Three imperfect brown eyeliners: Shiseido, Kanebo, Clinique...

I'm on a mission to find the perfect deep brown eyeliner, which surprisingly to me, is not as easy as I'd hoped. Optimistically, I thought I'd be striking gold with the first one I ever tried, the way I did with my HG black liquid eyeliner or eyebrow pencils, but oh no, this is turning out to be quite the task.

As the headline betrays, none of the brown pencil eyeliners I've tried at this point have made me not want to keep looking. Sigh. Perhaps my expectations are too great? I should hope not. I want something with a rich colour, that is firm enough for me to draw a reasonably graphic kitten flick, but soft enough to not tug and hurt. I want something that I could wear on the waterline, upper and/or lower, that would last without fading or smearing all over the place, and without feeling irritating. Is that too much to ask for?

A great makeup artist once told me, and I've found it to be quite true myself, is to always opt for a Japanese brand when looking for products that have anything at all to do with the eyes- mascara, brow products, liners of every imaginable formulation etc. This is why I was convinced I would find the perfect brown eyeliner either on my first or second try, as the two brands that were at the top of my list were Shiseido and Kanebo Sensai.

The first pencil I got was by Shiseido, because I preferred its deep, cool tone to the warm, light chestnut brown of the Kanebo. The Smoothing Eyeliner Pencil in BR602 Brown had everything going for it. That is, until I started using it. Something that's negative about all three of the eyeliners in this post, something I frankly hadn't anticipated, is that they all give me panda-eyes. Without fail, if I wear any of them on my top lash line, NOT the bottom, in a few hours I'll have dark smears under my eyes, even though I will not have applied any eyeliner anywhere near there (relatively speaking).

While the Shiseido is guilty of this, mainly in the outer corner of the eye, at least the line I've drawn doesn't fade itself, it remains looking as it did upon application for the most part. The Kanebo Sensai Eyliner Pencil in EL02, in addition to migrating underneath the eye in the outer AND inner corners, also fades away, in general, but especially in the corners.

Finally, when it comes to wearing either of these on the water-line, turns out I can't. You can't just wear them on the upper water-line, because it does transfer the to lower, and while they do kind of last (with accelerated smearing under the eye), I get a debilitating migraine whenever I do. If it were just a case of my eyes watering, that would be a different story, but I get a throbbing headache, without fail, whenever I wear either of these eyeliners on my water-line...

The next eyeliner I was going to try was a mechanical, water-proof one by Dior, which they discontinued as I had my credit card in my hand, ready to buy it. The many times I swatched it, it was the most indestructible, surviving a day of constant hand-washing like a champ. In terms of colour, it was close to the Shiseido, a very deep, dark, almost black brown. Since I couldn't get it, I went for the next one on my list, the Clinique Quicliner For Eyes Intense in Intense Chocolate.

I've already ranted furiously to my heart's desire about the biggest fault of this eyeliner, its packaging, in a previous post. Twist-up pencils that you can't twist down should be required by the FDA to have a flashing red warning sign, in my opinion. While I hate, hate, hate that that sort of design even exist, I have to note, that the pencil in general doesn't feel very nice. I think it's just mine, because after I got it and was underwhelmed, putting it lightly, I rushed to a Clinique counter and the testers they had out, didn't feel quite as shabby. The see-through part feels wonky, it kind of bends and sways in its point of connection to the brown part, only adding to the fragility and nervousness of using this blasted eyeliner.

Ideally, I would restrict my options to wooden pencil, because the mechanical ones come with far, far less product, you're frequently in danger of breaking the tip off, and it's never, ever as on point as a freshly sharpened pencil. Somehow, I'm not sure how, I managed to achieve an acceptably crisp kitten flick with the Quickliner on two occasions. It boggles the mind, but I did. It's an incredibly soft formula and as such wears down to its chubby, flat point almost immediately after you've twisted up some fresh product.

Unlike the other two, this doesn't irritate my head when I wear it on the water-line, because it doesn't stick to it at all. At. All. The colour is rich, glossy and beautiful and of the three, it smears to the under-eye area the least. Having said that, the colour and formula aren't anything so fantastic that would make me want to suffer through the horrible packaging ever again, and the value for money is laughable. If I were to use this daily, it'd be gone in a month, while a pencil liner lasts me for about a year.

If these were the only three brown eyeliners in existence, I would re-purchase the Shiseido, never tight-line and keep a makeup wipe around to clean up the panda-eyes mid-day. The Kanebo Sensai feels like a much nicer product and also comes with a complimentary sharpener, which the Shiseido does not. I'm not a fan of the light brown colour, personally, but it might work for someone else. Finally, if you're a masochist, go for the Clinique Quickliner.

That's it for stage one of my search for the perfect brown (pencil) eyeliner, which I'll be doing in groups of three until I find my Holy Grail one. Cheerio, over and out!