The Skinny on Eyeko

When it comes to eyeliner, I'm all about felt tip pens. Why bother with fiddly gel eyeliners that you have to apply with a brush, or pencils that perpetually require sharpening. Both have their merits from time to time, but on a daily basis, I prefer the ease, efficiency and convenience of these inky, sharp-tipped markers. I've previously been partial to Bourjois Liner Feutre and didn't mind Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen, but when my current favourite Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner started to fade, I thought it was finally time to try Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner. With Jen from From Head to Toe featuring it in her top picks of 2012 and Lisa Eldridge mentioning it as one of her favourite eyeliners of 2013, I hoped I would come to share the same sentiments.

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner in Black

The Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner is a relatively thick and stiff pen which takes some time to adjust to after using my Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner for half a year. The Stila is much lighter in weight, with a finer, thinner tip and generally smaller, more elongated shape. The Eyeko is like a hardened calligraphy brush in comparison.

I don't think I could've anticipated my main dilemma with the Eyeko, which is that it's near impossible to open. I don't know if it's an issue isolated to my one, or it just hasn't been opened enough times to loosen the tightness around the cap, but it's a serious problem. I normally moisturise my face in the mornings after cleansing, and the residual greasiness on my hands from the cream makes using the pen out of the question because I literally can't open it. The outside is too smooth for my fingers to get any grip and the cap feels like it's stuck on. I even had to resort to rubber gloves once for better grip. Invariably, once you finally yank the cap off, there'll be some black ink on your hand/rubber gloves/whatever you used in a desperate attempt to open the darn thing.

The pen can be slightly patchy, especially if you draw over existing lines, and I don't find it absolutely pitch black. It begins to fade, with any patchiness becoming even more pronounced, as the day wears on, but it does take some heavy duty makeup remover to get rid of completely. I have to rub Dove Foaming Make Up Remover over the eye area, concentrating on where I normally draw the flick, for about half a minute for the last remnants to finally disappear. I do like that it dries fairly quickly, the formula isn't overly wet, and the pointy tip allows a degree of precision, but I think I'll be scouting cheaper alternatives or returning to my Stila after this runs out. If I can get the cap off first.