I Can't Believe I'm Saying This, But This Liquid Eyeliner Is Actually Foolproof

Welcome to Deep Reviews—your one-stop destination to discover the absolute best products and brands the beauty industry has to offer. The Who What Wear staffers you already know and trust will research, test, and review the market's most sought-after and buzzed-about products to see which formulas (of the hundreds up for consideration) are truly worth your hard-earned money and attention. You can expect honest, completely uncensored feedback and no-BS recommendations our hard-to-please testers endorse without reservations.

The majority of our Deep Reviews will feature our editors' honest, ultra-hot takes on entire product categories or multiple products from a particular beauty brand, but every so often, we'll sprinkle in a special single-product format called Honestly, I Love It. As the name suggests, these reviews will hone in on one standout beauty formula our editors quite literally can't shut up about. This time around, I'm highlighting the Urban Decay 24/7 Inks Liquid Eyeliner ($26). 

I have always been an eyeliner girl—just ask everyone I knew in high school. I used to watch YouTube tutorial after YouTube tutorial to learn how to etch the perfect cat eye. I practiced so much that I actually got pretty good at drawing cat eyes, and winged eyeliner was my signature look for many years.

Unfortunately, applying liquid eyeliner isn't like riding a bike. It's not something you can pick back up again whenever you want to. After a few years of wearing minimal makeup thanks to the pandemic, I lost pretty much all the ability I had to wing my eyeliner out. My lines went from clean and even to shaky, lopsided, and patchy.

Not only that, but I also find that so many liquid eyeliner formulas miss the mark. Either the applicator isn't pointy enough, or the formula itself is hard to use, whether it dries too quickly, flakes off, isn't opaque enough, or runs. 

When I first heard about the Urban Decay 24/7 Inks Liquid Eyeliner, however, it immediately caught my eye. Not only does the eyeliner come in nine shell-shocking shades (there's black as well as a gunmetal shimmer, a sunshine yellow, a bright white, and more), but it also looks different than any other eyeliner I've seen before. 

The product is in the shape of a calligraphy pen or a paintbrush—it has an ergonomic design that makes gripping it as easy as possible. This was carefully thought out, according to Urban Decay global makeup artist Steve Kassajikian. "The biggest concern from consumers regarding liquid liner is actually being able to apply it without making mistakes, so we wanted to make a liquid liner that was less intimidating than what's currently on the market," he says. "The inspiration for the design itself came from a paintbrush we found at the art store with an ergonomic grip that guided users where to hold the brush in order to get the best results."

The grip is close to the tip of the eyeliner, which means it's incredibly easy to control. The pen extends out, which is also by design. "[We] purposely made the component longer so anyone could hold it further back and create more loose and flowy shapes if that is the desired result," says Kassajikian. 

I can attest that this unique design makes the 24/7 Inks Eyeliner incredibly easy to use. The pen is so easy to control, and the close-to-the-tip grip means minimal shakiness and clean, straight lines. Since the tip is so narrow, you can also get extremely delicate lines, which are usually hard for me to achieve with a liquid liner (unless I start over at least three times).

I can finally draw a perfect cat eye again, especially with Kassajikian's flawless application advice. "To create the perfect winged liner, begin with flicking a line outward starting at the end of your lash line," he says. "Then in the opposite direction, draw a line inward to create a V shape. After that, just fill it in and then lay the tip of the liner flat against your lash to connect all the way through."

Another major plus of this liner? When the formula dries down, it doesn't become impossible to draw over without flaking off on the dry parts—one of my pet peeves with liquid eyeliners. The formula works with you until you're done, and then it stays in place without smudging for an entire day. After trying many, many liquid eyeliner formulas, I think I've finally found my holy grail, and I'll be sticking to it.