Review: Etude House Proof 10 Liquid Liner in RD301

I haven't ventured into the realms of colourful eyeliners as much as I would like to. I like to experiment, but in the end I will always go back to the safe territories of black and brown eyeliners. Honestly, I have pink, purple, light blue, red, olive green eyeliners but they remain unused most of the time. Such a waste of money, I know. 

It's time to slowly incorporate coloured eyeliners into my eye routine! I realised that the darker eyeliner shades (dark maroon, dark navy, dark army green) are more wearable even though they are not conventional eyeliner colours. It's kind of cheating to say I'm "experimenting with colours" when all I'm using are eyeliners with some sort of black pigment mixed in them. But I'm trying lah. Give chance please. 

During the last Etude House Warehouse Sale, I purchased the Etude House Proof 10 Liquid Liner in RD301 for a great price of S$7. I think this retails for S$19.90 in Etude House stores nationwide (please pardon me if I'm wrong, do let me know if it's more/less expensive!), but I always advise my friends to never buy products from local Etude House stores because the prices are so crazy. 

I did a quick search on Qoo10 and I found SO MANY sellers selling these liquid liners. So, if you're interested, treat yourself by clicking this link: http://list.qoo10.sg/gmkt.inc/Search/default.aspx?keyword=etude%20house%20proof%2010%20liquid%20liner&dispType=IMAGE

I'm on the fence about this liquid eyeliner. RD301 is a gorgeous shade, but there is a couple of things that I really don't like. 

As seen on the packaging, the Etude House Proof 10 Liquid Liner promises to be:

• stronghold
• waterproof
• tearproof
• smudgeproof

It's always dangerous when products make such claims because once one department is not fulfilled, you disappoint the customer and he/she may form a different (in a negative way) opinion towards your brand. But of course I understand that clever marketing fuels profits and yes in a way, such claims are reasonable even though they are not true to their words all the time. 

NOT GONNA DISTRACT MYSELF NOW. Continuing with the review ~

Ingredients List

I thought 2g of product was quite little, but then I realised that's the average in the beauty industry. So, okay, I will shut up about my initial thoughts on how little product is included in the eyeliner.

Packaging: I adore this packaging. The colour of the bottom half of the packaging is very true to the eyeliner colour. Moreover, I like how the product has a long cap that helps in making eyeliner application easier. I wish all liquid eyeliners will adopt this type of packaging. I especially hate those with fanciful caps that serve no purpose at all (maybe just to make the product look fancy).

Brush design: It's like a tiny calligraphy brush. Sturdy, yet flexible at the same time. The brush is also made of this weird material that absorbs the liquid eyeliner too quickly. Application is a breeze with this brush head, but one application will not create the full eyeliner look because the product gets absorbed too quickly into the brush head, making it dry way too easily. For one eye, I had to reapply four times to get the desired look. Not good for those in a rush.

Swatches taken with normal day lighting

Swatches taken using camera flash

Pigmentation: Etude House Proof 10 Liquid Liner in RD301 has a gorgeous deep burgundy shade that certainly will complement women with all skin shades. Pigmentation is above average. The first application was great. The problem comes when I applied the eyeliner on the same area for the second time. I waited 15 seconds and the liquid eyeliner was not dry yet, hence when I reapplied a second layer, the first layer balled up to the sides. When I applied it on my eyelids, the same thing happened. The colour is great but when you keep applying layers to make the previous layer more pigmented, it's going to backfire because you will end up getting a thick line with darker colours on the edges.

This is obviously not supposed to be how liquid eyeliners work right? I have other liquid eyeliners and all of them dry within 10 seconds, giving me a smooth and mistake-proof second application. Maybe the Etude House Proof 10 Liquid Liner that I have is an old one (hence the formula has gone a bit wonky). I don't know the exact reason for this, but I'm not liking it.

Swatches taken with normal day lighting (after a good smudging attempt)

Smudgeproof? Full marks for this because it really is smudgeproof and no matter how hard I tried to smear the ruin the swatches, they didn't budge. 

Swatches taken with normal day lighting (after a good smudging attempt with water)

Waterproof? Definitely. However, warm water messes up the formula a bit and a little bit of the swatches was smudged. So you're safe if you have this on your eyes and you're caught in the rain with no umbrella/shelter.

Swatches taken with normal day lighting (after a good smudging attempt with makeup remover)

I smudged the swatches with a tiny bit of makeup remover, and they were removed quite easily. I noticed these strands of dried up eyeliner when using makeup remover. Not a new phenomenon for waterproof products, but those with sensitive eyes should be wary of this - your eyeliner removal step should be done as gently as possible to prevent these strands from going into your eyes.

After a thorough removal, I had stains on my hand. It'll be good to know if eyeliners will leave a stain or not so that you will not panic and start wiping your eyes vigorously with cotton pad/makeup wipes (bad for your eyes and you're welcoming premature wrinkles). Usually with eye products that stain, the stain will only be thoroughly removed after a few hours. For me, I will remove my eye makeup normally and carry on with my skincare routine (ignoring the stain on my eyelid). Then, the next morning when I cleanse my face again, the stains will come off very easily. So don't worry!!

Longevity: Not very good. After 4 to 5 hours, I started to see strands of dried eyeliner on the under-eye area.

Will I buy it again? Definitely not. Even though the colour is extremely gorgeous, I'm quite sure I can find other liquid eyeliners that will outperform this one.