Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner - Review

I love the concept of a gel liner, I just don't reach for them terribly often, because my technique is pretty terrible. I'm usually saved by using a pencil brush when I'm in hurry, because they smudge things so nicely. Anyway, I've been curious to try Maybelline's new-ish gel liners, which were recently on sale at my local Fred Meyer as a buy-one-get-one half price. I decided to try two of the limited edition colors, Forrest and Sapphire.

These liners seem to be priced around $10, which isn't all that much less than MAC Fluidlines, which come in at $15. They're packaged in glass pots, with black lids and the brand name, and product, printed in silver. They have a sticker on the bottom with the color name, batch information, and the normal company information. The glass jars and the lids do not have the same outer radius, which in some ways is annoying, but what're you going to do? Maybelline has included a brush with these, and has favorable reviews. I sort of wish the product was less expensive, and that the brush was sold separately - now I have two of the darn things, and I don't really need two (not that I needed one to begin with... brushes are about the last thing I need). 

Anyway, the two colors I have are from the Fashion Week Fall 2011 collection. Forrest is a blackened/blued green (not quite teal, but headed towards teal-country). Sapphire is a blackened blue. Both are reasonably pigmented, and shimmery. I do find that I need go over each of them at least once to get enough opacity for my taste, more if I wish to smudge them a bit. I was really hoping that Forrest would be an evergreen type color, but it's not. There's enough blue in it to make it not very wearable for me. Sapphire is gorgeous, and makes me think of MAC's Siahi from Mickey Contractor. 


The wear time on these is excellent, in fact, it's almost too good. I have trouble removing them, honestly. Either Lancome's Bi-Facil isn't strong enough, or these things are made of steel. I'm not sure which it is. They don't seem to migrate at all, or smudge on their own.


Overall, I'm very impressed. I would be willing to buy future colors, should they be unique in my collection. Other colors available include black, brown, eggplant (a purple shade), and charcoal (a gray).