I am always in the hunt for the best lip liner, I love when after 4 to 5 hours I can still see the definition and the color on my lips, I am very happy if they last that long since I am always playing with my lips, drinking or talking too much 🙂
I can finally say that I am happy with the ones I own, they have very decent long-lasting wear and I consider them flattering for my skin tone.
I use them to fill my lips entirely, as a base for a lipstick or a gloss. They need to be non-drying, drink-proof and if possible, kiss-proof… better be ready 🙂
I have 5 lip liners that I reach for all the time, I will show you my 5 top favorites but also some of the ones that I like but I don’t wear as often.
These are my top 5 favorites :
- Rouge Bunny Rouge Esteban
- Make Up for ever 1C
- Chanel Naturel
- By Terry Rosy Nude
- Chanel Bois de Rose
A picture with my favorites and the others that I also enjoy wearing :
From left to right :
- Nars Rue Bonaparte (to line the outer lips for better definition)
- Mac Beurre (to contour)
- Rouge Bunny Rouge Esteban : flesh toned peach, RBR describes it as “metallic” but it has a natural shiny finish on my lips.
- Make Up For Ever 1C : light neutral beige, matte finish, lasts forever …
- Chanel Natural 34, beige, pinky-nude, satin finish, goes with everything and very very good long-lasting power.
- By Terry Rosy Nude, well… rosy-nude color… matte finish, flattering and long-lasting.
- Chanel Bois de Rose, deep rose with some red, the finish is more satin than matte to me, I find it extremely flattering, it brightens my whole face and has become my HG. Very long-lasting, released with the Spring 2012 collection but I have been told it will be permanent… Thank God !
- Edward Bess Natural, the finish is like a creamy satin and very comfortable, it’s supposed to be an universal shade, I like it but I think it has a bit too much brown for filling my lips with, and I don’t use it often since the color does not last at all on my lips.
- Rouge Bunny Rouge Vasco, cherry blossom powder pink, matte-satin finish on my lips, like all the RBR, this one is very long-lasting, will be gorgeous for a pinky-nude lipstick for the summer !
- Rouge Bunny Rouge Marco, medium cool raspberry, pure-matte they say in RBR site but the finish is not like MUFE C1, this one still has like a satin finish to me… I use it with darker lipsticks or to define the contour a little more precisely when I need to.
- Rouge Bunny Rouge Roald, pale mauve, pure-matte, they say again, but to me it’s like it has kind of a satiny finish.
- Catrice Lost in the Rosewood 030, it’s the cheapest of all, delivers a very natural color, with a satiny finish, but does not last that long on my lips.
- N7 Nude 20, Lisa Eldridge created this color for N7, she wanted the perfect nude lip liner and that’s what it is. The only problem is that it does not last long on my lips unfortunately.
None of them are drying on my lips, they are all comfortable and most of them very long-lasting.
Swatches of all of them together :
After a few minutes, I took a paper tissue and I scrubbed all the swatches, you can see that some of them did not budge at all but for some others you can only see the ghost image left behind them :
I have also taken pictures with swatches on the lips, they are entirely filled with the lip liners.
I thought maybe it will help give you a better idea of what the color looks like on the lips if you also want to fill them. Of course the result depends on your natural lip color or the lip balm you are using underneath.
In between each swatch, I have removed the lip liners with Bobbi Brown waterproof make up remover so that no residue is left on the lips for the next swatch.
I also show you what my natural lip color is for reference, either I use the lip liners on top of Chantecaille Lip Contour (no color at all) or on top of RBR Devilish Nectar (no color but it does stimulate the color of your natural lips). Long before the swatches, I had applied this RBR Devilish Nectar but the effect and the little gold sparkles were gone, my lips were just very slightly darker.
Natural Lip Color
Bare lips stimulated with RBR Devilish Nectar
My top 5 lip liners :
RBR Esteban
MUFE C1
Chanel Natural
By Terry Rosy Nude
Chanel Bois de Rose
And the other lip liners swatched as well :
Edward Bess
RBR Vasco
RBR Marco
RBR Roald
Catrice 030 Lost in the Rosewood
N7 Nude 20
My favorite daily routine is to wear a lip base (like Chantecaille lip contour or RBR lip potion Devilish Nectar) then the Chanel Bois de Rose lip liner, with Mac Beurre to contour the lips. Also sometimes I will use Nars Bonaparte to define the outer lips a little bit better. I could leave it like that, with no other lipstick or gloss on top since my lips don’t feel dry at all, it just looks quite natural :
Chanel Bois de Rose with Nars Bonaparte and Mac Beurre
I love to wear Edward Bess Night Orchid on top :
Chanel Bois de Rose with Edward Bess lipstick
And to complete the look, I would add some gloss, like By Terry Gold Digger and so here is my favorite lip combination :
Favorite combination
I hope these swatches give you a better idea of the lip liners if you also want to use them to fill in your lips.
If you don’t mind doing so, please share your favorite lip liner(s) here, I am always curious to try other brands, colors or ideas 🙂
Thank you for reading 🙂
