L'Oreal Infalliable 24 Hour Lacquer Liner: Swatches and Review

Up for review today is a new-ish gel eyeliner from L'Oreal.

I love a cat eye (it's probably from my love of pinup girls and... well, cats) but have a VERY hard time pulling one off myself. The cat eye tends to dwarf my eye (as it does on others) if I do the line too thick and finding the perfect formula is also a pain. Some liners are too watery, too thick, too etc.

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Also... story time!!!: I have problematic tear ducts. Since I was a wee tot, I've had multiple eye surgeries (I think I was around five when I had my first operation? Maybe seven at most?) to try and correct the problem but I still have VERY watery eyes. I've come to live with the fact that I must have some sort of genetic defect where my tear ducts are normal sized but my eyes grew too big and my tear ducts can't keep up with draining my tears. So essentially, on a weekly basis, people will ask me "Awww Cassie, why are you crying?" and I just say "What? I'm not... oh sh**, one second (wipes tears from face)" and then I have to explain myself.

Makes sense as to why I stray from wearing liners of any sort, huh? I'm constantly wiping my eyes and can't handle needing to touch up my makeup (other than lipstick... at least that can look somewhat sexy) during the day.

Anywhew, onto the actual product.

I chose Espresso over Black like most people tend to pick for a cat eye because black looks waaaaaaaay too harsh on my eyes (I think it's because they're a light color?). 

Espresso is the perfect brown in the sense that it pulls off looking black on the eye without being so standoff-ish and intense.

Nice, right!?!? This goes on very easy and is pigmented, but not so much so that you can't build or fade the color (as you can see in the photo above).

And the brush that this comes with? Ohhhhhhh the brush...

Please excuse my cracked skin... mosaic-ing has not been kind to my hands (broken glass, tile clippers... it's been a painful endeavor).

I'm so used to cheap freebie brushes that companies put in their packages (there's a reason that they're "freebies"... the companies aren't weeping as they give these things away), but this one is a winner. 

The base of the bristles is nice and dense while the tip is flexible so liner application is incredibly easy and precise; great for creating the perfect wing on your cat eye look! Did I mention this is INCREDIBLY soft?? Well, it is.

I also love that it came with a cap so that I could throw this into any of my makeup bags (yes, I have several) and not have to worry about the bristles getting bent and liner getting all over my other products between washings.

See what I mean about the watery eyes??? On my left (your right) waterline that is NOT white eyeliner pencil like many use to brighten their eyes... that is excessive water just waiting to fall (I like to call them "maiden's tears" to make myself feel fancy rather than foolish).

So here's my simple cat eye that I did for today. It's nothing crazy or stand out-y (like said, I can't pull off a thick liner at all... my eyes are too big so it just ends up looking clownish), but I think it looks alright!

I'm heading off to work right now, so only time will tell if this really is a 24 hour fade-proof liner... I'll update when I get home! :)

***EDIT*** Huzzah, it actually is long wearing!! I didn't wear it for 24 hours (nor do I think I ever will), so I'm not sure about that claim but this lasted through eight hours of industrial dishwashing with limited AC (the company I work for is cheap environmentally conscious)!! I sweat bullets while I work (TMI? *shrug*) and the humidity next to a huge dishwasher is insane so I feel confident in saying that this will last you all day! 

Have you tried this liner?

What brand/formula (gel, liquid, pencil) is your favorite to use to create the perfect cat eye?
Or are you like me and feel you can't pull one off?

xoxo - Cassie