Gel eyeliner is one item I simply cannot do without in my makeup bag! I’m obsessed with Cleopatra Eyes and I’ve spent many hours perfecting my winged eye.

For this look, I always use gel liners. I find that they create the best lines and generally last longer – the makeup look and the product itself!

Here are my top picks, and four of the best gel liners I’ve used…

Makeup Forever Aqua Cream

I follow a lot of beauty bloggers on YouTube, and this product always comes up in their reviews and makeup tutorials. While Makeup Forever is a difficult brand to find in SA (there is only one shop in Jozi that sells the brand) it’s an amazing range with high quality products that are made in France.

On a recent trip to Jozi I happened to be “in the area”, so I quickly popped in to grab a pot of Aqua Cream. I’ve been using it non-stop ever since and am highly impressed with it! Don’t be fooled by the “cream” part – although it can be used as a cream eye shadow, with the right brush, it works as an amazing, long lasting liquid liner too! It’s ultra pigmented, which means you get the blackest of black lines and the added of mother-of-pearl pigments add gloss and intensity.

I love that it stays put all day long and because it’s waterproof, it won’t smudge or smear. I used it as a liquid liner and at the end of the day, when I removed my eye makeup (with eye makeup remover), only the eyeshadow I wore came off. The line created with MUF Aqua Cream was still solid and virtually untouched. It only came off after a few swipes with makeup remover.

Price wise, I paid R230 for a pot of Makeup Forever Aqua Cream at Metropolitan Cosmetics at Melrose Arch. You can also buy it online via their website metropolitaincosmetics.co.za
The pot size is 6 grams.

Inglot Matte Collection AMC Eyeliner Gel

A gel liner product that definitely deserves praise is Inglot’s Eyeliner Gel. At R140, you get an awesome product that goes on really slick and has amazing staying power.

Because of it’s gel formulation, the product fixes and dries on the skin very quickly, so if you do make a mistake it will be very hard to get it off and start over again. For this reason I prefer the Makeup Forever Aqua Cream as a liner (as I still make loads of mistakes), but if you’re looking for an amazing product that’s budget friendly, this is it!

Price wise, you’re looking at R149 a pot and you can purchase it directly from an Inglot counter or selected Woolies stores.
The pot size is 5.5 grams.

Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner

Bobbi Brown’s Gel Eye Liner was the first liquid/gel liner I ever purchased. It lasts both on the eye and in the pot for a very long time!

Very similar to the Inglot Gel Liner, this is a wonderful product to create solid black lines on lids.

I rated Inglot’s AMC gel above this one, because while I feel that both offer almost the exact same result, the Inglot one is better priced. I don’t have an exact cost for the BB Gel Liner, but I think I paid around R250/ R280 for a pot.

The pot size is 3 grams.

MAC Fluidline Eyeliner Gel

While I’ve never bought the black version of MAC’s Fluidline (called Blacktrack), I do own a brown one (Rich Ground) and I have used the black one a lot when doing makeup for shows as an MUA. It’s a kit essential for a lot of professional makeup artists and I guess, one of those products that does the job well enough for you to keep buying the same product over and over again.

The benefit of this one and the Bobbi Brown gel liner would be the smaller pot. Because these “gel” types of products do tend to dry out, having less in a pot might work better for professionals who can’t store their makeup in one place and are often shooting outdoors etc.

The pot size is 3 grams.

I will share some of my tried and trusted tips and tricks on how to look after your gel-liners to keep them for longer, so keep an eye out for that blog post.

Do you have ant favourite gel eyeliners? Comment below, let me know what works for you!