Inglot Matte Collection AMC Eyeliner Gel Is Taking My Makeup World By Storm

After mascara and lipstick, eye liner is one of those things a lot of women turn to when they’re pressed for time. A quick dash on the upper lids can add a pop of color and takes just seconds to do — far less time than an elaborate eye using multiple shadows — and a nude on the waterline can illuminate and open sleepy, drooping peepers.

And why keep a separate black, or blue, or brown liner for each and every occasion if one great product could cover ’em all? Five minutes to get ready? Check. Thunder storms a’coming? Check. Great possibility of crying (hopefully for a good reason, like at a wedding)? Check. No worries — today’s liner has your back!

Inglot, a Polish makeup company, has quietly become a cult favorite among makeup artists, in part because they’ve done the unthinkable. They managed to create a gel liner that in my opinion beats out the famously fabulous MAC Fluidline. The Matte Collection AMC Eyeliner Gel (long name for such a simple product) is without question the best liner, of any formula, I have ever used.

So how is it better than those gorgeous glass tubs of creamy Fluidline, with their soft, rubberized twist-off tops? Let me count the ways…

Starting with value, the Matte Collection AMC Eyeliner Gel (I promise that’s the last time I’ll use the full name) comes with a HUGE amount of product for $12. Housed inside the convenient and cute plastic tub lives a whopping 5.5 grams of product (Fluidline comes with 3 grams, about the average for gel liners). Inglot’s liner works out to $2.18 per gram, versus $5 per gram for the $15 Fluidline. That’s more than twice as much product for the price!

But value only matters if a product performs, right? I’d much rather shell out a few extra dollars for a fantastic liner than a few less dollars for one that flakes, runs, or fades. Fortunately, none of those are bothers here.

Inglot’s AMC Eyeliners are extremely emollient. I’m actually a bit surprised they’re labeled as gels and not creams. Their extremely thick, smooth texture glides across the skin. Whereas many gel liners skip, scoot, tug, and pull at lids when I apply them with any sort of brush, these AMC Eyeliners are incredibly smooth and silky, almost to a fault.

If you take a bit of time with them, they’re like a dream to apply. One dip with a brush and a steady hand is often enough to line the entire upper lid AND the waterline in mere seconds, the brush sliding easily across even creases and/or winkles on lids. And if you pull your lid taught while applying, you may not even have to think about filling in and evening-out the line.

This also makes them fantastic for fine detail work, and for making those oft-envied pinprick thin pointed cat eyes; however, because of their potency, if you accidentally tap the brush somewhere you didn’t intend to, you’ll be left to contend with a fully pigmented spot.

With some drier liners, you may have to press a bit to distribute the pigment from the brush to the skin, but the AMC Gel Eyeliners transfer pigment from brush to skin at full blast, without any need to press, push, or wiggle (though you may, for fun, if you like!). Practiced, steady hands may appreciate this attribute of them more than heavily caffeinated, shaky digits.

Shade 76 (white) on the left; 77 (black) on the right. NOTE: these don’t normally smudge, but I over-applied the swatches here to wet skin

Let them dry for about 10 seconds before opening your eyes fully, or you risk smudging. After that, though, it’ll take a high-powered blast of eye makeup remover and elbow grease to get this stuff to move.

Let’s take a leisurely walk through a typical day with these liners in the theater. Hey, look! A time table!

• 10:00 a.m. — Get ready for production (“How to $ucceed in Business Without Really Trying”). Apply Inglot Matter Collection AMC Eyeliner to waterline.
• 12:45 p.m. — Dance call. Expect mild sweating.
• 2:00 p.m. — Places for opening of Act 1. Hot lights, choreography, sweating.
• 3:40 p.m. — Intermission. Touch up foundation, powder. Add a bit more hairspray to ‘do. Eyes are left untouched.
• 5:30 p.m. — Head home. Take a nap.
• 10:30 p.m. — Wash face with regular cleanser.

After all of this, even the cleansing, there may be a mild darkening of the waterline. Seriously, this stuff is like magnetized to skin. A quick sweep of my favorite makeup remover finishes it off, but still! Before washing the face, the liner was still nearly as dark as when I’d applied it over 12 hours earlier, with maybe only the slightest bit of fading at the inner and outer corner. I used these liners on some of the girls in the play, and we could still see a faint shadow of liner the NEXT day on those who didn’t use a dedicated waterproof makeup remover that night, and during the play itself, they never once needed to be touched up or corrected.

C’mon, how cool is that?

It’s surprising how well this product lasts on the waterline, too, because it is waterproof. Waterproof liners normally don’t adhere to the moist surface part of the eye and smudge or drip off, in some cases immediately. But the AMC Eyeliner Gels somehow do, assuming you applying them sparingly. Remember, you only need the tiniest bit of product to reach full opacity, and over-applying can lead to the excess bleeding out and darkening under your eyes.

Unlike many creamy liners, these won’t flake or fracture after they dries down to their, as the name would suggest, completely matte finish. They’re impressively resilient and never appear parched or cracked. Oh, and get this — they come in an unheard of 20 shades! There’s your standard black (one of the truest, deepest black shades I’ve ever seen), white, blue, and brown, but that’s only the beginning for these. There’s also an eggplant, teal, salmon, and a true yellow, among other standouts worth trying.

Shade 76 (white) on the left; 77 (black) on the right

My one single gripe with these liners is an affliction that plagues all of Inglot’s products — they have no names! Instead of wordy names the company uses numbers to identify things, and while this may make it easier to reorder products, I find it incredibly difficult to recall a specific product number used in a look when someone asks.

Aside from having to pull out the little tub to find the number for reference, the Inglot AMC Eyeliner Gels are, without contest, the best liner of any formulation I’ve ever used. They’re silky smooth, incredibly pigmented, durable, and waterproof. And cheap. Cheap, cheap, cheap! — as long as you don’t mind ordering online, because they have very few brick-and-mortar stores in the States. Thankfully, they also sell these marvelous mini-wonders through their website as well.

• For more on Inglot and their products, check out this post on Inglot Eyeshadows over at Pink Sith, and If I Could Marry an Inanimate Object, I’d Marry my Inglot Palette at The Eyes Have It.