Do you feel pure envy every time you see a woman with perfectly applied eyeliner pencil? To get that subtle smoky effect, you have to buy the right product. Texture is what counts. Although a liner pencil is not quite as soft as a crayon shadow, it should be soft and creamy enough to smudge for effect. But if it is too soft, it may turn sticky or make a thick line. You want to be able to get a thin line of color that can easily be smudged. Most of all, a pencil liner should not pull or drag on your skin.
Pencil should be color coordinated with your shadow. If, for example, you are wearing a grey shadow, you can use either a darker grey pencil liner for day or a more dramatic blue grey liner for evening. The darker color would give your eyes more emphasis and definition. If you have puffy eyes, don’t call attention to them by using a dark eyeliner.
My own feeling is that there is no significant difference between expensive and medium-priced eyelining pencils. Read the ingredients for yourself and see if you agree. You will probably see some pencils that come with a rubber tip applicator for smudging. This is nice, but it is also more expensive, and your finger or a Q-tip will probably work just as well.
By the way, when shopping for pencils, despite FDA regulations, you will probably find more than a few that don’t list ingredients on a label. Since there are ingredients and colors that shouldn’t be used near the eyes, I would strongly advise making it a practice to avoid those products that are inadequately labeled.
Eyelining pencils should not be tested near the eyes. In department stores, you can use the tester on the flesh on the V between your thumb and index finger.
