Eyeliners

Choosing an eyeliner can be a confusing process, since this makeup comes in many different forms. Kohl has been used for a very long time, and continues to be popular. Eyeliner pencils provide a softer color, and are often available in a wider variety of shades. Liquid liners are also commonly used for their dramatic line, but with a little practice, you can create a faded, smoky effect with this as well.

Clarins offers a creative alternative to traditional kohl -- the intense color remains, but the eyeliner is a powder, so you end up with a refined texture and the ability to vary the color intensity, from sheer to dark. Revlon uses a more traditional kohl application as an eyecolor pencil, but the smudge-tip applicator on the other end allow you to blend or feather away excess color.

The eyeliner pencil definitely follows the keep it simple beauty method -- just use a cotton swab, a sponge-tip applicator, or the tip of your finger to blend or smooth the color. We appreciate the way Guerlain's retractable eye pencil protects the tip from breaking, and we think LORAC's sparkling eyeliner pencil, which does double-duty as eyeshadow with it's soft, easily blended formula, is simply gorgeous.

Liquid liner tends to be the longest-lasting of eyeliner types, and you can get an amazing array of colors. Urban Decay's liquid liner offers an incredible selection of shades that run through the rainbow, and once their formula dries, you're left with a subtle shimmer or a burst of sparkling color, depending on the shade you've chosen. Dr. Hauschka liquid eyeliner offers another benefit besides color -- and with the reputation some liquid liners have for irritation, we really like this bonus -- this silky-smooth liner glides on easily to intensity your beautiful eyes as extracts of neem leaf and eyebright strengthen, nurture and soothe lashes and lids.