Tarte • EmphasEYES Aqua-Gel Eyeliner • Eyeliner

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*TOP REVIEWER* misanders on 3/28/2013 12:15:00 PM more reviews by misanders

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette, Curly, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

This is not a great product. I have this in a teal color ( the name isn't on it). What I do like is that it is a thin twist up eye liner...that's about it on the positives. The negatives are...I tried this on my water line and it stung like crazy. My eyes were watering until all traces of this were gone from there. I tried using this just under my eyes and the formula was dry and tugged. I also put it on my hand next to a MUFE in a similar color, waited 5 minutes. When I rubbed this came off immediately and the MUFE one didn't budge. So I wouldn't say this is long-wearing like the packaging claims. I have sensitive eyes so I won't be purchasing anymore of these.

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JayCollins on 3/27/2013 11:57:00 AM more reviews by JayCollins

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair, Cool   Hair: Blond, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Hazel    

I got this on sale at Sephora, and am reminded One More Time to read the reviews on MUA before buying something. Even something as tempting as eyeliner.

I have a major in black eyeliner with a minor in black mascara. I have been wearing black eyeliner for ten thousand years, and have been around the eyeliner block, so to speak.

This is black, make no mistake. A very tempting, dark black. But it slid, slipped, slopped and skipped all over my eyelids until I gave up and attempted to fix it with another product. I powdered it to set it in place, and it smeared all over the poof and, subsequently, the rest of my eye.

Boo! Hiss! Cry! Whimper! I shall console myself by buying more makeup. This will go onto the "bad makeup choices" pile as a reminder to all who travel this path. Which is no one, really, I'm just being dramatic. That's how I feel about black eyeliner.

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*TOP REVIEWER* SHeust on 2/2/2013 9:13:00 PM more reviews by SHeust

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination, Fair, Warm   Hair: Brunette, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Green    

I got this in a Sephora 500 point bonus pack and am pretty pleased with it. The one I have is a green that goes on a dark forest green with a hint of green shimmer that is really pretty. The formula is very smooth and creamy but doesn't smear or wear off. Would recommend overall.

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*TOP REVIEWER* VegetaFanGirl on 2/2/2013 6:47:00 PM more reviews by VegetaFanGirl

Age: 18 & Under   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Brown, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

I will never have a clear comprehension of why this product was made. It is extremely cumbersome and stubborn to work with! When I first bought it, it looked like your regular twist-top pencil eyeliner. I have the purple one, by the way, which is actually a nice color. I tried applying it several times and it just came out like, as someone else below me said, butter in a stick. It tends to break A LOT, so don't dispense much. It also looks very watered down and is not very pigmented. What you can do, though, is apply it in small clumps and redistribute them with a liner brush. Also, apply two layers. It won't make the eyeliner any less stubborn, but it can make it look less horrible. Since it breaks a lot, you probably won't have it for long- or you'll throw it away instead. I have had flaking issues with it too. Either way. It is pretty pricey, around $19, which you should not give up for an 11.5cm liner!!! What is good about it is the staying power- waterproof indeed. Still, I would absolutely not recommend this eyeliner! Save yourself a good $20!

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*TOP REVIEWER* MissBrittanyM on 2/1/2013 9:52:00 PM more reviews by MissBrittanyM

Age: 25-29   Skin: Sensitive, Fair, Cool   Hair: Blond, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Blue    

This is an EXACT duplicate of Avon's LiquiGlide eyeliner ( or that is a dupe of this). The big difference is the price, since you can buy half a dozen from Avon for the price of 1 from Tarte. Anyhow, this is essentially a gel eyeliner in pencil form... very soft and very wet. It does take a bit of learning to use but the color pay off is incredible. Very little product in the tube so go for Avon's.

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Decobalgal on 1/3/2013 2:56:00 PM more reviews by Decobalgal

Age: 44-55   Skin: Combination, Medium   Hair: Brunette, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Hazel    

This product is a joke. It is not, and I mean NOT NOT NOT an eyeliner. It's called an eyeliner. It's packaged as an eyeliner. It's marketed and sold to the unwitting masses as eyeliner. But the one thing it cannot do to save its life is line the eyes. Or "line" anything, for that matter.

What it is: lovely, creamy, soft, pigmented runny melted ice cream. How they got it to take the shape of a long thin cylinder/tube inside the packaging is beyond me. Because it doesn't hold its shape if you blow on it, much less try to apply it to your eyes.

Boy, did I learn this the hard, painful, blinding way. Straight out of the tube, I tried to apply it to my tightline/upper waterline. It immediately melted into a pool of pudding and ran down my eye. No trace of color on my tightline, but a hazy film of liquidy goo blurred my vision right away, and the pudding puddled somewhere down in the inner corner of my eye. I strained to look through the blurred glaze left on my eye and saw that the entire few millimeters of "liner" I had advanced out of the tube to line my eyes was gone. There was no liner or pigment on my upper lid or tightlight, but I did have a puddle of goo in the corner of my eye and a thin, blurring glaze over my iris/pupil to show for it.

