The Ultimate Eyeliner: Urban Decay

Yesterday, I did a review of a variety of Bourjois eyeliners, which really made me question my year and a half allegiance to Urban Decay's 25/7 liners. So, I decided to test all of my eyeliners, with the mission to find:

And, of course, it makes sense to start with Urban Decay. So, I'll be testing several colours to see which ones passes the ultimate tests, because in this test, colour means nothing. This test is about stay-ability, anti-smudging and waterproof...um...ness:

The First Test: Initial Smudging

When we apply eyeliners we usually have two things in mind:

a. Prominent look that makes our eyes really stand out, or
b. Smokey statement look.

So, this first test challenges each eyeliners ability to create the perfect smokey look; meaning that where the liner is initially placed stays prominent, whilst the surrounding area has a lovely smokey effect.

Results:

• Yeyo (White) smudged a lot, making it a less prominent white.
• 1999 (Dark shimmery pinky/brown or Plum) very smudgey, which resulted in the glitter being more prominent.
• Stash (Dark Green) Smudged nicely, perfect for a smokey look.
• Graffiti (Light shimmery Green)  Smudged too much for my liking, green almost gone and glitter very prominent
• Corrupt (Rich shimmery Brown)Similar to Stash, this smudged nicely so again perfect for smokeyness.
• Ransom (Cadbury Purple) Faded to much for my liking, which is not good for such a vivid colour.
• Eldorado (Metallic Shimmery Gold) Fades more than smudges, into a much less vivid shade of gold.
• Zero (Black) Very smudgey, black less prominent, but ideal for a smokey look
• Binge (Dark Blue) Very inconsistent in the smudging, and faded a little too much more my liking
• Oil Slick (Shimmery Black) Very smudgey, which I'd like except it caused the glitter to clump together and left the liner looking more silver then black.
• Rockstar (Dark Brown w/dark pink undertone) Very lightly smudged, with a little fading of colour.

Verdict:  Stash, Corrupt and Zero all performed well as they smudged a lot, which was ideal for a smudgey look, however, they all lost a lot of their initial colour. Therefore, I have to declare Rockstar the winner of this test, as it smudged beautifully, without losing too much of it's initial colour.

The Second Test: One Hour Later...

For me, another important factor for eyeliner is knowing that it isn't going to have smudged everywhere within an hour of applying it. So many eyeliners leave me with smudginess especially under my eyes, which I find really irritating, so I'm going to leave the colours for an hour, before rubbing them for smudging.

Results: Ahem, well, this test actually took threehours, not because I forgot, because seriously, when you have eleven colourful scribbles on your hand, you really don't forget! But, I decided that I wanted to see if they'd last longer, mainly because absolutely none of the colours had faded that much at all, over the space of an hour.

I should also add that the liners were subjected to me washing my hands,in a bid to simulate the idea of being worn off by moisture (or sweat, if we're being less polite).

But, anywho, I'm actually impressed (and immensely relieved) that all of the Urban Decay liners performed fairly well, with the exception of 1999 which has, quite honestly, almost gone completely. I have to say, that I'm really surprised that that one has faded so much. Although, Ransom isn't actually that far behind, but it's kind of weird, because half of it has nearly disappeared entirely, whilst the other half is just starting to fade...I tried to rub all over equally, and none of the others appear to have faded in this way.

Stash, Corrupt,  Zero and Binge are all beginning to fade. Amazingly, considering the results of the first test, all of the glittery liners (Graffiti, Eldorado and Oil Slick) appear to have performed incredibly well, still looking quite prominent, although the glitter is definitely shining through brighter than when it was first applied.

Yeyo and Rockstar both stayed put incredibly well, fading a little, but were still quite vivid which I was very impressed with.

Verdict: Whilst Yeyo did stay put, I decided not to rate it highest, because I don't about anyone else, but white is a colour of eyeliner that I only use on the waterline and inner corner so it doesn't seem entirely fair for it to win over shades that are used actuallyon the eyelid (lame reason, maybe, but I'm sticking to it). But, in all fairness, Rockstar just pipped it anyway, because it was just a lot more like its original colour than Yeyo.

Ultimate Urban Decay Eyeliner: Definitely Rockstar...it smudges perfectly on first application, but "sets" if that's the right word just right so that it doesn't fade with use too much.