I am the biggest sucker for the cat eye look and I have been for years. Unfortunately this also means that I end up racking up quite a few black eyeliners -- some that work and some that fail miserably. Later on I'll go over my extensive cat eye routine (which still needs work). However tonight as I was searching for lip liners, I noticed a few more black eyeliners that were hiding in my train case.
I couldn't remember why they were shunned though it was very likely due to the fact that I moved and didn't get my makeup kit right away so I had to replace things. But that gave me the idea to try a few of them (just swatches). I ended up finding out some interesting things not just about the eyeliners in question but also my eyelid primer. ಠ_ಠ
But first, just to get this out of the way -- the pencil eyeliner that I use for my cat eye look is the
Sephora Nano Eyeliner in Midnight Black. I also use a liquid and/or cream eyeliner but I'll get into that another time. It's highly pigmented and easy to control which is exactly what I need when my brushes aren't doing their job).
Onto the four black pencil eyeliners that I found!
Yeah. So the first thing I learned in this experiment?
e.l.f. Essential Eyelid Primer in Nude is not for me. That is the reason behind the ashy appearance in the photo -- and yes, I slathered it on my wrist to prove it. So I can add that to my donation bin.
Moving on!
The top row is the liners on the e.l.f. primer whereas the bottom one is without the primer. From left to right:
1. e.l.f. Essential Brightening Eye Liner in Ash
2. Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil in Jet Black #061
3. stila convertible eye color in Onyx
4. Wet 'n' Wild Kohl Kajal Brow/Eyeliner Pencil, Black #651
Overall remarks is that with the primer, all of them except for the stila were actually harder to put on. They have a sleek and smooth look to them but three of the four were I had to really press down to get the colour. Which is fine for my hand but I wouldn't want to do that near my waterline.
The interesting observations range. For the e.l.f. eyeliner it's actually gray -- not black (which I know) but without a primer, it goes on black. A bit on the light side, but still could pass for a black. When I tried it on, I quickly remembered what the downfall was and that was that it was not long lasting for me. Now with the primer, the real colour comes out which is a gray.
The Rimmel is okay but it feels too messy for some reason. I'm going to try a cat eye with it in the future to see how it actually holds up. To be completely honest though, when compared to the stila, it fails -- but but it next to e.l.f. or the Wet 'n' Wild it looks amazing. (You can grab this liner at
Ulta for $3.19).
The stila looks perfect except that I've used it on the cat eye look, particularly for the triangle and I've seen it vanish in an 8 hour day. I love how smooth and pigmented it is, but that fades and it cannot hold the look. It also couldn't hold up decently on my waterline. Thus this would be great for the
eyelid but not the waterline or not if you wanted something defined (like the corner flick of a cat eye).
The Wet 'n' Wild is... well, it looks bad and I'm sure that I wouldn't want to experiment with day looks with it because it's not very pigmented.
After I narrow down the hunt for the mascara, I will probably begin messing around with the eyeliners to see how well they hold up. So perhaps they will make it into the rotation.
Tends to fade so it's not long lasting. Primer seems to brought out it's actual colour of gray which is weird because when it's applied without a primer it comes off as black.
Great for your eyelid but will not hold up on your waterline. It may also get messy so if you're aiming for something with definition, this probably isn't the liner to use.
Not as pigmented as the others and given that, it looks more like a dark gray than a black.
No volume, no curl. But I've heard great things about it's predecessor, HYPNÔSE DRAMA. So perhaps if I find myself unhappy with any of the others left in the challenge, Drama might be next. 
