare Minerals. Best concealer ever, and I can even stand to use the foundation. Occasionally. Slowly, I started trying the other products. The eye shadow is loose powder, which is odd but perfectly good. The eyebrow stuff is works very well.

Then I tried the eyeliner.

It is also loose powder. The lady in the store told me to mix some with water and paint it on. Well, that worked with a built-in hard palette, but I am hardly going to try it with loose powder. I would never get the consistency right. So I brushed a thin line of powder on my eyelid and then dampened a really thin brush to “watercolor” it, which creates a kind of cosmetic seal.

I have just exactly enough talent to pull this off. Meaning that if I am not totally awake when I make the attempt, I might get soft black powder all over my face, fingers and bathroom counter. So when I screw up, I have to scrub everything and start all over again. And really, I didn’t think this stuff holds up any better than Clinique’s over the average workday.

And then.

I saw that Bare Minerals had a serum designed to solve my problem. “Weather Everything” is labeled as a “liner sealer”. The instructions say to mix it with the powder before applying, but I ignored that again. I put the powder on my eyelid, then put some sealer on the brush. The look was the same.

But people.

8 o’clock in the evening, I went to take a shower. I looked in the mirror and my eyeliner hadn’t moved. I walked outside at lunchtime. I came home and went walking after work. I played four tennis matches on Wii. My eyeliner hadn’t moved. I was so stunned that I rubbed it on purpose. Still didn’t move. It isn't cheap, but I am in love with this product.