Many, many moons ago I read in a magazine that there were simply only two eyeliners you would ever need in your life; one was Benefit Badgal, for smokey smudgy eyes, the other was Clinique Quickliner for Eyes, for precision lining of the waterline that won’t run or wear away. Being naive and in the era where you still believed everything you read in magazines, I rushed out immediately and purchased both. Unfortunately, I wasn’t happy with either choice, the Benefit one was okay but nothing amazing, and the Clinique Quickliner was actually quite difficult to line the waterline with as the colour was too weak and the pen/automatic pencil nib was too hard. So when I read recently that this eyeliner had been reformulated for a limited edition range, and not only reformulated but specifically made creamier and more intense in colour, I was very eager to try it out and see for myself if it finally now lived up to its expectations.
The two colours I received for review were 01 Intense Black and 02 Intense Plum. Now, before I move on to how much I feel this product has changed and so on, let’s briefly go over the aesthetics of the liner and its potential. It’s an automatic pencil which you simply wind up to sharpen, and comes with a smudger on the end. Its slim design means it’s perfect for getting a fine line and also to precisely line the waterline. When you apply this liner, similar to a liquid, you apply, then tweak/blend/whatever super quick as once 60 seconds have passed the liner is set. To me, this is exactly what I would look for when choosing a product to line my waterline or lower/upper lashline. So imagine if you still had all these qualities but with a product that actually came out densely pigmented, was creamy, blendable and smooth without tugging the delicate eye area and on top of that stayed in place aaaaaaaall night? You’d think you’d pretty much had the perfect eyeliner, right? Left – Intense Black, Right – Intense Purple. Well, move over all my previous eye lining loves! You’ve been replaced with my new ‘Holy Grail’ eye liner. This reformulated quickliner is everything I wished it was when I had bought it the first time round. The colour goes on easily and deeply, the creamy texture allows you to blend away effortlessly without tugging your eye (seriously, it’s sooooo creamy and lovely), and once you have blended and it has set; it stays perfect for well over 6 hours (it claims 12 but I wouldn’t want to state that as a definite). I would sometimes re-apply on the waterline just to freshen up the colour, but generally you really wouldn’t have to worry about your liner at all once you have initially applied it. I’d sometimes wake up in the morning (after being gross and sleeping in my make-up at a friends) and my eye liner was perfectly applied still. Amazing. Intense Black, lined on the waterline and through the lashline. Can you see the blue?? Intense Purple (smudged in with some black eyeshadow, I was just running it through the lash line here – not really the waterline.) The only gripe that I have with it is that the Intense Black is a little blue tinged. For ages I thought I was accidently using the purple every time I got ready instead of reaching for the black, until one day I was applying the black quickliner on my sister (after double checking it was the correct one I was reaching for) and noticed it was definitely a bluey black – not a straight black. But I don’t care, not really, it would be nice to have the choice of having a straight black but I’m starting to really like the blue-ness of it. The Intense Purple however, is exactly as the name describes – a gorgeous, intense purple. Intense Black – See how neatly I can line my eyes with this? In the past I’ve given props to GOSH Velvet Touch eyeliner which is a great budget liner, but this one beats it hands down as it’s simply more lovely to use and unlike the GOSH one where it felt a little ‘ick’ reapplying on the waterline as it’d caked, this one reapplies like a dream. Just like a regular good eyeliner really, except with superior lasting power. I just WISH it wasn’t limited edition. I’m considering stocking up as they are that amazing. Unfortunately, I’ve got a feeling the regular quickliners are still as I remembered them and this creamy dream is limited only to the Intense range. Boooo. Triple boooo. The Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense is available in 4 shades and is only £13.50, and 100% worth every penny in my opinion. Get ‘em now while they’re still out. Lx
