Laura Geller Inkwell Waterproof Gel Eye Liner: First Impressions Review + Swatches

Time for another review again. This time it'll be a first impressions type of review. So, my Birchbox arrived last week and lo and behold, one of the goodies in the box was this Laura Geller Inkwell Waterproof gel eyeliner.

The first thing I thought of when I first saw this was that it pretty much looks identical to the Rimmer gel eyeliner (pictured above, right). This eyeliner has a built in brush into the handle which you pull out so it's ideal for travelling and it won't make a mess in your makeup bag. This gel eyeliner retails for $16.50 in The States and £24.50 for a duo set. I'm not sure if this is sold as a single, but quick research (the Birchbox and QVCUK site) sells this as a duo set. The colour I received is black.

My first impression on the packaging is that the brush is pretty soft but not as fine as I like my eyeliner brushes to be. I can't imagine myself to be able to draw a really fine line with this brush. I also find it quite awkward to hold and it doesn't seem to snap securely into place so I feel like I need to hold it at the joining or else the lid and brush will dislocate. The brush did manage to come loose in my makeup bag so do be sure to wipe off any excess product after using or else you may end up with a messy makeup bag.

The product itself is very creamy, but in my opinion, not very opaque (please find swatches pictured to the left). I did have to go over with a couple of layers to get an opaque black colour and I was also unable to get a fine line with the brush. I would say I am pretty experienced in using gel eyeliner and have done so for years and I would use a different brush to apply this if I had the option to. I would advise a fine liner brush or a hard angled brush.

I found that the liner took a pretty long time to set and even when it had, when I swiped the swatches a few times, it smudged instantly. I think I waited for about 45 minutes before rubbing my hand. Please find the picture of what the swatch looked like after slight rubbing. I also washed my hands with soap and dried off with a paper towel. When I held my hand under the tap with no contact, the product remained, but once I washed my hands with soap, most of the product washed off. I'm not sure how this affects the staying and holding power on the eyes because you don't wash your eyes with soap like you would your hand, but I just wanted to make a comment about this.


The picture below demonstrates the holding power of the eye liner. Please do apologise the state of my eyebrows, this was after a long day at work sans makeup. I applied the eyeliner with the brush that it came with, without any makeup on and without the use of primer. The brush wasn't actually too bad, I didn't do a very fine line, but I don't tend to anyway. The eyeliner in the picture is the way I typically do my eyeliner so I wasn't too fussed about the brush.

I made sure not to touch my makeup and just went about doing what I usually do after work which is pretty much have my dinner and catch up on TV (hehe). So there was no running around and thank gawd I did not leave the house with this on because as you can see, after three hours, I am a complete panda. I made sure not to wipe underneath my eyes as to show an accurate representation of how the eyeliner lasted. Even though the actual line above my eye remained pretty much intact, it managed to smudge all under my eyes, not a great look. I do have oily eyelids and eyeshadows do tend to crease on me. However, I have found that that the Essence liquid eyeliner does not smudge at all. I have used the MAC Fluidline and the Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner before and although the two of them do smudge, they do not smudge this much and so quickly.

My first impression of this product is not a good one, especially since this is pretty expensive. I'm sure there are better and cheaper gel eyeliners out there.

My first impression verdict:
❤♡♡♡♡ (1 out of 5 hearts) ^^ No hearts feels a bit too harsh, I guess I could use this as a base and see if I can make it work?

Hope you found this review useful and helpful, and until next time..

- Diem xo