Lip liner plays a supporting role to your lipsticks and lip glosses by keeping them in place. These beauty products are used to outline your lips and lock lip color in place, preventing it from smudging and moving outside your lip line. Lip liners come in many shades to complement any lipstick color, and there are many types including waterproof, clear, and pencil lip liners. Whether you want to define your lips or secure your lip color, there are quality lip liners available to suit your needs.
Application
The application of a lip liner can affect how it performs and appears on your lips. You should not experience any resistance from a lip liner such as dragging on the skin during application. Quality lip liners have a smooth, lightweight texture allowing them to glide effortlessly onto your lips.
Performance
Quality lip liners should shape and define your lips while securing your lipsticks colors and glosses in place for hours at a time. The best lip liners don’t smudge, fade, or bleed outside the lip line either. Lower quality lip liners may dry out your lips, but quality liners have moisturizing properties to ensure your lips remain soft and supple.
Appearance
How a lip liner actually appears on your lip is another important factor to consider. Quality lip liners appear natural without leaving an ugly ring around your lips. The best lip liners (not including clear options) come in an assortment of bold, highly pigmented colors which complement all skin tones and lipstick shades.
Lip Liner Types
Pencil
A pencil lip liner requires manual sharpening on a regular basis to main a sharp tip. The downside is they’re somewhat messy due to the wood shavings which accumulate while sharpening and manually sharpening them can be inconvenient at times. On the upside, you’re able to control and adjust the tip of a pencil lip liner for more precise contouring. Like mechanical liners, pencil liners are available in numerous shades.
Mechanical
As convenient alternatives to pencil lip liners, mechanical lip liners require no manual sharpening and there are no messy wooden shavings. You just twist the liner at the base or top for more cosmetic to emerge. The downside about mechanical lip liners is you can’t sharpen their tips and control isn’t as precise. Like pencil liners, mechanical liners come in many different shades.
Drugstore Lip Liner
Spending less money doesn’t always mean settling for a lower quality item. Drugstores carry reputable cosmetic brands such as Rimmel London and Revlon, which offer quality lip liners in many super-defining shades that perform extremely well in terms of smooth application, functionality, and longevity. Whether you want a mechanical liner or pencil liner, you are sure to find a suitable drugstore product at an affordable price.
Clear & Invisible
Clear and invisible lip liners define and shape your lip without using additional pigmentation. They provide a translucent barrier around your lip color without an unsightly ring like other pigmented liners may leave behind. Many clear and invisible liners contain moisturizing and even anti-aging properties to make up for their lack of pigmentation.
Waterproof
With waterproof liners you don’t need to worry about retouching your lips every time you drink a beverage or break a sweat. Waterproof liners work just like regular lip liners, shaping and defining lips using a variety of shades, you simply worry less about fading and smudging.