oh hey. Just thought I’d do a sneaky cheeky product review, since I never normally do them, and hey – maybe some people actually arrive at imogenmaxwell.com looking for ACTUAL INFORMATION about makeup.
Not just thousands upon thousands of photos taken in the mirror during class? Just maybe.
SEE? It’s not just me.
Anyway, so here we have Barry M Waterproof Gel Eyeliner (colour: No. 1, £5.49), and Superdrug’s own-brand MUA (MakeUp Academy) Gel Eyeliner (colour: Underground, £3).
As you can see, the packaging is exactly the same for both. They both have little brushes in the lids which is nifty. We don’t really use liquid liners at college because there’s no sensible way to hygienically apply them (double-dipping is, like, the hugest no-no) but with gel liners, you can just scoop out what you need onto the back of your hand and then apply it to Chloe’s face with your lovely clean brush.
Gel liner is good for pretty much all the same things liquid liner is good for. But it’s easier to use, wobbles and mistakes don’t show up quite so much, you don’t need to be quite so precise. It usually dries quite quickly. You can get a few different effects depending on how you put it on/what brushes you use.
Use it to create a catseye 60s flick. Sometimes, when I have lots of time on my hands, I do me a nice big Winehouse flick starting first with pencil, then gel liner over the top, then liquid eyeliner over the top of that to give it that real crisp outline.
I still prefer pencil on my waterline though; gel can be a little flaky.
If you want to get that nice dramatic Avril Lavigne panda-eye, put it all over your lid and blend it all about. Go for it but move quickly with a fluffy brush to soften the edges. It’ll then act as a black primer basically, and you can put more black powder eyeshadow over the top to set it and darken it up even more if you like.
The Barry M wins the race between these two; it’s blacker, and it’s permanent. Whenever I use it at college, I can scrub as much as I like but that shit stays on the back of my hand for about 36 hours.
Which makes an excellent conversation starter; “what’s that black crap on your hand?” and then I get to talk about my journey to becoming a makeup artist, starting about 15 years ago, right through to the present day.
Happy lining, flogstars! Xx
digital imologue 