One Of The Worst Liquid Eyeliners I’ve Tried: MAC Liquidlast Liner Inky

We forget and ignore stuff all the time. More often than not, we try to block out unhappy things and remember the moments that made us smile.

I discovered that one of life’s secrets is that we don’t actually need to forget things; it is good enough that we do not accidentally remember them.

HAHAHA!!!!

Why so serious?!

No, seriously, I really forgot about the existence of MAC Liquidlast Liner in Inky (aka One-of-The-Worst-Eyeliners-I’ve-Tried-in-My-Life) in my makeup stash until I had to move all my makeup from one 2-tier cabinet, one 3-tier cabinet, one makeup bag, and other random places to my newly acquired Muji makeup storage cabinet.

You know that moment of melancholy when you look at old pictures of someone who ‘could have been’, or of a moment that ‘could have been something more’? And then you put it back and sigh to yourself in relief that you’ve moved on, yet somehow you cannot stop thinking about it.

That was how I felt when the MAC Liquidlast Liner in Inky stared back at me with its beautiful deep blue eyes. So I decided to do a review on it before I banish it to the dungeons of the long-forgotten again.

I really wanted to love Inky so much but Inky just wasn’t The One for me. To add salt to my wound, I paid US$17.50 for it. That equates to about S$24, and after shipping and handling charges, totals to nearly S$30?

Gooey Consistency

The consistency of the MAC Liquidlast Liners is just horrible. I tested it at the MAC cosmetics counters, at several different stores in fact, and they all applied thick and gooey and hardly manageable.

But against my better judgment, I still bought it. I like to psycho myself with silly self-invented excuses like “It is like that because it is a sample”, “Many people must have used it and their bacteria got in to make it gooey”, or “When mine arrives, it will be perfect”.

It also takes a very long time for the MAC Liquidlast Liner to dry because of its rich gluey texture. Monolided girls can give this a miss because it will transfer onto the skin above the lids. Well, unless you have 10 minutes to spare to wait for the eyeliner to completely dry before opening your eyes again.

5 minutes passed and it still was wet.

Hard to Apply

The thick and gooey consistency makes application as easy as licking your own elbow.

I cannot draw a DEFINED line to save my life with this thing!

It was a challenge to line my eye with Inky with my right hand, while holding the camera with my left, and trying to look totally relaxed. XD

If I try to define the edges, the line just gets higher and higher. You can see that Inky covers almost my entire right eyelid. I decided to just stop refining it otherwise it might just end right below my brow bone.

Using the Sonia Kashuk Bent Eyeliner Brush instead of its own brush makes creating a line slightly easier, but the formula of Inky itself is just so unmanageable.

(Did you try licking your own elbow? LOL!)

Gets on my lashes

The thing that bugs me the most is that, despite my greatest efforts to avoid it from happening, this eyeliner gets onto my eyelashes and makes them all stiff and thick (not in a good way like mascara does to thicken the lashes).

Ew.

When my eyelashes are coated with Inky, they become too heavy to hold their curl after curling them with the Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler - which is THE BEST eyelash curler I've ever owned.

Mascara base or eyelash primer doesn’t go on well, and mascara application becomes difficult because I have to separate the stuck-together lashes while applying mascara. I tried separating the lashes glued together by Inky before mascara application with a lash comb but that didn’t help much.

It’s like combing through hair plastered with a lot of hair gel.

Scaley finish

I don’t like that when Inky dries, it becomes hard as rock. It doesn't flake although it does make my eyelids feel very tight. Eyeliner should feel like nothing on the lids, not like a clay mask.

I tried applying a matte gel eyeliner like MAC Fluidline Blacktrack or Kate Gel Liner BK-1 as a base first, and then layering Inky over. The finish is a little less scaley, but still… incrusted.

This thing just wants to make me look like The Thing!

Color

MAC Liquidlast Liner Inky is a classy navy blue color that would be a nice break away from the usual black and brown eyeliner colors found in the makeup drawers of most girls. Blue eyeliner brightens brown eyes, as I realized from my experience with the Bobbi Brown Chocolate Shimmer Ink Gel Liner.

I actually wanted to go for Aqualine but settled for Inky because I thought, Aqualine, although a gorgeous teal color, doesn’t quite fit in for an every day look. It’s just schu-reaming “LOOK AT ME!!!”, and I didn’t want that.

However, I think I might like Aqualine more instead because I love bright colors. Then again, it doesn't matter because the formula is the same and I won't use it anyway.

Left: Kate Gel Liner BK-1; Right: MAC Liquidlast Liner Inky

I'm so glad I found such a nice dupe for the MAC Liquidlast Liner Inky in Kate Gel Liner BU-1. The color matches and it is so much easier to get a precise line with my new favorite gel liner.

 

Best Smudgeproof And Waterproof Eyeliner - EVER

Liquidlast Inky is completely waterproof and smudgeproof. This eyeliner is tenacious, I tell ya; it has claws that grab on to the skin like... erm, I don't know, koala bears on trees.

Betcha can go surfing with it because this thing doesn’t come off! Not with water, not with rubbing, not with DHC Deep Cleansing Oil, not even with the formidable FANCL Mild Cleansing Oil! Actually it does come off with the DHC and FANCL Cleansing Oils, but not with a lot of rubbing for a long time.

But ah-hah! There is ONE thing that Inky cannot resist, and that is the best Biore Eye and Lip Makeup Remover! A couple of swipes and it is gone! I love this stuff man! I will buy it as long as it is in production.

If you are looking for an eyeliner that can stand the test of water, oil, and gusts of strong winds, then MAC Liquidlast Liners will be the solution.

Alright! Here's me signing off. I hope you have a good weekend!

Bun Bun rates MAC Liquidlast Liner Inky:

What are some of the worst eyeliners you've tried before? And what did you do with them??