For the holiday Bobbi Brown has a new Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner color called Black Scotch ($24 for .1 oz/3 g). It’s a gorgeous deep shimmery blackened bronze. It fits the gap in my eyeliner collection between black and bronze. The color is quite pigmented and applies easily along the upper lash line. It has an emollient texture which makes it glide onto the eyes. I find it sets and dries after a minute. After that short wait period, there is no smudging. I haven’t tried it along the lower lash line, mainly because I haven’t found any gel or pencil liner that will stay put on the bottom. But on the top lid, it lasted all day without budging or smudging. Sometimes I like to use these Gel Liners as a base for a darker shadow. The combination of gel liner + powder shadow on top really intensifies darker colors and makes a smokey lash line easy with the blending and layering.
Up close you can see the tiny bits of gold and bronze shimmer:
Swatched you can see the gold flecks:
Gel liners have been around so long and are so popular sometimes I forget that some women are new to liners that aren’t pencils. In case you are just starting to explore different kinds of liners, two brushes I really like to use are the Bobbi Brown Ultra Fine Eye Liner Brush and wider smudge brushes like Tom Ford Eyeliner/ Eye Definer Brush #15. For gel liners sometimes I don’t want a super precise line because I like to pack on the color a bit more and then smudge with one brush. Smudge brushes help me do this.
Comparisons below show how Black Scotch is quite different from many other bronzy brown eyeliners. There might be dupes from MAC with some of the limited-edition releases but many of my pencils are still buried somewhere in a storage box (note Bobbi Brown Bronze has been discontinued):
One last shot:
Bottom line: a beautiful classic. I really like that it’s a deep color without being brown or black. The bronze and gold shimmer is visible once you apply it without it being too glitzy. It has just the right amount of sparkle.
You can find the Black Scotch Gel Liner at all Bobbi Brown counters now. Online at Bobbi Brown, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Barneys, Bloomingdales, and Lord and Taylor. Note that it is listed as a limited-edition color, but right now it should still be relatively easy to find.
Did you check out anything from the Bobbi Brown holiday collection? I picked up the gold highlighter, lipstick and nail polish (swatched and featured here). I’m debating whether or not to track down the pink highlighter.
