Find out why the Son and Park True Brown Eye Pen Liner is a liquid liner that truly delivers when it comes to long-lasting color.
I am not what most people would call a makeup minimalist. I wear mascara to the gym, apply concealer to run to the drugstore (which is literally in the same building as my apartment) and I don’t think I’ve been seen in public without blush since I was a teenager.
But for all of that, I don’t actually wear that much makeup. Foundation makes an appearance in my routine about once a year and I’m all but useless at contouring; on a motivated morning I can whip out my full face look in under ten minutes. My essentials? A little cheek color to brighten up my total absence of skintone, mascara to add some oomph to my baby blonde lashes, and eyeliner.
I’ve become something of a connoisseur of liners over the years; pencils, gels, liquids, felt tip, brush tip, you name it, I’ve tried it and probably found it wanting. Because I also happen to be pretty particular when it comes to my eye definers. I want something that goes on easily and precisely, something I don’t have to carry around a sharpener for (because I inevitably forget it at home when I go out of town and have to go on a desperate last minute search around a strange city), something that won’t smudge or disappear if the wind make my eyes teary and won’t melt off midway through hot yoga. I want it all—basically—and Son and Park True Brown Eye Pen Liner delivers.
The liner comes in a satisfyingly chubby pen that shakes like those paint pens you used to make posters with in high school, only with an infinitely finer felt tip. Unlike some felt tips I’ve tried, this version doesn’t pill at the tip; the bane of winged liner lovers everywhere. The pigment is weightless and intense—there’s no watery-ness or having to go back and fill in a sketchy line or gooey liquid-latex buildup that some thicker varieties leave. It comes in both black and brown versions, but I tested the brown because I find the slightly softer effect more flattering on my eyes. Most importantly, for me, it dries smudge-free in seconds and lasts. Like lasssssts.
Seriously, take a look at this: That little splotch on my hand is a tester line I drew to get a better look at the shade. I took this picture a full 24 hours after I originally drew that; after a whole night of scraping against my sheets and a shower. Yeah, this color sticks around.
Of course, staying power is all well and good on a hand, but since that’s not where I generally show off my cat eye skills, that’s not where it really counts. To get a real sense of its abilities, I put the liner through its paces with my re-re-re-New Years resolution to get back in the gym (it’s bound to stick eventually) and The Day The Weather Hated Me AKA that time I got a haircut and it immediately started raining as the wind blew water into my face at 15mph. Miraculously, my lines survived (my blowout, sadly, was not so lucky) and while my eyeshadow smudged off onto it, the liner stayed in place like it was getting paid.
Impressive staying power can also equal serious scrubbing (I have lost lashes to waterproof formulas in the past) so I went into my nightly cleansing ritual somewhat wary. I slathered on my usual oil cleanser (I’m a fan of Banila Co Clean it Zero Reseveratrol), waited a few seconds to let it start to break down before lightly massaging the color away. In fact, even before my mascara had gone into meltdown, my liner had already disappeared, leaving my eyelids totally clean; no telltale traces stuck around my lashes like some liquid liners leave behind.
Final thoughts:
My only complaint about the Son and Park True Brown Eye Pen Liner is that while the formula dries quickly on your lids, it will also dry on the pen if you mess around with it open for too long (like, for example, while taking forty pictures of yourself putting on eyeliner) so make sure to keep the cap on tightly when you’re not using it.
Other than that, I found the liner easy to use and super effective. It survived the rain for crying out loud, which means that my lazy afternoons by the pool (or, more likely, sweaty July subway commutes) have got a new partner in criminally good eye makeup.
