Clio Eyeliners Review: Waterproof Brush, Pen, Pencil Eyeliner, and Swatches

Clio is a Korean brand that is pretty popular for its hip, trendsetting image and colours, as well as fantastic line of products, and has been steadily getting accolades for the quality of its products. One of the things Clio is more well-known for are its eyeliners, which get lots of raves for being really waterproof and long-wearing, so I thought it would be great for me to put these to the test! And the best part - I actually have three different types of eyeliners for you today, the Waterproof Pencil Liner, the Waterproof Pen Eyeliner, and the newest addition to the lineup, the Waterproof Brush Liner!

Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, Waterproof Pen Eyeliner and Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: The Brush Eyeliner is the latest addition to Clio's lineup

The eyeliners mainly differ in terms of their tip used to dispense the eyeliner - the Waterproof Pen Eyeliner has a marker-like tip, the Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner is an old-fashioned pencil eyeliner with a twist-up tip, and the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner has fine brush bristles that are pointed at the end. As you'll see, each of them have a different feel and have slightly different effect when lining your eyes.


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, Waterproof Pen Eyeliner and Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: These have gotten raves as being excellent eyeliners
Without further ado, let's move on to examine the eyeliners up close, and perform my usual tests on them to find out whether they are really waterproof and smudge-proof or not!

I thought I'd start off with the Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, since it's the newest eyeliner to Clio's family - nothing like starting off the review with something new and shiny, I guess! I have them in the shades Kill Black and Kill Brown, which are black and brown respectively. These even come with a little bottle of waterproof eye makeup remover in every box - I guess that's how waterproof Clio thinks the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner is! The cap "clicks" shut in a nice and firm way, which helps to to prevent the eyeliner from drying out.


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner: Comes with little bottles of makeup remover, too
The Waterproof Brush Eyeliners have bristles that taper to a fine tip. The bristles are quite flexible and pliable, making them ideal for drawing very fine lines, as you will see in the swatches later. I also like that the bristles don't splay apart when used, and the entire brush head stays together and holds its shape despite being flexible. I really like this as far as ease of use goes, and I don't even use liquid eyeliners that often! It is also the most pigmented among the three, which is a plus as well. As far as drawing fine lines goes, this is definitely the clear winner among the three.


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner: Fine-tipped brush bristles that have some flexibility to draw thin, even lines
The Clio Waterproof Pen Eyeliner is also a liquid eyeliner like the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, but instead of being dispensed via a brush tip, you get a more traditional felt pen type tip. I also like that the cap of the eyeliner "clicks" shut firmly too, since these types of liquid eyeliners are so prone to drying out. I also have this in Kill Black and Kill Brown (again, a black and a brown shade respecctively).


Clio Waterproof Pen Eyeliner: The cap "clicks" shut firmly to prevent drying out
The felt tip pen nib also ends in a fairly fine point, but the feel of the nib against the skin is harder, because unlike the brush tip found in the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, the pen nib in the Waterproof Pen Eyeliner is less flexible and doesn't have as much "give" when you use it. It's also less pigmented as compared to the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, too. This can also be maneuvered to draw fairly fine lines, but I found it better at drawing thicker, more dramatic lines. It's not as good as drawing the super-skinny, super-fine lines the way the Brush Eyeliner can, but if you want something more obvious, this is probably the better pick.


Clio Waterproof Pen Eyeliner: The felt-tip pen nib is harder and less flexible than that of the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, making it suitable for drawing thick, dramatic lines
At this point, I thought it would be a good idea to do a direct comparison between the tips of the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner and the Waterproof Pen Eyeliner. On the left is the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, and on the right is the Waterproof Pen Eyeliner. As you can see, the material of the tips is different - bristles versus felt tip - but also, the length of the tips are also a bit different. The Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner has a slightly longer tip, which is appropriate since the bristles have to flex and bend unlike the Pen Eyeliner tip, and the tip of the Brush Eyeliner is slightly finer than that of the Pen Eyeliner. When I used both eyeliners, I felt like the difference in the tips accounted for a large part of why the Brush Eyeliner was better at drawing finer lines than the Pen Eyeliner.


The different tips fo the Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner and Clio Waterproof Pen Eyeliner enable them to draw lines differently
Lastly, the Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner. I only have this in Kill Brown, which is a nice brown shade. This has a twist-up retractable nib that doesn't need to be sharpened, and is a fairly traditional sort of eyeliner, so I don't have too much to say about it. It also has a nice sturdy-looking cap. And as an added bonus, I like the slightly duochrome finish of the pen barrel!


Clio Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: A slim, retractible eyeliner in a very pretty barrel
Because of the pencil tip, the liners are not as precise, but this is super-convenient to use, and is my personal favourite for those days where I just want to quickly line my eyes and dash out the house. However, the pencil lead is a bit on the softer side, so don't use too much pressure when lining your eyes, or the tip will break off. This happened to me the first time I used the eyeliner a bit too enthusiastically, and I had to lighten the amount of force I used.


