I moved house recently, and obviously I packed my cosmetics and underwear very carefully, in a special bag, so that I could unpack our nine million boxes while not appearing slightly feral, a look I find I can master with effortless ease. Alas! The special bag was put in a box, which just became box nine million and one, and didn’t resurface for six days, by which point I was wearing my partner’s underpants and washing my face using a tea towel and hand soap. Make-up was but a memory. (Men’s pants are really comfy, I discovered, plus you can discreetly stuff the Y bit with a sock, to amusing effect.)
Then, at the bottom of my handbag, rolling about in the lint, alongside keys, coins and old receipts, I found a) a Charlotte Tilbury red lipstick that I had secreted away because I love it so much (1975 Red, it’s called — instant glamour); and b) my absolutely favourite eye pencil in ages, Estée Lauder Little Black Liner (£22).
It’s endlessly versatile — not just for an Amy Winehouse tribute vibe
This is an extremely dull name for a fantastic product. It’s liquid black liner in pen form, but its genius resides in the fact that it’s three liners in one — a thin one, a thick one and an ultra-fine one. How clever is that? The pen is double-ended. One of the nibs is wide but squashed flat, if you can picture that. Use its squashed side and you get a wide line — the perfect wide line, if I may say. Use its tip and you get a superthin line — ditto. At the other end of the pen is a normal line, neither especially thin nor especially thick, honed to a fine point and a cinch to use.
None of this would be much cop if the actual liner wasn’t good or was difficult to apply. Happily, this is brilliant liner. It’s exactly the right consistency: it goes where you want it to and nowhere else. It’s deepest black and super-impactful. It doesn’t budge, it’s waterproof and it doesn’t flake (flaky eye make-up is the pits, like eye dandruff). Even if you are rubbish at putting on eyeliner, this one is such that you can go unbelievably slowly, drawing a tiny bit at a time, keeping the line clean. It’s really easy to use. If you cock it up — it happens — just get a Q-tip and a dot of remover, smear it about a bit, et voilà: a sort of slept-in emergency smoky eye.
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This pen also demonstrates the endless versatility of liquid liner. People imagine it’s only good for serious 1960s-style winging-out, for cat’s eyes or for creating an Amy Winehouse tribute vibe. All of these things are good, and all are strong looks, but if you work in an office and just want a bit of effective definition without looking like you’ve made too much of an effort, you can’t beat the thinnest end of the liner drawn in very close to the roots of your upper lashes. It’s universally flattering, requires zero skills and will frighten no horses. And then, if you’re going out later, you can whip out your pen and ramp things up a bit.
My fundamental make-up belief is that you’re fine if you have an eyeliner and a lipstick. Ideally you’d want base of some sort, blusher and mascara, of course — and the rest. But in extremis, red lipstick makes you feel glamorous and liquid liner makes even the smallest, most potato-eyed person look like they have a dazzling gaze. You can’t ask for more than that. Best eye product in ages, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
