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10 best liquid eyeliners for effortless flicks that stay put all day
Whether you prefer sharp lines or Sixties-style wings, accentuate your eyes with our favourite staple cosmetic
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Your support makes all the difference.We’ve been wearing liquid eyeliner since our teens and, we’ll be honest, we’re still in pursuit of the perfect flick.
Here we’ve listed our favourite tried-and-tested products to assist you in your cat-eye quest, whether you prefer a dip pot or pen applicator, a foam or brush nib, and whether you’ve got £4 or £40 to spend.
We’ve looked for how many layers you have to apply to achieve a perfect dense colour (preferably only one), how smoothly the applicator sweeps over the lids, and how well the liner stays put without smudging or flaking through the day.
We suggest storing your liner whichever way up keeps the nib saturates (so top-down for felt-tip pens and bottom-down for dip pots), and wipe away any eyeshadow build-up on the nib with a damp tissue every now and again, to keep the product flowing well.
You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Bobbi Brown long-wear liquid liner: £25, Bobbi Brown
This is a reliable classic, with a slim brush and dipping pot formula – perfect for those fed up with dried out felt tips. It lives up to its name with the best staying power we tried: this managed 16 hours with no transferring on to lids, smudging, fading or flaking. The trade-off is that it’s hard work to get off at the end of the day, but a good oil-based cleanser will do the job.
Tom Ford eye defining pen: £36.80, John Lewis & Partners
There’s no denying that this is expensive for an eyeliner, but if you can afford it you will be rewarded with slick, simple flicks. At one end you have a fine, calligraphy-type tip for the detail work in the corners of your eyes, and at the other a longer, wider brush end for swishy lines over your lids. It’s solid black on first application and stays put all day without flaking.
Beauty Pie waterproof precision liquid eyeliner: £15, Beauty Pie
On first glance this looks like a fairly standard dip pot liner, but the applicator nib is actually a ball. It doesn’t roll, but glides to give you a perfect-width, smooth, dense black arch. The only downside is that the tip isn’t quite fine enough to achieve a delicate flick.
Rimmel exaggerate liquid eyeliner: £5.99, Superdrug
We’ve been using this since we were teenagers and it’s still just as reliable for long-lasting, smooth flicks at a quarter of the price of many liners. The brush is a little stubbier and firmer than we like, but that’s a minor quibble for a firm old-favourite.
Giorgio Armani eyes to kill proliner: £31, Look Fantastic
We were really surprised by how much we love this eyeliner. It’s a dip pot but with a flexi felt-tip applicator and gives the smoothest, most even lines, zero skill required. It also stays on all day without flaking or transferring.
Hourglass voyeur waterproof liquid liner: £31, Space NK
This is our favourite of the felt-tip pen applicators, a very black formula with a tip that is firm enough to deposit plenty of colour at first swipe, but soft enough not to drag, creating uneven lines. Most importantly, ours hasn’t yet dried out with use. We love the weighty, luxe, metallic packaging too.
Chantecaille les perles metallic eyeliner: £36, Space NK
For a little Christmas party sparkle, Chantecaille’s liner comes in four rich, shimmering shades that are subtle enough for daytime wear, too. It’s a dip-pot formula with a delicate tip for drawing fine lines. We love the dark, aubergine-purple “violette”.
Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid liner: £21, Cult Beauty
ABH’s liquid liner is a new discovery to us but it’s gone straight to the category of firm favourites. It’s a perfectly matte, black formula at first swipe. The nib is long and tapers to a fine, flexible point, ideal for flicks and detailed work, while the base of the applicator is wider and more sturdy to help you achieve smooth thicker lines over the lid.
Kat Von D tattoo liner: £15.30, Debenhams
This is an award-winning bestseller and after testing it we can see why: it has a really fine brush tip for precision, a dense black formula, glides beautifully and stays put all day through rain, tears and exercise. It even fared pretty well in the shower.
Mac dual dare all-day waterproof liner: £19.50, Mac
We love Mac’s dual dare liner for its money-saving potential. It’s essentially two products in one, with a slim felt-tip pen on one end and a smudgy twist-up kohl on the other – both in deep jet black. We’ve also used it to great effect in a smoky eye: apply the liquid liner dense close to the eye and smudge out with the kohl further up the lid.
The verdict: Liquid eyeliners
You can’t go wrong with Bobbi Brown’s long-wear liquid liner, though those on a budget will appreciate the low price and high performance of Rimmel’s offering.