Product Showdown: Revlon Colorstay Gel Liner vs. Maybelline Eyestudio Gel Liner

I seem to be fascinated by the differences between drugstore products and high end products. In many cases, I've found makeup in the drugstore that is just as good, or even better than its high end counterparts. Sometimes most of the difference is in the packaging (I'm not big on packaging) and at other times, it's the texture, the staying power or even the depth of the color. Since I love finding a good deal, I'm thrilled when I find similar drugstore products that do a good job.

For this Product Showdown, I'm reviewing two brands of purple gel eyeliner that can be purchased in most drugstores.


Revlon's Colorstay Creme Gel Eyeliner in Plum, is a blue/purple gel liner with bits of sparkle visible in the formula. It comes with a brush built in to the lid of the product and cost me $8.99 at Target. 

Maybelline Eyestudio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in Eggplant, is more of a yellow/purple with no sparkle. It also comes with a brush, which is very similar to Bobbi Brown's liner brush and cost me $9.99 at Ulta. 

Revlon on left and Maybelline on right

Both liners have a fairly smooth consistency but the Revlon is a little bit more "patchy," if that's the right word. It applied less consistently smooth than the Maybelline and there was some color variation within the line (some places darker and others lighter). As I said above, the Revlon has some visible sparkles in the formula, which I actually thought looked lovely. It is not overpowering at all but rather subtle.

To test both products, I applied the Revlon on my upper left eyelid and the Maybelline on my upper right eyelid. Using rather thick lines for testing, I applied both once while wearing no eyeshadow and once while wearing  light, neutral colored eyeshadow on the lid with a medium contour color in the crease. I also wore a tried and true non smudging mascara while testing.

No eyeshadow: Revlon on left, Maybelline on right

With eyeshadow: Revlon on left, Maybelline on right

Let me first say that both liners performed very similarly and despite slight variations in color and the subtle sparkle in the Revlon, there is very little difference to the visible eye. I'd go so far to say as they are almost inter-changeable. Both claim to be smudge proof and last up to 24 hours. If you look closely in each picture, you can see that there are purple eyeliner smudges in the creases so neither was smudge proof on my eyelids (my eyelids tend to be slightly oily even though my face is dry so I wore my Holy Grail Urban Decay eyelid primer in both tests). Smudging appeared after about 5 hours in all cases.

All of this being said, I would still use both eyeliners as long as I was wearing a darker shade in the crease. The eyeliner did not move to the under eye area, which some do. I may try some of the other colors (both brands come in black, brown, dark gray and purple). I recommend them both equally.

Ages of Beauty rating: ***