Review: Black Radiance Continuous Cream Liner

I picked this up on a whim the other day during a trip to Rite Aid where I also picked up some of the Prestige waterproof pencil liners that everyone raves about. Black Radiance is not a line carried at many stores, but the particular store I went to had a decent display and this caught my eye.

Now I know we have all heard of cream and/or gel liners before. I think at this point almost every brand makes one. We have MAC Fluidline, Stila Smudgepots, Bobbi Brown Gels among others. These can cost you a pretty penny (Bobbi's are over $20 and even the L'oreal HIP ones are $10-$12 depending on the drugstore you go to).

But this cost me $4.99. Now the color range is not exactly what you would call expansive. We have your basic brown and black (I bought black). And the packaging is not chic, but it does come with a handy brush and it's good stuff. Very intense black. Well, I don't have to tell you. I can show you.

You can find the item hanging on a rack in the little cardboard, bubble plastic wrapping you see above. The size is pretty decent for the price 4.5 grams or .16oz. And it comes with a handy synthetic brush. The container itself reminds me a bit of the Make Up Forever (MUFE) one, though . This is also plastic, but like MUFE, it still seems sturdy.

The liner itself is described as a cream and it is on the softer side. I actually accidentally scooped up quite a bit of product just dipping the brush in since some gel/cream liners are more firm than others. This 'gives' quite a bit and only a little is needed to produce a very solid intense black line.

Once on the brush, you can obviously produce a very thick line or a thinner one, though I didn't play around a lot. I wanted to show you how seriously black this is. It is very very black. Very little goes a long way and it stays put. Once dried, it doesn't budge. Now here's the only issue. Since it is very creamy, it is hard to only put on just enough to draw a line and not over dip which thus deposits too much on the eye, makes it take longer to dry and then ultimately smears. I'm assuming it'll take a little bit of practice but hopefully I will master this even on the days I am applying my eyeliner blindly in the mirror half running out the door and drinking a cup of coffee. Only time will tell.

I leave you with blurry black swatches. ♥ jeweledthumb