I was super excited to pick up a bunch of Lancome's Long Wear Calligraphy Gel Eyeliners at their warehouse sale earlier this year. Gel liners are by far my favorite kind of liner and I am happy to see more and more brands come out with different formulas and colors.
All three colors look very pigmented in the pot and have a creamy slippy feel and texture. When applied with a typical eyeliner brush it's very hard to get a rich color payoff, the formula goes on sheer and you really need to go over a few times in order to build up that pigment and get that thick rich opaque line you want from an eyeliner. I was disappointed to see that. For some reason I seem to like these liners more as an eyeshadow base/cream shadow than an eyeliner.
The formula is creamy and nice to work with but again hard to get that perfect cat eye as you need to go over your initial line and it's very hard to get a crisp line when you need two to three layers to get it to show up. The plus side is that it does live up to the long-wearing, waterproof claim; all three liners didn't budge once applied and put to shame all of my other waterproof cream shadows.
The colors look great in the pot but didn't translate as vibrant when swatched. Dress Up Teal is a turquoise with strong blue undertones, Violet Stylista is a true violet and Emerald Seductive which is a deep forest green (I believe this last shade is D/C as I can't seem to locate it anywhere online).
Overall I have to say that this formula is not my favorite and I am somehow disappointed. I had bigger expectations from a brand like Lancome. That being said I don't necessarily regret purchasing these, the color are unique and from my experience a lot of brands seem to nail black eyeliners but flop when it comes to colored ones. Except Inglot, their colored liners are insanely amazing.
Labels: calligraphy, EN, eyeliner, gel liner, Lancome
