Since I was a teenager, longonb ago I have fancied myself a connoisseur of eyeliner, in particular black eyeliner. Eyeliner is my weapon;y armour and I am very demanding. My favorites have always leaned toward the drugstore level vs. luxury, liquid and pencil my favorite formulations. What I demand in my eyeliner is the blackest black, no dragging or skipping, and longevity. If it is kohl, I want it to go on my waterline with ease and without irritation, and yes, smudge. I hesitated to try any Haus Lab products when they first launched lest my love of Gaga cloud my perspective, or worse, I'd be bummed out. Since it has been over a year and going strong, I decided to take advantage of the Holiday pricing. I purchased the color "Punk" in both the gel pencil and the gel kohl pencil. The gel pencil glides on like a charm, it doesn't dry down immidiately so you can fix and adjust. The black is super dark and I'd say more of a satin finish; neither glossy nor matte. I have worn it on its one and as well as on conjunction with eyeshadow, primer etc and it stayed put all day. I am very pleased. In fact, I'd say it could go head to head with the spectacular Marc Jacobs gel eyeliner pencils. The gel kohl, if you like a smudy kohl that lines the rims of your waterline like an exotic princess or a badass b, step right up. Haus' this is going to join, and possibly knock out of place L'Oreal's Voluminous Smoldering Pencil as my go too for smokey, sexy, smudgey eye lewks. I apply it like OG kohl from the Middle East, by closing my eye as I drag it across my waterline. Both top and bottom get covered. But it is not for those who want crisp lines, you are going to want to smudge the extra out w your finger or eyeliner brush, or even qtip. I know it is bad to sleep in makeup, but I did just that and it was still on. I also have used it as a one off smokey eye and base for black eyeshadow. You will need an oil based eye remover to get this off. So, if you dig kohl, try this. On to of it all, I have dry eye and sensitive eye and neither pencil caused me irritation. My sole gripe about these pencils is that they look alike and after getting tired of keeping them in their boxes and reading the label, I marked one with some nail polish. Also, I can see where it would confusing when purchasing it on here, I had to double check myself . I'd like to suggest they rename the gel kohl and/or give it a different cap. I am definitely going to keep these in heavy rotation, and while I rarely stray from black, I think I'll check out the blue versions.
