I seriously thought I had found the perfect eye liner. I used Revlon’s 16hr Colorstay, and I was super happy with it. I have used it for years. It stayed on the eyes all day without fading. It never smudged, and it was even easy to remove at night. But the last time I bought one, something was different. It stayed on the lashes all day, and didn’t smudge. But it was almost impossible to remove at the end of the day. I had to rub and scrub, and the line broke up into little black spots that stuck to everything. They stuck to my skin, they got into my eyes, they stuck to my contact lenses and they reminded me of dried up oil paint.

I took a closer look at the packaging. It now says 24hr Colorstay. I went to Amazon to see if I could find the older formula, and it is no longer available. Revlon is promoting their new Colorstay formula, and I knew I had to switch to a different brand. I always tight-line my upper lashes. I have to be able to remove the formula without rubbing and scrubbing. My eyes were not happy at all.

So, I went to Walmart on a mission to find another formula. My 4 criteria were:

• It had to stay on all day without fading
• It had to not smudge under my eyes
• It had to be waterproof
• It had to be easy to remove at the end of the day

My Walmart selection of eye liners to review

• Nyx retractable eye liner
• Wet’n Wild breakup proof waterproof
• Covergirl perfect point plus
• Loreal Infallible never fail
• Almay all day eye liner pencil 24hr

Nyx Review

This was the first one I tried. I really like the Nyx lip pencils, so I had great hopes for this eye liner. My first impression when applying it was that the pencil was too soft. It went on very strongly with lots of clumps, even though I tried to do it with a light hand. It reminded me of my kid’s crayons. Oily and clumpy. Tight-lining my upper lashes was a mess, and I wasn’t happy from the start.

At the end of the day, most of it had faded off. I ended up with at least a half inch of black shadow under each eye. Not impressed. I don’t want to clean up my cheeks during the day, and I don’t want to reapply. So, this eye liner got two thumbs down.

Wet’n Wild

Again, I like their lipsticks, so I thought this eye liner was worth a try. The pencil went on very softly, which I liked. It looked pretty without smudging. But, by the end of the day, all the lines had disappeared completely. And again, I was left with at least half an inch of smudged liner under my eyes. Too bad. This eye liner actually had potential…

Cover Girl

Before I discovered Revlon’s Colorstay, I used Cover Girl Perfect Point eye liner. I couldn’t remember why I stopped using it, so I bought one to try. The pencil tip is very small, so you can easily draw a thin line. The only problem is, the pencil is kind of hard and dry. So, I had to go over the area many times before I got the line to look good. No biggie. Let’s see how it wears…

By the end of the day, I had the dreaded smudge under each eye again. Most of the eye liner was faded down to nothing. Really? This is so disappointing. Why is it so hard to make a formula that doesn’t smudge? Do they not try these things before they put them on the market? I guess not…

Loreal

I’m thinking big brand. It must be good, right? My daughter swears by their liquid liner. But I don’t like liquid eye liner. It looks way to harsh on mature eyes. So, I bought the Loreal infallible neverfail eye liner pencil Never fail??? We’ll see.

It went on really well. My eyes were nicely lined, so that was promising. I left it alone until the end of the day, and what do you know? A quarter inch of smudge. Better than half an inch, I guess, but still a smudge. And, I don’t want a smudge. It looks sloppy. And I don’t want to have to go and clean it up either. Imagine having a conversation with someone, only to find that your makeup was smudged. No thanks. Another thumbs down at first…

But then I found an article on Google that said to set the line with a bit of eye shadow powder. And, I have to admit. It worked. No more smudges at the end of the day. I also found that Loreal has a pro version of this liner. It is supposed to be longer wearing and smudges even less. Both are easy to remove at the end of the day. So, I’ll put my thumb back up for both of these…

Almay

I have tried Almay products in the past. They smudged terribly. So, I didn’t have any big expectations for this one, but I figured it couldn’t be any worse than the others. This is an all day eye liner pencil with 24 hour wearing time, and it said it was waterproof as well. It wears amazingly well with no smudges at the end of the day! What a surprise! But, I think it has been discontinued. I can only find it in my local Walmart. So, definitely buy it if you are lucky enough to find it.

Waterproof Test for all the Eye Liners

I decided to test all the eye liners to see how waterproof they really were. I drew a line of each eye liner on my wrist and hopped in a bath. The only ones that survived, after a half hour in hot water, was Loreal, Almay and my old Revlon formula. As long as you don’t rub them, they actually stay on, even in a bath.

So, hopefully, this will give you some ideas where to put your money. In my eye liner search on Google, I also found that everyone rave about Urban Decay’s eye liner. It is supposed to be totally awesome, but I haven’t actually tried it. So, good luck on your quest to find the perfect liner. And, if you find one that actually works, please let me know…

Photo by rylan krupp on Unsplash