iyaadimps' Liquid Eye-liner Directory!

I have come to the conclusion that I'm starting to hoard eye-liner. I think I've lost count of how many I have in the various make up bags on my window sill. 

The thing is that I love trying new liquid liners to finally find the one I think is perfect for me. My go to everyday look on my eyes during the day is the well-known cat eye flick, and with the way I rush about before I go to work means that I need a liner that is quick and easy to use. 

I thought it might be useful, both for me and for anyone else who is reading this, to go through a selection of my liners that are still available in the shops and give a brief review and an also give an idea of what they look like. I mostly tend to use felt tip liners, simply because I personally find them so much easier to apply to my lids - I've also mastered the technique of applying them one handed!

I'll start with L'Oreal liners, one of which I bought today, and the other which is a trusty old favourite of mine.

L'Oreal Super Liner Gel Intenza - £9.99

This gel liner uses a brush for application, something which I'm not entirely used to, but I have to say that the brush itself is nice and thin, thus making it fairly easy to achieve a neat flick on the eyelid. My one concern for future use is the fact that I would have to clean the brush after every use to avoid clogging it up or causing the eye-liner left on it to stiffen. On a weekend I would have time to clean it, but when I'm rushing around before work, then I doubt that I would have time. Despite this, I do like this liner, especially considering it's different to those that I'm used to using.

L'Oreal Super Liner Perfect Slim - £6.99

This felt tip liner is one of my personal favourites. The thin tip of the pen makes application incredibly easy, and I usually have no trouble achieving a nice, neat wing on the corner of my eye. It's a little cheaper than the Gel Intenza, probably because this one isn't a gel liner. My one criticism is that it does fade throughout the day and has a tendency to smudge sometimes which isn't ideal. Other than that, this eye liner will remain one of my favourites for a long time :)

Next up is Max Factor - this is another eye liner that I bought today (slightly naughty of me, but shhhh!).

Max Factor Glide & Define Liquid Eye-liner £6.99

I love this product already. It's one that I've been eyeing up every time I head to my local shopping centre and venture into Superdrug, but every time I've put off buying it because I tell myself that I don't need any more eye-liners. However, I am so very, very glad that I gave in to temptation and bought it today! The liner itself is a lot smaller than the others I have, which makes it a lot easier to apply - it's just less fiddly. It goes on so smoothly and the pigmentation is great. With some liners I find that I have to keep drawing over and over to achieve a darker line, but that isn't necessary with the Max Factor Liquid Liner. I think it might just be my new favourite! :)

Now on to Maybelline!

Maybelline Lasting Drama Black Shock Gel Liner £8.99

This is probably the most interesting liner I've bought over the past few months. It's gel but in a pen application - a screw bottom pushes the gel through the angled rubber nib and you apply from there. I liked the idea of this because I prefer pen-style application, and paired with the gel liner I imagined that it would stay on all day and I would come home at the end of the day smudge free. The gel liner does last all day, which is great, I just find the application a little tricky. Sometimes the liner clumps and makes a bit of a mess of my neat flick, and it does take me a while to rectify. It could just be that I haven't quite gotten the hang of how to get the best out of it. Other than the slightly fiddly application, I think this is a good liquid liner, and is definitely a reasonable price for a gel liner. 

Maybelline Master Precise £5.99

This felt tip liner is similar to the L'Oreal Perfect Slim, just a tad cheaper. I forgot how nice this liner is - the thin tip makes it much easier to use, so I'd say if you're trying out the cat eye flick for the first time then this is a good liner to start with. It's fairly cheap and easy to apply. I think my one criticism would be the pigmentation - I found myself having to draw over and over to get the look I wanted. It's not one of my favourites, but it does its job.

Collection is next :)

Collection Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liner £2.99

Despite being the cheapest product on my list, I think the Collection Felt Tip Liners are amazing. Coming in four different colours - black, brown, teal and purple - for just a few pounds they're better than a lot of the more expensive choices in the shops. Though the black and brown do smudge a little throughout the day, I've found that when I wear the purple or teal they really do stay on - I wouldn't say for 24 hours because I never wear my make up for that long - but they stay on for as long as I need them to anyway. I love the choice of colours because you rarely get that with felt tip liners, and sometimes I like to shake things up with my make up routine. Much like the Maybelline Master Precise, I think these liners would be great for anyone who is new to using liquid liner. If you're in your early teens and are just starting to experiment with make up, the Collection liners are definitely the most affordable whilst also being great value for money. 

Bourjois est à côté! (Thanks Google Translate...)

Bourjois Erasable Liner £7.99

I really do love this liner because, without a doubt, it stays on all day. I also love the fact that it's erasable, so mistakes don't matter at all. You can literally rub your eye-liner out and start again, it's great! My only criticism is that it sometimes gets caught in my upper lashes (as you can maybe see on the picture to the left). If applied carefully enough, this can usually avoided, although when my hand is unsteady it does tend to clog my lashes up a little. I think this probably the longest lasting liner of all the ones on my list, and I certainly wouldn't complain about the price either.

Bourjois Liner Feutre £6.99

Boujois seem to have a good choice of colours within their liquid liner range and with purple being my favourite colour, I had to buy this in that colour :) As felt tip liners go, this one is nice - it draws on smoothly and has a nice pigmentation, and I think the price is more than reasonable. With three colour choices in this specific range - black, purple and brown - I don't have any real criticisms for this liner. I have always found it easy to apply, and it's currently sitting in my make up bag along with all of the other products I'm using all the time at the moment. Thumbs up from me!

Rimmel London, you're next!

