[Review] Maybelline Masterliner Br-1

Most eyeliner lovers suffer the fate of getting black rings around their eyes after 3-5 hours, especially when it comes to pencil, crayon and certain gel liners. I too, am not spared. Past crayon, pencil, and gel eyeliners (especially after it starts to dry up) ALWAYS gets imprinted like carbon paper under my eyebags!

Kinda like this.

Which is why I ALWAYS go back to waterproof liquid liner! It's easy, sharp and doesn't smudge. However, one downside of liquid liner is that you can't always blend it out and create this smokey/ gradient effect without having use eyeshadows. Leaving us with more work to do, Yikes! Yea I'm that lazy :3

Therefore, with a relatively low budget for makeup and being the cheapskate that I am, I'm constantly on a lookout for drugstore brands that can do the trick without burning a hole in my pocket. I've since tried KATE pencil liners, Etude House Proof 10 liner, Maybelline eyelinerCrayon etc etc.. but they ALL gave me the same black ring around my eyes!

And when I was about to give up on pencil liners, one my of friend asked me to help find her a cheap and good eyeliner. So I dengan gungho-nya went on my hunt for eyeliners in Watsons and Guardian. Found out that Maybelline provided the cheapest range of eyeliners and tested them out. To my surprise, Masterliner Cream Pencil did a good job at not smudging, so I had to get me one. I think it was around RM17? Can't quite remember, but I'm sure it was less then RM20.

So, I got mine in brown (Br-1).

Physical details:

Simple sleek design.

Blunt tip.. but, we can always sharpen it if needed.

Liner fill is around 3cm. It's not much if you are used to drawing thick eyeliners
(something monolids like me tend to do).

Anyway, lets get to the real test!

So this is how i did my upper and lower line.
As you can see, it's not harsh. Like a kid with crayon, I did a darker line at nearer to my lashline and the outer corner of my eye, slowly working my way outwards with lighter strokes to achieve a gradient look without the help of my fingers or Q-tip to blend it out. Toldcha I'm lazy haha.  However, if you can't do that, I'd recommend that you blend it out with an angled brush, if you want to maintain a clean line without too much smudge.

Note that blending for this cream pencil liner is not easy as it dries up real quick, it is also not easy to glide on. Kinda like drawing with crayons instead of oil pastels.

Although I bought it in brown, it doesn't look at all brown when drawn on. It is so dark, that it looks much like a soft black instead of brown.  Not quite the shade of 'brown' I was looking for, but the ability to stay on without imprinting that badly  onto my under eyebags is something I'm really impressed with. So, I can still live with the colour.

This is after 5++ hours! Sorry bout the lighting and tired eyes, I was out shopping for so long haha!

As shown, although there was a slight imprint of my upper liner, it only extended from the outer corner of my eyes to the middle of my eyebag. The inner portion of my eyebag was clean!

That is : NO FULL CIRCLE AROUND MY EYES! FINALLY I DO NOT HAVE TO LOOK LIKE A PANDA!

VERDICT:

Pigmentation: ❤❤❤❤♡ 4 /5 - Not that pigmented on first draw, but buildable, not a big problem.
Smoothness: ❤❤❤♡♡ 3 /5 - It doesn't glide on that smoothly, imagine crayon instead of oil pastels.
Blending Power: ❤❤♡♡♡ 2/5 - Not easily blended out.
Holding Power: ❤❤❤❤♡ 4 /5 - Does not smudge, move, or imprinted easily.
Staying Power: ❤❤❤❤❤ 5 /5 - Stays on the entire day!

Overall: ❤❤❤❤♡  4/5 - For a cheap drugstore pencil liner, I can live with the colour and texture. As long as it doesn't give me the Panda Circles I've suffered in the past from using pencil liners. With that, i can say that this is better than most pricier pencil liners that I've used! Gotta get me more of this!!

Repurchase: ❤❤❤❤♡  4/5 - Maybe. But will try out other liners before settling down.