Battle of the Budget Liquid Liner, ft. Rimmel, Essence and Australis!

Essence I Love Punk jumbo eyeliner pen ($4.50), Rimmel Scandaleyes Precision Micro eyeliner ($10.76),  Australis Tiny Tip eyeliner ($12.95)

I'm a big fan of liquid liner. For me, it's the easiest way to get a good winged liner look.  I would prefer gel, as it always seems to last longer, but it's easier for me to use a pen. I had a good thing going with the Covergirl Line Exact liquid liner, but it ran out while I was in England. And they don't sell Covergirl there. So I decided to try something new, and I ended up walking out of Boots with the Rimmel Scandaleyes precision Micro Liner after testing just about every single pen eyeliner in the shop. Since then decided I needed a thicker one and ended up at the Essence stand, and I managed to win an Australis liquid eyeliner in a twitter comp.

The Rimmel Scandaleyes Precision Micro eyeliner is a pretty average liner. I find the tip hard to control to get an even line, compared to my old Covergirl liner or using a gel liner and brush. It's even harder for me to do a winged look with this and found it easier to just use this to line the lashes and get a gel liner for the wing. I think this is because the tip is quite flexible. It's dried up pretty quickly too, not being as bold as I would like. I find I have to run the liner along something else to get enough product to use. The liner is waterproof, doesn't really smudge and really will last as long as you want it to, if you can get it to work.

The Essence I Love Punk jumbo eyeliner pen is my favourite for doing winged eyeliner with. It's easy to slowly bring the line out to a precise, thin tip. It does have a lot of downsides however, which is kinda expected with the cheapest price tag of the three. This kinda stings my eyes if I use it to line along the lashes. I can put it over the top of another liner to try and make the first one a bit bolder, but I can't put it too close to my lashes, which kind of defeats the purpose of eyeliner! It tends to smudge if you're going to wear it for a long day, or if it rains. It's ok just wearing it for work, and it does mean that it's easy to remove. I also find that the clear plastic bit inside the lid comes off whenever I open it, and I have to take it off separately which is kind of annoying. Hopefully that means it wont dry out as fast!

If you were going to just get one liner though, I would stick with the Australis Tiny Tip Eyeliner. It's dark enough to get a bold line, and the tip isn't very flexible so it's easy to control. It's not waterproof but it lasts longer than the Essence liner. I kinda like how sleek the packaging is too, and if I was going to buy an eyeliner on packaging alone, this one would definitely beat the other two.

I think I'm still on the hunt to find the perfect pen eyeliner. I think Benefit might have a winner with the They're Real gel eyeliner pen, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Essence, Australis, Rimmel

Essence (thin and thick), Australis and Rimmel.

What's your favourite eyeliner?  Do you prefer pencil, liquid or gel?