Chanel Ecriture De Chanel Eyeliner Pen in Noir Is All-Caps FABULOUS!

Lots of bad-@ssery happening around this li’l pen. 🙂

Picture Jeremy Renner doing one-armed pushups, Ryan Gosling petting kittens, and James Bond, aka Daniel Craig, in a tuxedo feeding you Oreos dipped in real milk.

BAM!

Yeah, as much as I like almond milk, it’s total bullsh*t with Oreos, but I digress…

Back to the bad-@ssery I mentioned, I guess it shouldn’t come as a big surprise considering the cost of this particular pen, the Chanel Ecriture De Chanel liquid eyeliner pen in Noir. It’s $35 (!). But in this case, I think you get what you pay for.

One of two liquid pen liners in Chanel’s new fall collection (there’s also one called Brun, a brown, and a gray called Anthracite, which is part of the permanent collection), Noir has some good things going for it.

Pigment, dry time and longevity

Like midnight in the middle of the earth, Noir is dark! The color is true black, deep and intense, without any blue or green undertones, and you won’t be spending hella years waiting for it to dry. One pass leaves a full, solid line of dark color.

It’s also super shiny — almost as shiny as the MAC Superslicks — and lasts 8-12 hours, during which time it does not move, even on unprimed, naked lids.

Yeah, that’s sturdy.

Only thing, it’s not waterproof, so don’t go jumping on the treadmill when you wear it. If you perspire half as much as I do, you’ll end up with two panda eyes.

I’m just sayin’.

Also, with some liquid liners, I have to let them dry for a while with my eyes closed so they don’t transfer up into the crease, but not with Noir. It dries that fast.

The felt tip!

OK, now, I know we’re not talking about reinventing the wheel here. It’s just a black liner — a pretty basic staple — but I sure love this one’s felt tip.

For me, felt tips usually fall into one of two categories.

1. They’re either super skinny and flexible, like Dior’s and LORAC’s, which I like because I find them pretty easy to use. I can get those really sharp edges with them and control the thickness of the line.
2. Or, they’re thick and kind of stiff, like the MAC Penultimate and Superslick liners.

   Not a lot of bend…

Chanel Ecriture’s tip is a hybrid of the two. It’s a little stiff, but still has some flex.

You still get that sort of wiggly glide you get from thin, uber-flexible liners, but at the same time the tip is stiff enough to really get between the roots of your lashes, especially those teeny, tiny hairs (I usually have to switch to a pencil liner to reach, but I can reach them with this liner).

An application tip…

Weirdly, the first time I touched this tip, I was like, “Yeah, no dice. There’s no frickin’ way.” Because it felt a little stiff, and I usually have a hard time with that, but this one I can actually use.

Mind you, there is a learning curve (well there was for me). I like to look down into a mirror, and holding the tip parallel to my lash line (along the edge, not the tippy-tip), press once in the inner corner, then again in the center, and then again in the outer corner to complete the line across.

One, two, three — Tabs, stop meowing! Tabs is meowing in the background right now. He’s driving me a little crazy. I think it’s because I’m talking about black liner and he’s like, “Haha! I have built-in liner, and mine is always perfect!”

Then, I go the other direction to define the line, starting this time in the outer corner, then the center, and back to the inner corner, just tracing along the edge.

I find this gives me the kind of lines I really like.

All-caps FABULOUS!

Really good stuff. But seriously, $35?

Price is the big factor here, and Noir is expensive for a black liquid liner. There are many great options at lower price points, like LORAC Front of the Line Pro (AMAZER-ING!), but ya know, it depends…

If you’re a hardcore Chanel fan who refuses to ever let anything other than Chanel touch your face, or if you’re just looking for a high-end liner that’s abso-frickin’-lutely great, Noir is all-caps FABULOUS.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen