Trish McEvoy Intense Gel Eye Liner

Gel liners are my absolute favorite products for lining my eyes in terms of staying power. I have been such a huge fan of Inglot Eyeliner Gels (especially in “77″, a beautiful matte black) ever since I got my hands on them in London in 2010. The one itty bitty negative thing about these Inglot liners is that I have to wash the brush I use to apply it after every use because it quickly dries and stiffens the brush, making the brush unusable until it’s thoroughly cleaned. So when I heard of this gel eye liner in pencil form by Trish McEvoy, I thought it would be worth checking out to see if I could get similar staying power and color payoff as my beloved Inglot Eyeliner Gels without having to wash a brush after each use.

I purchased my Trish McEvoy Intense Gel Eye Liner in “Black” at Nordstrom for $24.00. There is one other color available called “Arabian Nights”, which is a navy blue. There is a built-in sponge tip (shown below on the right) that can be used for smudging out the gel liner to create a smokey eye.

As you can see in the swatch below, this liner has quite a bit of shimmer, even when applying it lightly. When I looked up this Intense Gel Eye Liner pencil online before heading to Nordstrom, the description and swatches of both colors did not show or mention any hint of shimmer. In fact, the official description of these pencils on TrishMcEvoy.com says “for use on inside or outside the lash line”, which gave me the impression that these would not have any shimmer. I avoid applying shimmery pencils inside the lash line, because shimmer almost always irritates my eyes and gets on my contact lenses. I decided to go ahead and try lining both my upper lash line and lower waterline to see if it really works as it claims.

This Trish McEvoy Intense Gel Eye Liner does glide on easily and can be quickly smudged before it sets. I smudged out the wing to make it look softer and more subtle. Here’s how the gel eye liner looked right after I applied it:

I like the intensity of the color and how the liner did not budge at the end of the day (on the upper lash line that is). However, as expected, applying this pencil inside the lash line/along the lower waterline was just unbearable. My eyes were watering so much that I had to take my contacts off and switch to eyeglasses less than an hour after I applied this pencil. I definitely don’t recommend using this for your waterline, but if you are looking for a pencil that works like a gel liner to line outside the lash line only, this may be a good option. But even if I only use this for my upper lash line, I still prefer matte over shimmery black for my eye liner — so back to Nordstrom it goes!

March 21st, 2012 in Reviews | Share