Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense in Intense Plum, Intense Ivy and Intense Charcoal review

Some people never leave the house without a sweep of mascara. For others, it’s a swipe of lipstick. But for me, it’s a slick of eyeliner!

I do actually leave the house without make-up on a regular basis (are beauty bloggers allowed to admit this?!), but if I’m venturing more than a couple of MTR stops away and if there’s a chance of being seen by anyone that matters, out the eyeliner comes! As a result, I have two go-to holy grail eyeliners – Clinique’s Brush-On Cream Eyeliner in Smoke Grey and Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in just about every colour under the sun. But I’m always on the hunt for more… enter Clinique’s Quickliner for Eyes Intense.

Left to right: Intense Plum, Intense Charcoal, Intense Ivy

These are eyeliners of the twist-up variety in thin lightweight plastic casing and come in six colours, all deep dark smoky numbers and all typical Clinique play-safe options. I tried Intense Plum, a deep purple; Intense Charcoal, a dark smoky grey just a few shades off black; and Intense Ivy, a dark moss green. I’m a big fan of off-black shades as I think they just look better and less harsh for day-to-day wear – and all these colours are brilliant if you feel likewise, delivering a softer take on black but still with the necessary intensity.

To be honest, from far off, you can barely tell that they are all different colours anyway so I do wish Clinique had turned up the colour instead of the black. Intense Charcoal is very similar to my beloved Smoke Grey so I can easily see that staying in my make-up bag on a regular basis, when I can’t be bothered to fiddle about with applying cream eyeliner. I think green eyeliners look awesome with brown eyes, so I was disappointed in quite how un-green Intense Ivy looked once it was on my face (as opposed to my hand!).

My favourite was Intense Plum, which boasts a gorgeous purple-blue shimmer that isn’t totally lost on the eye. I’m wearing that in the above photo, which shows my pretty normal everyday look – lots of eyeliner, not much else. What can I say… I never shook off my teenage addiction to racoon eyes!

In terms of formula, these lovelies definitely pack a punch! They are super-soft and creamy yet deliver pigment for days. One stroke is all you need to get a defined colour-saturated line and they glide onto the eye area smoothly. The only problem with these twist-up eyeliners is that they lose their sharpened point immediately after one use (see above compared with the pretty points in the promo photos!), meaning you can no longer get as thin a line (a bonus if you prefer a smudgier effect though). I would have preferred that Clinique included a sharpener (like Dior and Guerlain do with their similar eyeliners) instead of the sponge blending tip at the other end of the liner, which I honestly find rather useless (hey, I have fingers for that!).

As for wear, Clinique reckons they last 12 hours. I’m not so sure. I definitely got a good eight hours plus on the lashline but for the waterline, not so much (maybe four?!). I also found that rather than simply fading, these tended to flake off in little flecks of pigment instead – although, please let it be known, I have an abnormally watery lashline! For true last all day eyeliner, I would still return to Clinque’s Cream Eyeliner, which really does offer great return on those extra few minutes spent applying with a brush versus the wear of most pencils.

As ever with Clinique, they’re all 100% fragrance-free and stringently dermatologist and ophthalmologist tested, meaning you can be guaranteed a gentle formula that works well for those with sensitive skin like myself.

For ease of use and intensity of colour, these Clinique Quickliners are a winner. They’re all in shades perfect for creating dramatic smoky eyes yet just a simple swipe or two makes for a good defined everyday eye too. Whilst they’re not going to replace my two holy grail eyeliners anytime soon, they will definitely be entering my stash as great lazy day options when I don’t want to faff with a brush or go wild with colour.

Read my review of more Clinique Quickliner For Eyes shades here

Clinique Quickliners for Eyes Intense, $155; see all Clinique stores and counters in Hong Kong here.

Note: The products in this post were provided to me for review.