Clio Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: A soft pencil lead means only a little force is needed to line your eyes
Now, let's move on to swatches! For both swatches of the Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner and the Clio Waterproof Pen Eyeliner, I tried to do a thicker line, and a line that was as thin as I could make it. You can see that I clearly found the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner easier to use - the lines were more stable and less shaky, and also the skinny lines were thinner too.


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, Waterproof Pen Eyeliner and Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner Swatches
Now let's put them to the test! I have a few "tests" that I put my eyeliners through in my eyeliner reviews, and these are basically the rub test (rubbing dry swatches with my finger), the waterproof test (running the swatches under a running tap), and the underwater rub test (rubbing the swatches while they are running under a tap). While most fairly decent waterproof eyeliners do well for the first two tests, it's the third test that kills most of them - most eyeliners get wiped right out with this test. So, let's put the Clio Waterproof Eyeliners to the test and see how they do!

First, the rub test. This honestly looks the same as the swatches - because nothing happened when I rubbed the dry swatches, at all, not even the Pencil Eyeliner, which I thought might be the most likely to smudge. So yes, smudgeproof!


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, Waterproof Pen Eyeliner and Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: After the rub test
Now, for the waterproof test! Again, this was fantastic - no smudging or fading or flaking off.


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, Waterproof Pen Eyeliner and Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: After the waterproof test
And, lastly, the killer underwater rubbing test! Now we see some flaking off. I thought the Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner would be the first to go, but surprisingly, it seemed like the Waterproof Pen Eyeliner seemed to have the most flaking off. The Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner was the next to go, and the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner seemed to have the best staying power. So I guess in terms of staying power, I would rate the Clio Waterproof Eyeliners in this order: the Waterproof Brush Eyeliner is the best, followed by the Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner, and lastly the Waterproof Pen Eyeliner.


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, Waterproof Pen Eyeliner and Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: After the underwater rubbing test
Now, let's see how they perform on my eyes. For each of these, I've done a single line with a little flick at the end. I've used Kill Brown for all three swatches, to show how pigmented the colour is.

First, the Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner. This was pretty easy to use, and it drew a fine thin line (it's quite thin so you can't really see it with my heavy lid obscuring part of my lashline, but the line I drew runs along my lashline), with a very nice thin flick at the end. This is good for everyday thin lines and flicks.


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner in Kill Brown on my eye
Next, the Clio Waterproof Pen Eyeliner. Because the Pen Eyeliner tip has less flexibility than the Brush Eyeliner tip, I found this a little harder to manoeuvre, and found that I had to re-do parts of the line a couple of times. Oops! I'm not sure if it's just the way I hold my eyeliners or something, but the felt tip type of eyeliners have never been my favourite. I'm sure for those who prefer felt tip pen eyeliners, they would really like this though - eyeliner at the end of the day can really boil down to personal preference. As you can see, the line is thicker (again, the line is along my lashline, although this time it is more visible), and the little flick at the end is also thicker and doesn't end with a nice point that the Brush Eyeliner gave me.


Clio WaterproofPen Eyeliner in Kill Brown on my eye
Lastly, the Clio Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner. I've always found pencil eyeliners to be the easiest to use, so I'm not surprised that this was effortless for me. Unfortunately, when it comes to drawing little flicks and wings, I had the least success of this, because the pen tip is not fine enough to draw that kind of lines. If you managed to sharpen it, though, you could probably do a fairly decent flick. But for an everyday line, this is pretty good. I'd use it for my dash-out-the-door days.


Clio Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner in Kill Brown on my eye
On the eyelids, while these were fairly decent at being waterproof and smudgeproof, I found they worked best when my lids were properly prepped - meaning that they weren't too oily. If my lids were oily, then I found that the likelihood of smudging was higher. So if you have oily lids, I'd recommend a primer (or even just dusting your lid with loose powder) before lining your eyes to help the eyeliner stay on longer. Removal of all the eyeliners was easy with an oil-based makeup remover, and also, by rubbing the lines underwater (they will flake off, although the rubbing motion will probably tug at your eyelids so I don't recommend it).


Clio Waterproof Brush Eyeliner, Waterproof Pen Eyeliner and Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner: All around, a great value for money, and excellent quality
So, would I recommend these? Given the great pigmentation, the fine tips of the pens, and the fact that they fared well in my little eyeliner tests, I'd say yes. For me, I found that Waterproof Brush Eyeliner was the best at drawing fine lines and flicks, and also at staying waterproof, while the Waterproof Pencil Eyeliner was the best for ease of use, so those two are my favourites. But overall, these are really good eyeliners that aren't overpriced, either. (I suck at remembering the prices, but they are in the price range of SGD$20+, which is pretty reasonable given the quality.) I can see why these are worth the hype, and it's not just me - I've had other bloggers tell me that they love the eyeliners too. I'd say these are worth checking out!

Recommended?	Pigmentation	Texture	Application	Colour	Lasting Power
Yes, good quality and not overpriced	9/10	10/10	9/10	10/10	9/10
The Bottom Line: The Clio Waterproof Eyeliners are reasonably priced, have great pigmentation, can draw fine lines, and are very smudge and water-resistant, making them a good buy.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)