Stay All Day

Lately I’ve been determined to master creating a cat’s eye. It all started when I went out with a friend of mine, and she was wearing an absolutely perfect one (like so perfect I wanted to know whether she’d actually gone somewhere and had it done—it was that fabulous.) She’d actually done it herself, but when I asked her how, her basic advice was, “It’s hard. I had to practice a lot. That’s the only way you’ll be able to do it.” Point taken. Her other advice was to get a great liquid liner, one that was easy to control, which would make practicing much easier. I love it when someone gives me an excuse to get a new product, so I jumped at the chance. (In theory, I guess I could’ve used one of the many, many liquid liners already in my stash, but where’s the fun in that?)

Because Stila’s Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner has two new colors out for fall, I decided to go with that brand. I’d always been curious about it since so many people rave about it, but since I’m really terrible at using liquid liners, I’d never tried one of them before. Um, I was totally missing out. They’re the perfect liquid liner! Unlike other ones I’ve tried, Stila’s version functions almost like a pen. You just take the top off and then use the marker-like tip to draw the line on. It’s so simple that anyone can do it and not mess up the line (not something I thought I would ever say about a liquid liner).

It’s also made so that you can easily get any kind of line you want. If you use just the tip of the liner, you’ll get a really thin line, or you can sort of lay the liner down and put it on with the pen tilted to get a thicker, more dramatic line. Genius! And the color payoff is fabulous. It’s rich and pigmented, and it has great staying power. Mine didn’t budge at all until I used makeup remover on it at night and I wore it during a hot, sweaty day in Los Angeles, so it really lived up to its waterproof name.

I tested out one of the new shades, Alloy, which is a steel-charcoal color. (The other new shade is Moss, a forest green). It’s also available in three other shades—Black, Indigo, and Dark Brown. They’re all pretty basic (no glitter or neon shades here), which I’m actually kind of liking. I have a lot of bright, crazy liners, but what I wanted here was something basic I could use both day and night, and these totally deliver. At $20, they won’t break the bank either. 

And my cat’s eye? Well, it’s coming along. I wouldn’t say it’s quite there yet, but it’s definitely way better than it was. And with these liners, I’m having a lot of fun practicing.

Read more of Stacey’s musings at The Daily Obsession.