Shame on you, Tarte. I'm crazy about Tarte and own just about everything they put out. Yes, companies can make products that are a miss and are soon discontinued. But what makes this shameful is that when I complained to Tarte about it, they had the unaccountable gall to tell me "yeah, it's supposed to be soft". Really? So soft that the slightest pressure will collapse the tip down on itself, make it ooze out from all sides and settle into a melted puddle in the one place makeup is never intended to go, namely, in your eye????

I own lip gloss out of a squeeze tube with more body and firmness than these aqua-liners. Run, run for your lives.

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rhody on 11/18/2012 4:18:00 PM more reviews by rhody

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair, Neutral   Hair: Blond, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Green    

How do I hate this product? Let me count the ways...

1. The trip broke off FOUR TIMES during one attempted application.

2. It's like they put colored butter in a stick. It caught in every single one of my eyelashes, causing chunks to form all along the rim of my lashes. Absolutely unwearable.

3. Pieces of the glitter went into my eyeball and stung like hell.

I got this in a Sephora insider kit, and I can honestly say this is the only product I've ever thrown in the garbage after one use. It's just abysmal. If I had paid full price for this you can bet I'd be sending an angry message to Tarte. As it is I'm bummed that I wasted my beauty insider points on this. Tarte should really be ashamed that they're selling this at the price they are. It's insulting to the customer.

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*TOP REVIEWER* darkharbour on 9/14/2012 11:04:00 AM more reviews by darkharbour

Age: 44-55   Skin: Dry, Fair-Medium, Neutral   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Hazel    

Lovely shades, but the product is soft and the tip breaks easily. It also applies unevenly and thickly. Unless you are going for smudge and smoke, pass this one up. Too bad. The deep olive green shade I got was lovely.

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monty713 on 8/13/2012 3:31:00 PM more reviews by monty713

Age: 44-55   Skin: Sensitive, Fair, Warm   Hair: Blond, Wavy, Fine   Eyes: Green    

Nice colour, once it's applied it has staying power however, disappointed in product. It breaks off making it a very short lived item... Eyeliner should last longer than 2 months IMO.

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Purplegal on 6/21/2012 4:59:00 PM more reviews by Purplegal

Age: 36-43   Skin: Oily, Fair-Medium   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

The staying power is great, but for me it is difficult to apply and the tip breaks easily.

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Firestarter303 on 4/29/2012 4:18:00 PM more reviews by Firestarter303

Age: 30-35   Skin: Oily, Medium   Hair: Red   Eyes: Brown    

These eyeliner pencils have great staying power and the colors are intense. I have oily eyelids and (with a primer) these stay where they belong! The ingredients cause these eyeliners to be very soft so you want to use a light hand and tarte DOES note this on the box so take the time to look it over and you shouldn't have any problems. I'm very impressed with their products and ingredients! I heart tarte!!

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redrave1 on 4/12/2012 8:52:00 PM more reviews by redrave1

Age: 25-29   Skin: Dry, Fair, Warm   Hair: Brunette, Fine   Eyes: Hazel    

PROS:
-this is the blackest black I've ever found in an eyeliner with a great texture
-has excellent staying power
-feels cold when applied
-automatic sharpener
CONS:
-this is very delicate, and constantly breaks off. At first I thought I purchased an old tube. When I repurchased, the same thing happened. Now it was summer, so I always kept in the fridge. It made no difference; it still broke off. Had to use such a light hand or barely push up any product that sometimes it would apply funny. Between the price point and the wasted product, I will look elsewhere and wait to see if Tarte reformulates this.

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snowshoe73 on 3/9/2012 4:37:00 PM more reviews by snowshoe73

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Brown    

The eyeliner is so soft it keeps breaking as I try to apply it: it's impossible to draw any sort of fine, precise line with it. The color does last once you get it on. But when the tip keeps breaking off, it's a waste of money. I'm not buying this one again.

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dustcakegirl on 3/8/2012 11:48:00 PM more reviews by dustcakegirl

Age: 19-24   Skin: Acne-prone, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brown, Curly, Medium   Eyes: Grey    

This eyeliner has a range of eight shades- black, brown, bronze, teal, navy, green, plum, and charcoal. The color is the great thing about this liner- it's rich and pigmented like traditional gel-liners which usually come in a pot and are applied with a brush. Putting it in a stick form should make it easier- the rich pigmentation of a gel liner with the convenience of a pencil. Sadly the execution of this concept is poor. The liner is soft, so use too much pressure and it will break. But when you use a light hand you don't get an even line- it kind of skips a bit. The pencil is in a plastic twist-up style automatic casing. But it doesn't really sharpen itself. So you get a chunky pigment that won't go on in a thin line. That's the problem of this product- the application. If you want the ease of a pencil, use a pencil, if you want a gel liner use a gel liner.The pigment portion can also come lose from the case portion. I wanted to like this, but it didn't apply well, for $18, it should. A disappointment.

