I don't have a very steady, artistic hand when it comes to painting, which makes it very hard to do all the intricate things to do with beauty. (I'm loving the idea of K-pop nails right now but I know what sort of chaos I'll create if I try!)


It makes it especially hard to be all precise with eyeliner. I've tried all the main types now - kohl, liquid, felt pens...and now gel. Gel seems to be the only one that looks best for me without it looking too wobbly.

Don't get me wrong - I love the felt pen style. Collection (2000) do a wonderful 24 hour long-wear felt pen liner and it's great for beginners because you have so much control over the liner, but I decided to try Maybelline's EYESTUDIO Lasting Drama gel liner because there was some kind of control and dramatic-ness that I saw the gel give that was different to the others.

Maybelline's liner is fairly new to the UK I believe, but it took me some months to actually decide to buy it. It comes in a sort of tall, pyramid-shaped box, and what I liked so much about it was the fact that it came with a brush so I didn't have to fork out fourteen pounds or so to buy a promising one*.

The liner itself is great. I haven't had much experience with gel liners but this one just goes straight off the cute brush and onto the eye in a clean and creamy stroke, and you don't even have to build it up too much. This undoubtedly makes it easier to apply for all you Eyeliner Dunces like me!

It's going to take me time to get used to applying it really, really well and I'm also trying to get the hang of making my line thin enough for my small, deep-set eyes so that the cat-eye effect is wearable and doesn't make them look incredibly sunken. It looks like to do this I may have to buy an angled brush after all.

*That's something I haven't liked about this product so far. The brush is fine for regular application, but to make the line thinner I would have preferred an angled brush.

Also, as dinky and cute as the jar of product is, I feel like you don't get a lot of it. I know it will go a long way and I appreciate you pay for the brush as well, but it feels like Maybelline is using more packaging than it needs to. There's a lot more space in the jar beneath the pan which hasn't been used for any other purpose than to simply just be there to look pretty. I think I'd rather get more product out of it even though I do like the design.

You'll be happy to hear that the price is very nice though! Yay! I bought mine from Tesco, where they usually have a Maybelline stand, for around £7.99. And you can also purchase it in 'Intense Black' and 'Brown' from Feel Unique for just £6.79! I'll leave the link here.

Do you have this gel liner? Does it make your beauty routine a bit more bearable?!