Impulse Buy Monday: NYC Liquid Eyeliner

Happy Monday Wednesday! I'm a bit late... This week's Impulse Buy is an eyeliner that I've added to my huge collection: NYC Liquid Eyeliner in Black.

I will be the first to admit that I am an idiot when it comes to eyeliner. You'd think by my thirties I would have finally gotten the hang of drawing a line on my eyelid without screwing it up, but alas no, I'm still struggling. I need something that's easy, versatile, and long-lasting. For my everyday eyeliner, I usually go with Mally Beauty Evercolor Starlight Waterproof Eyeliner because it fits my needs pretty well (I even featured it as part of my October Favorites).


However lately I've been dying to try a winged look since the cat eye is all the rage, and a pencil liner isn't able to achieve the desired effect as well as other types of eyeliner. In most of the tutorials I've watched, liquid is the medium of choice. I've heard good things about the affordable NYC Liquid Eyeliner and I had a CVS coupon, so I decided to give it a go!

Here's my first attempt at a winged eyeliner:

Again, that's my first attempt...ever... so be nice please! Also, sorry for the picture taken on my phone, I'm still figuring out closeup eye photos so I have to resort to my phone for now.

But back to the actual product. This is a very pigmented formula that dries matte, which is great because I'm not sure how I'd feel with a shiny black wing. The eyeliner is applied with a wand with a brush at the end (as opposed to a felt-tip pen format), and the brush is perfectly shaped to easily draw a straight line. The bristles stick together so there are no flyaway strands making your line a mess. I recommend wiping off the excess product when you pull it out of the tube because a lot comes out on the brush.

With NYC Liquid Eyeliner, it was easy to draw a fine line starting from the inner corner and out to the edge. I kept the brush flush with the lid and took short strokes against my lashes, and the line was almost perfect on my first try. Following the instructions from the multitude of YouTube videos I watched, I drew a line up from my outer corner, going along the natural progression of my lower lash line. Then, taking it from the edge of that line, I drew a line to connect to my upper lash line, which creates a triangle. I filled in the triangle and smoothed the connection between the triangle and the lash line.

It took a couple passes to fill in the triangle completely, but overall I was incredibly impressed with how deep black this eyeliner was. I also appreciated how easy it was to apply, and how soft the brush felt against my eyelid (it barely made me blink out of reflex). I will say that the brush was so fine, though, that it slipped a few times in between my lids and got eyeliner on my lower lash line. Not a huge deal and easily fixed with some remover and a Q-Tip.

NYC Liquid Eyeliner has some staying power, too! I wore it to work one day this week and it lasted the entire day without budging. I'd estimate it was probably about 10 hours of wear without any smudges: very impressive!

On a side note, I will say that I'm not convinced that a winged liner looks good without false eyelashes. I feel like a winged liner is so bold that it needs the big statement of false eyelashes to match. I fear that wearing a wing with just mascara and no falsies could make your actual lashes look like they are disappearing. As I've never worn false eyelashes, I hope someone can prove me wrong!

Impulse Buy Verdict: Glad I bought it, as NYC Liquid Eyeliner is incredibly easy to apply with great pigmentation and a low price tag. I'm going to need some more practice to get that perfect wing though!