Tarte Tarteist Eyeliner Review

Awhile ago my ever so loved Kat Von D Tattoo Liner (in trooper) started to get a little dry while I was applying liner. Now, at that point I had bought 5 of these KVD liners in my Sephora purchase history. I absolutely love that liner. So from experience, I knew that the liner was a little low on liquid. 

I have been eyeing gel eyeliner for quite some time now every time I've gone through Ulta, Target, Sephora, wherever makeup is accessible. But I've always been hesitant with purchasing one because gel liners aren't my area of expertise. It took me forever to find the right liquid liner, and I assumed it was going to be the same way with gel liner. I didn't have a brush for gel liner (or at least a brush that would get me a thin enough line) and have extremely oily eyelids. Despite my face being a desolate wasteland desert, my eyelids tend to be the humid rainforest. So, the amount of time I would be able to wear it would be very important to me. I've never tried a gel liner in a pot; I've only tried the newest trend of gel liners in pen forms on my eyes, which never seem to work for me (The benefit push up liner would be amazing if the applicator didn't suck). 

Long story short: I ran out of my typical liner and wanted to try something new. 

So after doing my research on YouTube, blogs and Sephora's website, I settled on Tarte's newest eyeliner. 

According to sephora.com, the Tarteist gel liner claims: 

"An innovative, waterproof cream eyeliner with a unique blending tip inspired by an artist's palette... Offers seamless, no budge application... Allows for the creamiest texture and smoothest application... the tube is created with a tapered tip and a flat blending stage so you can simply pick up the ideal amount of product and blend for foolproof perfection... lets you create your own signature lines without ever pulling or transferring."

as of now, the Tarteist liner currently has a 4 out of 5 star rating, is priced at $24 USD and currently only comes in the shade black.

Packaging
Is it an innovative liner? Yes. I would agree with tarte on that one. I have never seen a gel liner in a tube like this, which I give props to tarte. The tube is easy to use, clean up, and close. The blending tip on the end of the tube helps to simulate dipping a brush into a gel pot, but without the worry of drying out the rest of the liner. On the cap there is a long tube that sticks into the hole to where the product comes out, to make sure that no air gets in or out. I love the idea of this liner, and when I first used it I was amazed at how easy it was. And can we just appreciate the fact that it came with it's own brush?? So much props going to tarte in my first impression. An amazing new innovative tube that could banish the problem of gel liner drying out, and a high quality brush that I could actually use instead of throwing away? It was love at first sight.

Texture and Application
At first I had to carefully squeeze the tube since I was afraid of gel liner going everywhere, and I almost thought that nothing was going to come out. With a little patience, I was able to get the right amount of product out of the tube. The texture is unlike any liner I've used before. It really felt like I was dipping my eyeliner brush in some type of acrylic or oil paint, not liner. It wasn't stiff like a typical gel liner. It was very creamy. Applying this was a breeze. The brush is at a slight angle, but it's such a thin tip I was able to get the small wing I usually wear. Just like it claimed, it had a smooth application and didn't pull on my lid at all. It was very easy to create the line I wanted. It took a little extra time to perfect, but my liner looked amaaaaaaazing after application. But there's always a but.

Wear
This was the downfall of this product. This smudged on me like no other. Again, I think it had to do with my oily eyelids. I tried this product without any eyeshadow or primer underneath, and it traveled all up my eyelid. Somehow it even got on the bottom of my eyes without me rubbing my eyes at all. So I thought okay, maybe I just need to put a base on my lids. Just plain primer? Nope, still got all over my eyelid. With pain eyeshadow? Nope, you guessed it, still got all over my eyelid. What about primer and eyeshadow? This was the only way this liner could stay on, but only for a couple of hours. It still managed to get on my eyelids with the best primer I have. The wing was always the first to go on my liner, then the transferring to my lid and bottom lashline. Plus, that was with me not doing anything. If it smudged on me without me sweating at all, I can't imagine how this would work in a pool. So, I put it again to the test and wore it during a dance class. I looked like a raccoon after an hour and a half of sweat. Unlike its claims, this liner is not waterproof and does transfer. Personally, I believe what led to it's downfall was it's creamy texture. There was nothing in it's formula to hold it down to the eyelid, because it was already creamy to begin with and never really set. Everything was going so well with this product, but the wearablility just couldn't hold up on my lids.

tarteist liner after 6 hours of wear with no rubbing to the eyes. This was pretty much the same outcome no matter what I put on underneath the liner. As you can see it's all in the crease of my eyelids, smudged at the wing and somehow on my lower lash line.

Overall
This might be a good option for someone that doesn't have to deal oily eyelids. Everything before the wear test was fantastic. I loved the brush, the applicator, the way it applied. This simply just doesn't last. The amount of wear time is the most important thing for any eyeliner for me, and this one just didn't cut it. If it had just wore all day on my eyelids I would have been sold.

I ended up returning this liner after four days of trying to make this work and purchasing another Kat Von D Tattoo eyeliner.

Rating: 4/10, do not reccomend