Review & Swatches: Esqido Gel Eyeliner Pencils in Black and Brown

I definitely fell off of blogging. My bad.

Anyway, the Esqido team very kindly reached out to send me the Gel Eyeliners in Black and Brown* for free so that I could use and review them. If you're a long time follower, you might've noticed that the Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Eye Crayons are some of my HG liners. I have watery and somehow also dry eyes and the MJ liners stayed amazing and awesome through all of my eye issues. Even so, I'm always on the search for good eye liners and gel eye pencils have stayed my preferred choice.

The Esqido Gel Eyeliner Pencils retail for $16  for 0.5 grams of product and as of 10/28/2018, they're on sale for $12 each as a special launching price. There's also currently only two colors - Black and Brown. Esido's claims include intense color payoff, ultra-smooth glide, and waterproof, long lasting lightweight formula.

The packaging is pretty standard for retractable pencil eyeliners but on their website, they also mention a special seal near the top to keep the product creamy and smooth. Since I use these eyeliners pretty frequently, I haven't noticed a consistency change.

Around the time I started to test these eyeliners, I started to wear CRT (Corneal Refractive Therapy) Lenses. I swear this is relevant! The lenses basically reshape my corneas at night while I sleep so that I can see in the day without contacts or glasses. But because of that, my eyes have been feeling drier and that requires me to use eye drops basically a bajillion times a day. Even with all those extra "tears," I've barely noticed a change in the eyeliners. The eyeliner at area closest to my eye ball does wash off a bit, but eyeliner at the outer half of the waterline closer to my lashes still looks pretty good at the end of the day. There's no brown or black tears down my face or weird smudges around my eyes as well. With how many times I use eye drops throughout the day, this is the best kind of outcome. 

This is going to sound a bit silly, but one of my favorite things about the brown eyeliner is that it is brown. It is slightly darker brown, but it's no where as dark as a black-brown or a "natural black" that people sometimes use if black is too harsh. I bought a brown eyeliner from a Japanese brand once and it started a hunt to find other brown eyeliners in every format - pot, pencil, and liquid. There's something about black lashes against brown eyeliner that's very pretty to me and the Esqido Gel Eyeliner Pencil in Brown has been perfect for that look.

Brown on my lids as the wing and black on my upper waterline to tightline

Unfortunately for me, there is some transferring because of my hooded lids and impatient personality. I have to remember to keep my eyes either closed or looking down while the eyeliner dries or else I get some lines higher up on my lids. It's kind of the con side of having an emollient creamy eyeliner for me. Another solution is to use eye primer and to set it with some powder, which is also a normal step in my routine and so the current amount of transferring I see with no primer is pretty standard on my hooded lids.

The pro side of an emollient formula is that I've been able to use these as eyeliners and as eyeshadow bases because of how well they hold up. The creamy texture also helps when I want to use a brush to manipulate the shape of the eyeliner or eyeshadow base.

Final thoughts: I'm honestly pretty impressed with these eyeliners. I'm so impressed that I might like them as much as the MJ Highliners. Now only if Esqido can come out with a million colors as well, that would be great! Both eyeliners wear wonderfully on my waterline even with me using eye drops constantly throughout the day. They're so smooth and are emollient enough that they can be used in multiple ways. Since they glide so easily on the eyes and are so pigmented, there's less tension and/or friction put on my lids and waterline as well. I highly recommend checking out these eyeliners if you're in the market for a new black or brown eyeliner.

* Esqido sent me these eyeliners for free for testing purposes. All thoughts are my own and 100% honest.