Rimmel Scandaleyes Thick & Thin Liner £5.49

Unfortunately this is the only liner I'm not really a fan of. The nib of the felt tip is quite stiff and scratchy, and does feel quite uncomfortable against my eye lid. On top of that, I do have to press on quite hard in order to achieve a dark enough colour above my lash line. I think the angled nib serves as a disadvantage - at least it does for the way in which I apply my liner. Needless to say, I don't think I would buy this liner again, although I've seen that Rimmel have a few different tip styles out at the moment, so I wouldn't mind trying out those to find out if they work better.

And finally, Soap and Glory!

Soap and Glory Supercat £6.00

I adore Soap and Glory, and it's rare that I come across a product that I don't like. The same goes here because at the moment this is my day-to-day liner. At £6.00, I personally thought this was a bargain, and I was very excited to get home and try it out. I've been using it for a few weeks now, and I'm really pleased with how it applies and how long it lasts throughout the day. Lately it has been quite warm over here in the U.K, so the Supercat liner really has been put to the test as I sweat my way through days in the office and train journeys home (how attractive?). I'm almost certain that I'll be running out and restocking my collection with this eye-liner the moment it runs out. Between the Supercat and Max Factor's Glide & Define Liquid Liner, I have a hard time choosing a favourite. I think I'll probably just stick to hoarding multiple brands. It seems to be serving me well for the time being.

And that's it! That's my current list of eye-liners that I'm hoarding (minus one or two that I should probably throw in the bin anyway...). Feel free to leave any comments if you found this useful, or suggestions if you have a particular favourite that I haven't mentioned. I always love getting make up and beauty recommendations. I feel like it's the best way to discover new products.

All the products I have mentioned can be found in Boots, Superdrug or any other well-known cosmetics retailer :)

Bye for now!

~ C xxx

Mother of Guinea Pigs

So, this week I finally managed to persuade my mum to let me buy two gorgeous baby Guinea Pigs! It sounds daft coming from a 22 year old woman that I needed my mother's permission, but after all I do live in her house and she rules the roost. It took me about two or so weeks to win her over, which I personally think is a record, but that was after extensive googling and youtubing of how to care for Guinea Pigs and how to recognise the different noises that they make. Obviously I wanted to make sure that I could give them the best home possible :)

At the moment there's currently a shortage of Guinea Pigs being bred in the UK, which came as a surprise to me because pet shops always seem to be overrun with the little cuties whenever I go in. But thankfully we managed to find a shop that was ready to pop six baby females on sale on Tuesday, so you can all guess where I headed straight away after work that day. It took me all of five minutes to decide exactly which two I wanted to take home when I saw them all scurrying around. Roxie (right in the above picture) was an instant choice because she stood out from the rest by being the only rosetted Guinea Pig of the bunch. Ruby (left in the above picture) was the quietest and calmest, and as soon as I picked her up I fell in love with her. 

The assistant who helped us to pick out our new family members was so, so helpful! I haven't owned a pet for quite some time, but he gave us plenty of advice and tips for keeping both little Guinea Pigs happy. I have to give kudos to Pets At Home, because I really did feel confident and happy when I left with my babies, as I've gotten into the habit of calling them! Hay/straw makes up around 80% of their diet, so we stocked up on plenty of the stuff to keep their cage nice and cosy. I made the choice long before I set foot in the shop that I wanted to keep them indoors, simply because we do get a few foxes around our area, and I've spotted two red kites who like to keep an eye on whatever is beneath them from up above. I didn't want to risk anything happening to them, so a nice, big, spacious cage in the warmth of the house suits them well. The only extra things we need to do because of this is let them run around for a few hours a day, preferably outside in a run where we can keep an eye on them, and also keep their claws clipped - living outside usually gives them the opportunity to wear their claws down naturally. 

Today was a particularly lovely day weather-wise, so we carried Roxie and Ruby out in to the garden for a little play on the grass in a makeshift run, and they loved it. Both have been a little timid to start off with, understandable as they're both only about 9 weeks old, but I can really see them becoming far more curious and daring. Roxie has the cheekiest personality ever, and she is damn greedy, already having learned that when we open the patio door it means that it's time for dandelion leaf snacks! Ruby is most definitely the calmest of the two, and absolutely loves having cuddles into mine or my mum's dressing gown. It was lovely to see both of them spending the best part of the afternoon chomping on the lawn and having a good run around, discovering new things that we haven't introduced them to yet.

My dad has expertly dubbed me as the 'Mother of Guinea Pigs', a title which I am more than happy to take considering its basis on my new favourite TV show, Game of Thrones. 

We've already noticed that Roxie has started to grow, not surprising since she spends literally all day eating, and when they're fully grown they should reach about double the size of what they are at the moment. By then I might have to look into getting a bigger cage! :)

~ C xxx

Not a Queen, a Khaleesi

Lately I have been well and truly consumed by Game of Thrones. 

I was late catching on to the HBO show and jumping on the badwagon, but over the past couple of weeks my evenings after work have been filled with episode after episode. As of Wednesday night I managed to catch all the way up to the most recent episode, and I have to say it's probably one of the best TV shows I've ever immersed myself in. I'm not going to give anything away just in case anyone who hasn't watched it yet is reading this, but for me personally it feels amazing to watch a show where the plot of each episode keeps you hooked, character development is so strong, and you literally have no idea who is going to survive the series. It's things like this that keep me so involved.

The fact that 6.6 million UK viewers tuned in for the premiere of series four is definitely proof enough of its success.

Like many other viewers, I am a particular fan of the Mother of Dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen. She's one of the strongest female characters on a television show that I've ever watched, and I just adore the fact that she disregards everyone else's opinion but her own, plus the fact that she has her own dragons. If that isn't cool then I don't know what is.

I feel a little lost now that I have fully caught up with season four because I was so enjoying my evenings watching episodes back-to-back all night! But at least it gives me something to look forward to every Monday night :)

That's all for now c:

~ C xxx