Essence Liquid Ink eyeliner

My makeup nemesis? Eyeliner. Liquid eyeliner. I hate doing it, I feel it never feels right on me and I feel it always messes up my makeup look. So after trying it for years, I felt skeptical when a friend recommended I’d try the Essence Liquid Ink eyeliner. A liquid liner that has a classic brush tip that is easy to use? Of course I had to try!

Essence Liquid Ink eyeliner

Let’s just start with one very positive point about this eyeliner: it is just €2.39. How affordable is that? I would almost call it cheap, but whether something is cheap or not I find is very subjective: what is cheap to me, may not be cheap to you. However, if this eyeliner works well, then it may very well be a very underrated product at the drugstore. It only comes in black though and there is a waterproof version, but my friend told me that they are not to same, and I should just stick to the regular version.

The Packaging

So yes, this a bog standard, classic eyeliner in a tube. It is a liquid liner with simple packaging. I actually quite like how small it is. I find that the hold and control you get with a shorter handle is much better and so I love that this doesn’t have the longest of wands and therefore makes it easy to stabilize your hand and use it.

The Eyeliner

This may very well be one of the blackest eyeliners I have ever tired. My other favorite liquid liner, the Maybelline Master Precise eyeliner, is less black than this is. That is also a felt tip eyeliner, so that may be why. I am not going to lie: the brush tip took some trial and error before I felt comfortable using it, but as you will be able to see below in the swatches, this allows you to make thinner or thicker lines depending on how much pressure you apply.

The Brush Tip

While you may look at this brush tip applicator and think: yuck that looks thick and gloopy. Trust me, it is not. You can easily apply the amount you want. The brush hairs looked a bit long too me at first, but I found that really helps with touching this to the lash line and then dragging it to the outer part of the lid or flicking it up to create a wing.

The Swatch

For the swatches I wanted to show you what this little brush can actually do. You can go full on, super black, but when you apply less pressure, you can easily create finer, more delicate lines. This is one of those eyeliners that would be perfect for creating very graphic eye looks. What’s more, this eyeliner stays put, does not smudge and until you take it off at the end of the day, it won’t go anywhere.

The Application

To show you what this looks like on, I have a bit of a close up for you of a makeup look I did using this eyeliner. As you can see: I am wearing a wing! Who is this person? I NEVER wear winged liner. The reason? I suck and I feel my eyeshape doesn’t lend itself very well for it. Doing a look like this takes me a long time and not only that, I feel that the black line across my lid block out the color you would otherwise see on my lid. It also makes my lids look even deeper than they already do. There is a reason why I always go for a lighter shimmer all over the lid.

That being said, I am very happy with how this turned out. The line isn’t super smooth (hello deep crease!) but other than that, there is not weird shape to this. I only had to glide over my skin once and it went on this opaque and it was easy to create a sharp wing. This may very well be the best liquid eyeliner I have ever tried.

The Conclusion

I am pleasantly surprised by the Essence Liquid Ink eyeliner! This worked really well for me and given how much this costs, I think it is a no brainer. If you are looking for a good, super black liquid eyeliner, then this is one to try. Even me, eyeliner noob was able to make this work and find it easy to use. So if you are more advanced and are in the market for a new black liquid liner, this is one you should definitely check out.

What black liquid eyeliner is your favorite?