Eyeliners and Lip Crayons: Drugstore vs. High End

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry it's been two weeks since I put up a new blog post, but I went home to celebrate my birthday last weekend and didn't have time to post any new content. Don't forget to follow my Instagram and my Twitter accounts (both @_magpiebeauty) for daily beauty pictures and to find out when I post something new immediately!

I've started collaborating on this niche site with my Digital and Social Media class, and I have a lot of exciting ideas for new stories coming up.

Today I wanted to talk about some new products I've been trying out lately. The first two items I'm going to be comparing are liquid eyeliners.

The top one is the Maybelline Eye Studio Master Graphic in Striking Black. The bottom one is the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper. 

I first read about the Master Graphic in a Refinery29 article called Best Beauty Products to Try in 2015. It has a thick, firm tip almost like a marker. I found mine at Target for about $7, but it's also sold at Wal-Mart. I haven't seen it at CVS or Walgreen's yet. You might think such a big applicator would be difficult to work with, but the pointed tip actually makes it easier to flick out the wing for a really dramatic cat-eye look. 

The Tattoo Liner has a much smaller applicator, and while it may look like a felt tip, it is actually made up of fine brush hairs that are perfect for precision. This one was given to me as a birthday present from my roommate, but it retails for $19 at Sephora. I really like this liner on days when I just want to add a little definition to my upper lash line. It's also great for a more subtle wing.

I noticed a huge difference in these two eye liners when I first swatched them. The left line is the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner and the right line is the Maybelline Master Graphic. As you can see, the right swatch is much more pigmented. This really surprised me because of how much more expensive the Tattoo Liner was. Then, I went over the Tattoo Liner a few more times, and I discovered how easy it was to build up.

I rubbed my thumb over both swatches, and this is where the price difference made sense. The Tattoo Liner barely smudged at all while the Master Graphic started to rub away immediately.

The main ingredient in the Kat Von D product is water followed by Ammonium Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer, which is a suspending agent that helps it to stay on the skin longer with virtually no risk factor. Surprisingly, the cheaper Maybelline product also lists water and Acrylates Copolymer as its main ingredients.

I have alternated between these two liners every day for the past week, and I get the same results every time. The Kat Von D Tattoo Liner stays on my eye all day without smudging or transferring to my upper lid. The Maybelline Master Graphic rubs off a lot by the end of the day and smudges all over my lid.

Both of these are great products, but in the end, the high end product won me over.

The next two products I'm going to compare are lip crayons.

The high end lip crayons are from NARS Cosmetics. One is a Velvet Matte Lip Pencil and the other is a Satin Lip Pencil, both of which come in this year's Beauty Insider Birthday Gift from Sephora. If you want to buy them individually or you can't wait until your birthday, they retail for $26 a piece at Sephora. The comparable drugstore products are the Burt's Bees Lip Crayons. You can find them anywhere Burt's Bees is sold - CVS, Walgreens, Target, and Wal-Mart. They cost $9.00 a piece.

Because the NARS lip pencils were a gift, they are about half the size of the ones you would get if you bought them yourselves. The colors are not a perfect match by any means, but I haven't heard anyone talk about the Burt's Bees Lip Crayons before, and I wanted to give them a little review. The best thing about them is that all of their products are 100% natural, which is great for people who have sensitive skin like I do.

The featured ingredient in the Burt's Bees crayons is Shea Butter, which helps to hydrate and moisturize dry lips. The main ingredients in the NARS products are C12-13 Alkyl Ethylhexanoate and Diisostearyl Malate. Any idea what those are? I didn't either, at first. According to the Environmental Working Group 's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, they are low-risk skin-conditioning alcohols and acids. They may not be harmful, but it can still be scary putting chemicals on your lips.

The very top swatch is the Burt's Bees Lip Crayon in Napa Vineyard (435) and right below it is the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella. The third swatch is Burt's Bees Sedona Sands (405) and on the very bottom is the NARS Satin Lip  Pencil in Rikugien. 

I found the NARS products easier to apply. They went on smoother and blended out better. While the Burt's Bees crayons do feel more moisturizing on the lips, they are a little bit chunkier, and the color tends to smudge or wear off throughout the day whereas. the NARS pencils are more longwearing.

You all can make up your mind what products - if any - of these you're interested in buying based on my information. I use everything I listed, but I do prefer the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner to the Maybelline Master Graphic, and I my favorite lip crayon is the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella.

I hope you found this blog post useful. I really enjoyed discovering what ingredients were included in all of these products, and I want to continue with that angle in my upcoming posts.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be sure to have something new up next weekend!

Love,

Maggie