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*TOP REVIEWER* Ravey on 3/3/2012 11:02:00 PM more reviews by Ravey

Age: 19-24   Skin: Combination, Fair, Neutral   Hair: Red, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Hazel    

This eyeliner is a little bit TOO creamy. It's impossible to control when applying and you end up using too much. I found the best way to apply it was with an angled brush, which defeats the purpose of a pencil liner. It didn't have great staying power, either unless I set it with eyeshadow. It also ran out VERY quickly. Not worth it, in my opinion. You're better off getting a gel liner from like, MAC or Bobby Brown which has more product and stays longer.

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wishclover on 2/14/2012 2:19:00 PM more reviews by wishclover

Age: 19-24   Skin: Combination, Fair, Warm   Hair: Brunette, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

I was on my third stick of this. I just finished my third, and I won't buy another one.


This eyeliner is very smooth to apply, like a gel, and has a cooling effect. You can shape it how you like but within a minute it will become budge-proof, so you have to work fast. It stays all day without smearing. Wonderful!


However... There are too many faults for me to continue using this despite how much I like the outcome. First of all, as stated, you CANNOT use this on your waterline. It will slip right into your eye and burn, and you'll be pulling chunks of the liner out of your bloodshot eye. This in itself is a huge drawback, because sometimes I want to tightline or darken my water line but I can't with this. It's also incredibly soft and gel-like, which is great for application but since this is shaped like a pencil liner it makes it very difficult to apply without breaking the liner. Even the most delicate pressure can result in a lost chunk. Before you know it, you've used it all up without feeling like you did. I don't think there's much in the tube. The shape also makes it difficult to draw a winged line on the lid, because of the chunky pencil tip. It just seems like you either need to use an angled liner brush to put this on or they need to figure out how to better package it. They already have an eyeliner pot, but it seems like this is meant to be in a pot and used with a brush.


Bottom line: The effects of this product are great and long-lasting. Unfortunately, application is such a pain and there are so many limitations that I don't think it's worth the price. I've give up losing time to a broken pencil tip falling on my cheeks or taking an extra 5 minutes to shape the wing with a q-tip. On to the next one.

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fromskyline on 1/21/2012 8:57:00 PM more reviews by fromskyline

Age: 19-24   Skin: Combination, Fair, Neutral   Hair: Other, Wavy, Fine   Eyes: Black    

I LOVE this eyeliner. It IS in fact a gel eyeliner, so it shouldn't be just drawn onto the eye willynilly like a regular pencil liner. What I mean is, if you apply too thick of a layer, it's not going to be able to dry properly. It's the same with all the other gel liners (MAC, Stila, Bobbi Brown), you can't put on a thick layer or else it will definitely smear. But of all the gel liners I've tried, this is probably the best one.

I first apply UDPP, and then I take the AquaGel Eyeliner and do a rough lining. By rough, I mean I draw dotted lines (like - - - -) across where I want the eyeliner to be. Then before it dries, I quickly take an eyelining brush (flat or slanted) and start to smear to connect the dots. Wherever the dots don't meet to make a straight line, I take the AquaGel Eyeliner and just fill it in lightly. Then I take the brush one more time to even out the product. Voila!
The only downside is there isn't as much product for the price compared to other similarly priced gel liners. But, I think it's worth it. :]

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*TOP REVIEWER* shoeboxoftrees on 12/28/2011 1:00:00 PM more reviews by shoeboxoftrees

Age: 19-24   Skin: Sensitive, Fair   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

I like that this product doesn't need to be sharpened and is automatic, but that's about the only positive thing I have to say.

This product smears like no other, and never seemed to dry. I tried swatching it on my hand and leaving it be for an hour after it smudged all over my eye, and it still didn't dry. I'm used to liquid eyeliner, so I may be critiquing this product more harshly, but to me it really sucks.

I guess if you want a smudgy, dark, smokey-eye this product would work for that, but I never do that look so I have no use for it.

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nicedreams000 on 12/22/2011 4:00:00 PM more reviews by nicedreams000

Age: 25-29   Skin: Very Oily, Medium   Hair: Brown, Straight, Coarse   Eyes: Brown    

I've tried a lot of pencil liners and I have to say this one is certainly unique. It's a gel liner, so it applies very smoothly but sets almost immediately to prevent smudging.

It was a strange feeling when I first applied it because it has a cooling effect, which I find to be somewhat refreshing, but not necessary.

My favorite way to use this liner is on my bottom lash line. Like i said, it sets almost immediately, so if you want to soften the line with a brush you'll need to do so very quickly. I also tried it on my waterline, but the cooling sensation aggravated my eyes, so I only use it on my lash line now.

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carmen79 on 12/18/2011 9:38:00 PM more reviews by carmen79

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Tan, Warm   Hair: Black, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

I got this in the true blood set. I love the eyeliner, the color is very intense, and the texture so smooth. I don't have any problems applying this. I think it's easy to use and I will purchase another very soon.

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