Essence Gel Eye Pencil Waterproof Review, Swatches and Giveaway

"The latest trend: gel eyeliner in the form of a pencil. This soft, waterproof and long-lasting gel eye pencil comes in a retractable pen. Velvety and highly-pigmented, these pens offer intense colours in: Black Blaze, Around Midnight, Urban Jungle, Blue Lagoon, Gunmetal and Cocoa Bean. Available in a total of six colors."


It is no secret I love Essence and one of my favourite items from the brand is the gel eyeliner, which, in my humble opinion, rivals high end ones from MAC, Lancome, Bobbi Brown and the like. Naturally, I freaked out when I saw they added a new range of gel liners to their permanent line and I had to hunt them down after I managed to get my hands on one and swatch it.


The liners are come in an all black, sleek retractable pen. They swatch beautifully. They glide on with ease and are incredibly pigmented . The formula is smooth and transfers well onto the skin, you don't need to apply pressure or tug to get an opaque line. The gel mine is somewhat loose in the pen recipient and I have already had the tip of one pencil snap on me when I tried to rub it more vigorously on my eyelid. Bummer. This part is probably the major con about this product and this is where you can see the difference between cheap vs high end products. It's not a deal breaker but something worth noting.



I like the packaging and I like the formula. All shades applied and looked incredible with the exception of Urban Jungle (the green one) which seemed to have a drier texture and I had to apply more pressure to get it to transfer, despite the fact that it was my favourite color out of the bunch (deep green) it's fussy to work with. Black Blaze is a standard black that is creamy and wore well, Cocoa Bean is a dark chocolatey brown that performed just as well as the black while Blue Lagoon (deep blue with slight shimmer) had the best application, color payoff and durability. Around Midnight is a dark violet blue, I had no issue with color payoff and application but I found it the be the least long wearing of the bunch.

 

Wear time on these bad boys was great. Impressive. I left my swatches on my arm and went on with my day. 10 Hours later the swatches are still there with minor wear (more on Around Midnight) but no smudging or fading. Seriously impressive considering these liners go for $2.99. As creamy as they are when they go on they set and stay put no matter what.


Overall, thumbs up for these guys. Go get them, get all colors! Get some for your mom, your bff, your sister... I don't know how I'm going to ever purchase a high end pencil liner after playing around with these. I can get over the general poor quality feel of the pencils and minor issued I had with the mine wiggling out out of the container because well.. it is only $2.99 and it doesn't affect the quality and performance of the product.

As I was about to post this review a PR package arrived in the mail containing all the Gel Liners I had already purchased myself so I figured I share the love and give one of you guys an opportunity to test them out. One little note the PR package does not include the green (Urban Jungle) but it does have the grey, a shade I did not find at my local drugstore so... lucky you!


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