stila stay all day waterproof liquid eye liner: Swatches + Review!

If you watch my videos on the regular, you may have noticed that I've taken to wearing black liner this month. It's something I've never been completely comfortable with because I feel it can make my big bright eyes look clown-like and garish but, with the inclusion of the stila stay all day waterproof liquid eye liner in a Sephora box set I got for Christmas, I figured it was time to get over it and give this fan-favorite a go! With people raving about how pigmented and easy it was to apply, the artist in me was ready to scribble this across my lash line and become the millionth maiden to fall for this casanova-in-pen-form. 

…too bad that's not what happened; my panties were ready to drop but stila just couldn't get my belt unbuckled for the love shack shenanigans to ever begin.

Sure this liquid liner is pigmented… but only when you push down hard (which isn't exactly something I enjoy doing on my eyeballs). You can see in the photo above that the thick line is insanely black but that's only because I pressed the pen against my skin with heavy pressure; getting a thin line/any sort of a flick for a wing with this liner is impossible because the tip is so stupid flexible that pressure just makes it bend and create a sketchy nothing of a line. 

And, speaking of the tip, I had to trim the tip of my pen because when I first tried using it I couldn't get any ink to come out at all. Wut. I'm honestly thinking at this point I must have gotten a dud in my box set in the first place because the stila stay all day waterproof liquid liner is nowhere near as orgasmic as everyone else seems to think. Heck, I couldn't even get a little foreplay out of this thing, I had to do all the work myself!

I digress; it does look pretty fantastic if you take the time to fuss around with it. 

 The finish of the stila stay all day waterproof liquid eye liner has a semi-gloss/semi-matte look to it which I really love. I'm not the biggest fan of super glossy black liners so I was at least pleased with this aspect. Also, true to the stila smudge sticks (which I adore, and I'm talking Miley-Cyrus-rolling-in-the-sheets adore), this does stay all day though it's a bit more prone to smudging than the aforementioned (this is, however, coming from a chronic eye-rubber so take that with a grain of salt). 

I just feel like, for a whopping $20, this should perform better than what I've experienced. There should be no clipping of tips, no pressure on the eyeballs, no tugging when trying to layer to correct patchiness (which you can see in the slight jaggedness to the line two photos up), etc. Even if I hadn't gotten a 'dud' (and I'm purely assuming this based on other rave reviews) I'm still sad to hear and agree with the fact that this liner barely lasts a month before drying out. Unless you're wearing this literally every single day then that means you're spending at least a dollar on your eyeliner each morning… ouch! And no thank you.

Have you tried the stila stay all day waterproof liquid eye liner?

Love it? Hate it?

What's your favorite liquid liner (I'm on the hunt for a new one!)?

Do share!!

xoxo - Cassie