L'Oréal HiP Kohl Eyeliner: Rock It Like Cleopatra

Hello everyone,

How are you doing today? Today, we continue to explore another new product from L'Oréal HiP called the kohl eyeliner. Before receiving these liners, I thought I've used all forms of eyeliners available out there: pencil, liquid, and gel. Sometimes I dip my brushes into my mineral eyeshadow and use it as a liner but I have never seen (or tried) a powder liner in a tube before. (And I call myself a beauty blogger, how inadequate!)

When I see L'Oréal HiP kohl eyeliners, two things came to my mind: (1) I can zip through airport security with ease, as this liner is not a liquid or a gel, (2) I wonder if Cleopatra used powder eyeliner as well.

The famous Egyptian queen played by Elizabeth Taylor, immortalized at the Wax Museum
Image courtesy Mary Harrsch via Flickr

After a little bit of digging, I found out Queen Cleopatra indeed did use kohl on her eyes (click here.) No wonder her eyes looked so fierce in those pictures! The traditional Kohl is made of soot and other ingredients to use by women (and sometimes men) to darken the eyes and as mascara in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Since I've never tried powdered kohl liners before, I was excited to test out these HiP kohl liners.

(L-R): L'Oréal HiP Kohl Eyeliners in Gold Kohl and Navy Kohl

The kohl liners encassed in plastic tubes that look glass-like. I dropped one on the floor by mistake but it was not broken or scratched. It seems to me L'Oreal likes the keychain attachable design a lot that their designers did the same thing with the kohl liners as well. However, I would not risk my keychain as these tubes are quite big.

Navy Kohl got to go outside


And so did Gold Kohl
See how shiny the tube is? It reminds me of Dazzleglass lipgloss.


Opened tubes without wands
They can stand on their own :)


Wands out: Gold Kohl (top), Navy Kohl (bottom)


Swatch (l-r): Gold Kohl and Navy Kohl

Since I've never used powder kohl liners before, it was awkward to use these new items at first. The wand applicator is long, stiff, and quite pokey within the first few tries. However, the pigmentation of these liners are superb! I did a nice smokey eyed look with the navy kohl with ease. And it looked so French, too! The Gold Kohl is good for summer or to pair with darker eye shadows to make your eyes pop. Both of these liners are really pigmented and can be use as eye shadows. In fact, I love to use them more as eye shadows than as liners.


The biggest downfall of these liners is the fall out: I almost nickname them "Fall Out Boys" after some tries. Although I don't mind the fall out pigments from the Gold kohl, because they look like highlights on my cheeks, the ones from Navy kohl are dark and hard to remove. So if you use it, make sure to do your eyes before applying foundation and put lots of powders underneath your eyes to catch the fall outs.


The lasting power is quite good for powder liners without any added liquid. I tried Navy kohl on a very hot and humid day and it lasted for 3-4 hours. The way it smudged was kind of nice as well: instead of giving me raccoon eyes, the pigments just fanned out the way the smokey eyes look. Right now, I'm figuring out how to use these liners with water without ruining them. My bet is they are going to look really stunning mixed with water.


Some people compared the HiP kohl liners with Guerlain kohl ($33 at Sephora) and they thought the L'Oréal ones are better. Since I have not tried the Guerlain ones yet, I cannot tell the difference but powder liners are trickier to use, nevetheless.


Price: $11-$13 at drugstores and Target. Until June 15th, Target has these items on sale at $7.99.


My rating: B/B+, points taken away because of the price and difficulty to apply.


That's all, folks! I hope you have a good day, and as always, stay gorgeous!

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