Felt Tip Eyeliner Showdown: Le Metier De Beaute vs Eyeko

Disclosure:  Both the Le Metier and Eyeko liners were supplied as PR samples.

Ladies and gentlemen, roll up roll up!  Today we're pitting two felt tip style eyeliners together: in the high end corner, Le Metier de Beaute's luxe Precision Liquid Eyeliner in Noir, weighing in at £20, and in the low end corner, Eyeko's Graffiti Eyeliner Pen in brown, weighing in at £5.  Let the battle commence!

Packaging


Here are two products whose packaging definitely reflects their price points.  The Le Metier offering is black, smooth, glossy, with simply the brand name stamped upon its sexy exterior.  Eyeko's eyeliner has a silver toned plastic barrel with graffiti like scribbles printed on it.  The Eyeko pen also has a useful coloured end to it, much like you'd get with an actual felt tip pen, which helps you identify the colour the product inside, while the Le Metier pen leaves you to guess (or draw on your hand).  Being a bit of a snob, I prefer the slick black of the Le Metier product, as I find the Eyeko packaging a little childish - but that's personal preference, others might feel the opposite way!

Application 


Functionally, both eyeliners have fine felt tips which taper to a similarly narrow point, allowing you to control the thickness of the line you wish to draw.  At a Le Metier event a while ago, I was told that the design of the eyeliner was aided by a Very High End pen manufacturer.  By the same standards, one might imagine Eyeko were assisted by Bic - as both eyeliners, much like both high end and low end pens, have tips that allow you to draw a decent, precise fine line.  There's no real difference between the two in terms of weight in the hand, balancing etc (these are EYELINERS, of course, not knives).  In short, no difference between them here.

Formula & Wear


The Le Metier eyeliner dispenses a thin, deeply black ink which dries down quickly and applies smoothly.  I've found that when I apply with a flick, I can get a bit of patchiness in the thickest parts of the flick, but nothing that can't be remedied with a further dab of product.  The Eyeko product drags a tiny bit on the eyelid, but I'm being really picky in saying so - it's marginally less smooth than the Le Metier product.  I didn't notice any patchiness in my flicks with the Eyeko product either, although I'd say that the ink was a little less pigmented and opaque than the Le Metier.   Wear wise, both products were still firmly stuck to my eyelids after a full 13 hour day.  Which is rather excellent indeed.

Shade Range


Eyeko make their Graffiti liner in four shades; brown (as shown here), black, navy blue, and purple.  Le Metier de Beaute make their Precision liner in three shades; noir (shown here), bleu, and aqua.  While Le Metier obviously win points for naming things in French, which immediately make them more desirable, Eyeko ultimately wins out with their slightly wider shade range.

Value for Money


Oooh, now we're talking.  Effectively, what we have here are two products which do the same thing in a pretty similar way.  It's very difficult to choose one over the other.  However, for the price of one single Le Metier liner, you could have all four Eyeko liners.  In my mind, the difference in price is entirely down to the brand positioning here - Eyeko are cheap and cheerful, aimed at the younger market, and Le Metier are high end and luxe, aimed at those who will pay for style.

And the winner is...


For the price and performance, it has to be the Eyeko Graffiti liner.  BUT.  I'm not saying that the Le Metier is an inferior product - it very definitely isn't.  In fact, it's one of the best felt tip liners I've ever tried.  Unfortunately, the Eyeko liner is also one of the best I've ever tried - and given the massive difference in price, the Graffiti liner wins.  If you want a high performance eyeliner, buy the Eyeko.  If you want a high performance eyeliner, with a bit of that high end tingle, and you've got some cash to flash, buy the Le Metier.  There's virtually nothing but price between them.

Eyeko Graffiti Liner can be bought from the Eyeko website for £5, and in selected branches of Superdrug.  Le Metier de Beaute Precision Liquid Eyeliner can be found exclusively at Liberty, where it will cost you £20.

Which one would you be more likely to try?