This week, L’Oréal Paris duked it out with bareMinerals in the feline flick and winged eyeliner stakes to see who could claim the title of 'Best Liquid Eyeliner'...
In the ring: L’Oréal Paris Superliner Black ‘n’ Sculpt vs bareMinerals Lash Domination Ink Liner.
The vital stats:
L’Oréal Paris Superliner Black ‘n’ Sculpt, £6.99 .
Press release promise: “The spherical tip helps define and contour the eyes from any angle for a sculpted eye look. Whatever your eye shape, master the art of the perfect line with Superliner Black 'N' Sculpt. The spherical tip makes eye sculpting effortless and playful so you can design your own look and the black-ink formula gives a high intensity finish.”
bareMinerals Lash Domination Ink Liner, £19 (launches on the 5th of May 2016).
Press release promise: “Lash Domination Ink Liner in Intense Black delivers powerful day-to-drama definition with a versatile felt-tipped eyeliner for creating thin to thick lines and a unique pigment-dispersion system for even flow and rich, water-resistant colour. All-day wear.”
The battle
Always on the quest for the perfect cat eye companion pigmented enough to, a) show up on my darker skin tone and b) add subtle yet buildable definition to my eyes, this battle understandably hugely piqued my interest. A liquid eyeliner addict through and through, could L’Oréal Paris’ new penny-saving launch rival the more payday-spenny one from bareMinerals? I’ve been etching and sketching to my heart’s content this week to find out. Here’s how the head-to-head progressed...
First round: the nibs
Spherical vs slimline - an admittedly more unusual angle for this particular face off. Wait, come again - “Spherical?” I hear you ask? Indeed. L’Oréal’s new launch sees the arrival of its first spherical tip eyeliner - a more curvaceous alternative to bareMinerals’ more traditional finer-nibbed offering. Being a huge (HUGE) fan of L’Oréal’s Superliner Perfect Slim Intense , I do admire the approach that they’ve taken for its follow-up to capitalise on the current trend for sculpting makeup. That being said though, is this actually an area that needs improving on?
While I loved its innovation, I found bareMinerals Ink Liner a better pick when it came to fine-tuning the intricacies of winged eyeliner - specifically, achieving a thinner line at the ends of the eyes and getting as close to the lash line as possible. Black ‘n’ Sculpt was great for creating a thicker line but a little on the fiddly side for drawing thinner ones - meaning overall it was less versatile in my opinion.
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Second round: pigment
This was a trickier one. L’Oréal’s ‘Black’ vs bareMinerals’ ‘Intense Black’, each providing high colour payoff and great pigment to give noticeable definition to my eyes. However, the inkier, richer finish of bareMinerals’ Ink Liner proved the deciding factor, as did its more constant flow of colour to its nib to consequently create a more intense line with less wispiness when compared to Black ‘n’ Sculpt.
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Third round: longevity
And finally, which had better staying power? Unfortunately, the stamina of L’Oréal’s Black ‘n’ Sculpt didn’t quite match up to that of bareMinerals’ Ink Liner, with it emigrating slightly onto my eyelids before noon (having been applied in the morning). Comparatively, bareMinerals’ Ink Liner stayed put until after work, with a quick application needed to add extra drama for evening drinks.
And the winner is...
Having won all three rounds, the winner is bareMinerals Lash Domination Ink Liner. While L’Oréal’s Superliner Perfect Slim will always have a special place in my makeup bag, the latest addition to the brand’s bevy of eye pens didn’t quite convince me to deviate from it just yet. BareMinerals’ Ink Liner was overall easier to use, more versatile and more long-lasting, to prove to be a worthy blowout beauty buy that delivers on the vast majority of its promises.
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