Maybelline 'EYESTUDIO Lasting Drama'

So inside the packaging you get a little glass pot of the gel eyeliner and a nifty little brush to go with it. The pot itself is just a little bigger in diameter than a £2 coin, and is about the depth is about the same again. However, you get about a £1 coin's depth/width of product. Personally, I love the

I had never actually used any form of gel liner, although I tried a liquid eyeliner a couple of years ago and it just never went right. Instead of a nice sweep, it was a shaky line, and then I happened to stab myself in the eye with the nib. I quit and never looked back. Until now, and I was willing to give this a try whilst my bank balance and my mood were feeling good.

And I have worn it every day since I bought it. It is so easy and simple to apply, even with my so-shaky hands.
I love that it comes in a little pot and a brush, it's so cute! Plus, I reckon the pot will last for ages. With eyeliner pencils, I am forever dropping them and breaking the inside which meant the nib was always falling out of the pencil. With a liquid eyeliner, I left it open and sadly it all dried. But you only need a tiny amount of the product on the brush to get a nice thick black line, so in theory this little pot of goodness will last me a long time!

Although it's not really a gel-texture. When I see the word 'gel', I think of a toothpaste texture, or something a little less solid. The product in the pot is more of a solid consistency. The consistency is like a soft bar of soap. Okay, that's a really rubbish description, and all I'm trying to say is that it's a lot more solid than I thought it'd be.

As demonstrated by the third- and second-from-last pictures, you can use your brush in two ways, with the flat bit against the lid or the thinner side against the lid. The former gives a nice big thick line across the lid, and the side of the brush gives a thinner line, which is also great for going inside the waterline.

One thing I will say about the brush is that when you've finished using it, the gel eyeliner solidifies, so when you next go to dip the brush into the product it proper spears it. All I do is soften the brush on the back of my hand so it's back to it's soft little self.

It fades a little during the day, but that's when you look super close. My eyelids tend to get quite greasy very quickly (I have oily skin) and I never powder them before putting any eye make-up on, so that maybe why it seems to fade on me. However, saying that, it doesn't smudge, which was tested by a night out in a sweaty, hot nightclub. Which so happens to bring me onto my only bug-bear of the product.

The only thing I would say is that it's a bugger to remove. I normally use a foaming facial wash and my Clarisonic Mia to wash my face, but nothing I have used seems to take it off, meaning I wake up with massive panda eyes.
I think I might have to try a make-up remover with it, because it is seriously a pain in the ass to take off (even soap wouldn't take it off completely!). Although, this could be a plus, since it is kinda waterproof, without claiming to be.

I really like this product, and I will definitely re-purchase. I have very bad eye-bags (I sleep eight hours a night, drink so much water I should be a fish, and eat healthy. I just think it's just the way my face was put together unfortunately) so I probably would only wear it when I'm feeling fresh as a daisy and my eye-bags are less noticeable. Otherwise I tend to find that my whole eye-socket looks like a super-massive black hole (see what I did there?).
But overall, this tiny little pot really packs a punch, and I think it's really good at what price it sells at. Another example that you don't need to go high-end to get something that works well!