let'south makeup

16 Eyeliners Your Easily Offended Waterline Won't Mind

Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photos: Retailers

Eyes are very sensitive. This is particularly truthful of the center expanse we we refer to every bit the waterline — that sparse, wet strip of flesh where the edge of your eyelid hangs out with your eyeball. It isn't specially fun to touch or recollect about, unless eyeliner is involved. If yous desire a amend-than-average smoky eye or just want your eyes to look bigger, it helps to line your waterline. You tin can also try tightlining — lining just the upper waterline to make your lashes expect fifty-fifty thicker.

But not all liners are created as. You lot shouldn't repeatedly rub any erstwhile pencil or liquid liner on your lash line or waterline with reckless abandon. You shouldn't rub anything at all! What you lot want are kohl or kajal liners with creamy formulas and rounded tips that smoothly glide beyond the waterline before setting in place. Here are sixteen eyeliners with highly pigmented formulas, reliable staying power, and soft shapes that work dandy.

Milani Supreme Kohl Kajal Liner

If your chief intentions with lining your waterline are to add drama, intensity, and intrigue, this extremely pigmented liner was designed for just that. It only comes in one color, Blackest Black, and information technology means information technology.

Urban Decay 24/7 Waterline Eye Pencil
Charlotte Tilbury The Super Nudes Duo Liner

If you desire your eyeballs to expect like themselves, simply improve, endeavor this dual-ended eyeliner. The brightening end instantly neutralizes any redness when applied to the waterline, so you wait considerably more alert and awake. Swipe the darker end on your upper lash line to complete a comfortable look your eyes won't mind wearing all 24-hour interval. The formula feels most silky, which may explain why its creator loves sleeping in her heart makeup so gosh darn much.

Fenty Beauty Flypencil Longwear Pencil Eyeliner

Exit information technology to Rihanna to create a smudge-resistant, long-wear liner in shades you've only dreamed of. These pencils not only take an impressive color payoff and a satisfying glide, but they come in multiple finishes (matte! metallic! shimmer! glitter!) and twenty different shades, ranging from electric blue and metal yellow all the way to the timeless and iconic "Cuz I'thousand Blackness."

Inglot Kohl Pencil

One of the worst parts of lining your waterline is the part where one finger is hooked on your lower eyelid post application and your other hand is fanning your center while you lot hope with every fiber of your being that the liner is finally set. This velvety pencil gets rid of near of that agony because it sets very rapidly, so you don't take to worry about transferring a bunch of eyeliner on your eyeballs.

Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencil

If you're interested in tightlining your upper waterline to get that "invisible eyeliner" look, this rich eyeliner is a adept place to start. It'due south basically everything you'd except from a gel liner, but in a more than convenient pencil form and with a tip that's a wee bit pointier so that information technology slides confronting the waterline without skipping on your lashes.

NYX PROFESSIONAL MAKEUP Mechanical Eye Liner Pencil

Very Good Deal

This is the best-reviewed waterliner on Amazon, with close to 9,000 v-star reviews. It'south praised for being smudge-proof, creamy, and very pigmented. If you're looking to line your eyes in white, a fob makeup artists use to make models look more than awake, this shade is particularly praised by enthusiastic reviewers.

Laura Mercier Tightline Cake Eye Liner

Unlike other tightliners, which come in a pencil format, this one is more like an ultra-pigmented eye shadow, merely drier and more intense. The old-school "block" formula makes information technology the most smudge-proof and transfer-resistant of liners. To use it, dip a flat eyeliner brush into the compact and then gently press information technology into the roots of your lashline, using small back-and-forth motions. If you practice it right, you'll be "wiggling" your mode across the lashline.

Kulfi Beauty Underlined Kajal Eyeliner

These flossy liners are great for waterline lining, tightlining, and general pattern-drawing considering they consistently proceed their precise shape, no sharpener necessary. The vitamin Due east and aloe-infused formula comes in lush tones like amethyst and terracotta, which founder Priyanka Ganjoo specifically made with S Asian undertones in mind.

Shiseido Kajal InkArtist Shadow, Liner, Brow

This production's tear-proof formula and wide, non-too-pointy betoken will put whatever waterline at ease and probably win over the whole upper 3rd of your confront in the process. If you're always brusk on fourth dimension and have a lot of other things to line — your upper lashline, your lower lashline, your brows — this Kajal and its built-in smudger can get you an entire center look in i become.

M.A.C Kajal Crayon

This chunky kajal crayon volition put your mind at ease if your biggest fright is a freak eyeliner blow that results in a slip and a poke. The shape of the liner makes information technology easier to grip, hold, and control than skinnier versions, and the formula housed inside has a melting quality so information technology the doesn't elevate while you swipe.

Marc Jacobs Beauty Highliner Gel Eye Crayon

If you're gear up to party, this beloved gel liner is, too. It comes in a wide range of fun colors (teal, peach, orchid) in paintlike matte and sparkly shimmer finishes that are never not bold. The easy, vitamin E–enriched glide makes this pencil well-equipped for on-the-go and concluding-infinitesimal applications. Proceed a few in your purse for when your plans modify.

Jillian Dempsey Natural Khôl Eyeliner

Real kohl is illegal to sell in the United States. This pencil, created by Kristen Stewart'southward makeup artist Jillian Dempsey, is the side by side all-time thing. It's very pigmented, goes on without tugging, and can exist hands smudged at the lash line to create a softer look. It'due south also "naturally" formulated.

bareMinerals Round The Clock Intense™ Cream-Glide Eyeliner

If raccoon eyes and Kardashian tear-wiping afterward every yawn are the blight of your beingness, consider this gel liner that was specifically designed for the waterline and tightlining. It's water-, smear-, smudge-, and budge-proof, which drastically cuts downward on periodic mirror checks and panicked under-middle dabbing. If you do plan on full-on crying in a confessional though, perchance height your liner off with a practiced waterproof mascara, but in case.

Pat McGrath Labs Permagel Ultra Glide Eye Pencil

This gel pencil gets y'all so much color in the tiniest swipe that ane become-around is all y'all need to create a hitting eye look. But should you desire to channel your inner Mother Makeup and play, this soft formula allows for a solid corporeality of freestyling on your end earlier it sets. Exercise a little smudging and so stand up back and marvel at what you've created in a matter of minutes.

Sephora Collection Retractable Waterproof Eyeliner

If you just want to spring in and start lining your eyes without overcomplicating everything, Sephora's reliable waterproof liner is a adept place to start. It not only comes in a convenient retractable design, it's outfitted with a congenital-in sharpener and a smudger, and comes in a solid range of like shooting fish in a barrel-to-wearable colors like charcoal, chocolate, and plum. Yous got this.

This article was originally published October x, 2018. If you buy something through our links, New Yorkmay earn an affiliate commission.

The Best Eyeliners for Hands Offended Waterlines