Milani Color Play Felt-tip Liquid Pen in Black line REVIEW and swatch and comparison to ELF and Lancome Artliner

Strolling through Walgreens today, I saw the Milani Color Play Felt-tip Liquid Pen display. As mentioned in Nouveau Cheap's blog, the collection is limited edition and will be sold at select Walgreens and Fred Meyer stores this month as well as online at Milani.

According to the press release from Milani, these pens can be used on the eyes, face, or body. Milani also advertises that these are "fine felt-tip point for easy application. They are water-resistant & long lasting." The Color Play pen comes in 6 colors: black, blue, green, grey, white, and pink. I chose to stick with the tradition shade of black.

Milani Color Play Felt-Tip Liquid Pen in Black line, .59ml/0.02 fl oz, $6.99 

Comparisons with other felt liners:

 Black liquid liners, left to right: ELF waterproof eyeliner pen, Milani Color Play, Lancome Artliner

Top row is thin lined, bottom is thick lined.

Left to right:  ELF waterproof eyeliner pen, Milani Color Play, Lancome Artliner

Lancome Artliner seems the most pigmented in swatch, with Milani and ELF coming closely after. Note that ELF required a lot more swipes of the pen to create this dark color.

 Rub Test

I let these lines dry and rubbed with my finger about 10 times back and forth. 

The Lancome Artliner performed the worse in the Rub Test. However, it is advertised to create easy, dark lines and not to withstand rubbing or water.
The ELF waterproof liner perferomed second best. It is supposed to be waterproof, but it is also lighter in color upon application. It was the one that required the most swipes of the pen to create the color you see above, which could play into the fast fading.
It is clear that Milani Color Play did the best during the Rub Test. However, there is slight fading with the lightly lined line.

Water Rub Test

 I rubbed again about 10 times back and forth with my finger, but this time I added water on top of my hand. 

Lancome Artliner: It has completely faded! It isn't a surprise since the marketing point of this liner was not to withstand water or be strong on your eyes. It is simply to create easy and dark lines, which it did well!

ELF: Although it claims to be waterproof, it did not withstand water completely. It is still present after the Water Rub Test, but faint.

Milani: It is the strongest player out of the three when it came to water. Though it had light fading, it is still strong.

Another dose of Water Rub Test

This time, most of the lines are no longer present. I would not say any of these are water/rub proof, but Milani seems to do the best out of all of them.

Here I did a simple water dissolving test.  I just placed a drop of water on top of the blank line made by Milani Color Play. Without rubbing, the line did not fade or bleed. It seems that it is water resistant.

Please note that the way I am rubbing the back of my hand is never something you should do to your eye! You will definitely hurt your eyeballs or get crazy wrinkles. I only rubbed it that hard during the Rub Tests because I want to push it to the max. On normal wear on your eye, most of these will do fine under light touch. I have worn Lancome Artliner many times and it has never bled or faded in the 5 hours I had it on.


Milani Color Play Felt-Tip Liquid Pen in black line:

ELF Waterproof eyeliner pen:

As you can see, ELF is slightly lighter than Milani. I had to go over the line made by ELF many times before getting the above look, whereas Milani was a simple single to two swipes. 

Application: It was very easy to use Milani's felt tip- I had no problems making a thin line or a thick line. It was just soft enough to not hurt your eyes but still stiff enough to create a nice flowing line. 

Scent: I detected no scent.

Staying power: I can get about 5 hours of strong wear. After that I get slight blending out and maybe some transferring to the top of my lid. Note that I have extremely oily eye lids. If I apply a thin enough line, I won't get any transferring. Transferring mainly occurs because the liner comes into contact with the top of my eyelids when I open my eyes. 

Overall: I really like the thin, soft yet sturdy tip of the Milani Color Play pen. It isn't as dark as Lancome's Artliner, but it definitely has better staying power. It was better than ELF's waterproof pen in the Water Rub Test. I found it extremely easy to use and love the dark line it gives. For $6.99, it beats Lancome's $30 liner! I would definitely give this a try since it is fairly affordable. It also comes in different colors for those of you who love colors! It is limited edition, unfortunately, so please take advantage of it soon if you are interested! 

Have you tried any other colors in this collection? What are your thoughts?

Em

Like what you see? Support my blogs by subscribing here!

All products shown here were purchased with my own money and were given my fair and honest opinion.