Jane Be Pure Mineral Gel Liner: A Review and Cat Eyes How-To

Although I've been lining my eyes with pencil and liquid eyeliners for a while, I very slowly came to accustom myself to using a gel eyeliner. The truth is not because gel liners are harder to use, it's just the stingy frugal part of me that does not want to shell out money to get MAC fluidlines. To be honest, I was thisclose to getting a Clinique gel liner until I realized the pot was smaller and more expensive than MAC fluidlines. So there went my wish to try gel liners until I went to Walgreens one day and saw Jane Be Pure mineral gel liner for $5.99 USD, which is way cheaper than MAC fluidline!

A pot of Jane Be Pure gel liner in the palm of my hand

Jane Be Pure gel liner compared to a quarter

So how does this low-budget drugstore gel liner hold up to the industrial strength gel liner from MAC? Click "Read More" to find out!

I have to say you guys are great, by this time you realize how manipulative enticing I am to make you jump through hoops to read the 2nd half of the post already! And if you're on this half, thank you so really very much, you're the greatest! I wouldn't do that if I was not schooled in the "Bill Clinton style of writing", aka the long-winding writing style that eventually will send you to sleep-induced comatose. I'm not kidding, did you see how thick his first book is? I have a lot to learn from former President William Jefferson Clinton!

Anyways, let's go back to the gel liner, shall we?

Physically, not only Jane Be Pure gel liner is cheaper than its department store counter parts (ie, Clinique, MAC, Bobbi Brown, et al), it's also heavier in weight with a helfty 5 grams of mineral gel liner goodness. Sweet! More stuff for my bucks! But how does it hold up when it faces the real world?

Usually, when I test eyeliners, I do 2 tests: the rub test and the eye test. The rub test is where I'm rubbing a bit of the eyeliner to my hand and stimulate raining situation by washing it with water and then soap (to clean it up, of course!) In the eye test, I just apply the test subject to my eyes and walk out for some hours. As I'm living in a very humid area and my skin is oily, only the best and the great survives this test without smearing and smudging. In short, if anyone wants to test eyeliners, mascaras, eyeshadows, just throw them at me. If the tester stays after half a day, it's a keeper.

So here is the result of the rub test:

In the above picture, the swatch on my hand was applied from the pot with MAC 266 brush. After that it was washed with water and with soap. The insert picture was the result of the swatch being washed with soap.

Needless to say, this gel liner stands pretty well after washing with water. I was surprised that soap did not totally remove it, which may deem a problem when it comes to removing the liner. So this eyeliner is water resistant, great! But is it smudge proof?


After applying it to my eyes using MAC 266 brush, I just walked around my apartment a bit and checked myself in the mirror every now and then. And OMG! The thing smudged! I could see a little bit of the gel liner transfered to my lower lid! Later that day my brave self went to the laundromat with Jane Be Pure liner and came back with my eyes looking a little bit racoon-ey! Eek!


Sorry, no pictures of my racoon-ey eyes, y'all! I thought of the kids who may stumble into this blog and said to myself, "forget about it!" However, as I remember mineral gel liners tend to smudge and the way to fix it is to set with a bit of setting powder, I proceeded to do so the next time I applied. And voila, problem kind of fixed! It did not smudge that bad but if I wore it for about 8 hours straight, I looked kind of emanciated.


So my bottom line: I would not recommend Jane Be Pure mineral gel liner to the oily skin sistas as it smudges. However, for those who are blessed with normal to dry skin, go ahead and get it girlfriend! The formula comes with 4 different colors: navy, dark brown, wine, and black. At $5.99 USD a pop, it's one of the most affordable gel liners in the market right now.
How to rock it: I know it's difficult to transfer from pencil liner to gel liner because this type of liner requires a good amount of precision. I use MAC 266 to line it and so far so good. However, do not expect yourself to draw a straight line with one try. The best way to line your eyes with gel liner is to connect the dot: I start from the inner corner of my eyes and slowly draw bit by bit to the outer corner of my eye. It should look something like this:

Just connect the dots, y'all! If you want a thicker outer corner, just draw that area again


This is more of a "cat eye" look where I flick the end up a little bit

You know who rocks the cat eyes the best? Amy Winehouse!

She looked quite beautiful in this picture, see!
Image from hotmusicbeat

Although I do not like her music or lifestyle, her cat eye makeup piqued my interest: the woman must have gone through a jar of Fluidline a week! Her liner is dark and thick and she rocks the look (as well as the beehive hair) quite well.


Another person who sports the cat eyes really well is Angelina Jolie: her cat eyes are more on the sultry side where Amy's version is more dramatic.

Angie's cat eyes
Image from Glam.com

Whether you like a dramatic or sultry cat eye look, using gel liner is fun. With some practice and lots of eye makeup remover, you will soon master this new eye lining material.

Have fun and be gorgeous!
Your Makeup Blogger

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