"You Are Still SO Hot Without Your Winged Eyeliner"
...but if you feel naked without it, here are my top 7 eyeliners.
Welcome to Pearl, a newsletter dedicated to Filipinas and their beauty journeys. Read more about its mission here.
Winged eyeliner is the makeup equivalent of a comfort blanket for many Filipinas. It’s classic. Flattering on nearly every eye shape. It has a lifting effect on your face. And, it conveniently adds definition where short, stubbornly straight lashes won’t. I’ve always been insecure about how naked my eyes look without eyeliner, so I’ve worn a cat eye almost every day since high school. In the name of self-love (and makeup experimentation), I’ve tried embracing other liner-free signature beauty looks, but nothing is quite as transformative as a razor-sharp line on my lids.
This brings me to a 2021 video from Filipina TikToker @jessiorozco_ that lives in my head rent-free. In it, she says, “I know there’s some Asian girl out there who needs to hear this, so I’m just gonna say it. You are still SO HOT WITHOUT YOUR WINGED EYELINER. YOU ARE STILL SO FUCKING HOT WITHOUT YOUR WINGED EYELINER.” Watching it made me feel both attacked and affirmed. It also made me laugh because she ended it by saying, “Not me tho. I need it.”
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If you can relate…same. When I did a casual poll on my Instagram stories asking if other Filipina and other Asian women felt naked without winged liner, 57% said yes. One follower DMed me, “Yes, but I’m trying to unlearn it –Asian girlies deserve to enjoy clean girl makeup without wanting bigger eyes 😭.”
Another follower shared that someone told her that winged liner “makes me look more Asian! 🤷♀️” I questioned what that meant. She responded, “I didn’t know how to react to the comment, so I asked, and apparently, it makes my eyes look even smaller, so I stopped doing a winged liner every day.”
I want you to know your bare eyes are beautiful. In an ideal world, we would never be made to feel insecure about “small” eyes, short lashes, hooded eyes, monolids, dark brown irises, or any of the features we were born with. I wish we all grew up with more examples of beauty in media that more closely mimicked our own. I want to love my natural eyes more. I want to be rid of the compulsion always to wear false lashes or a cat eye. While I’m not 100% there, I hope I eventually embrace them the way I’ve embraced my morena skin tone. In the meantime, the winged liner helps me feel more confident. If it does the same for you, there’s nothing wrong with that!
In an ideal world, we would never be made to feel insecure about “small” eyes, short lashes, hooded eyes, monolids, dark brown irises, or any of the features we were born with.
Ahead, I share my top liquid eyeliners. I’ve tested these through tearful therapy sessions, running a marathon, and over a decade dutifully trying every liner on the market as a beauty editor.
1. Lancome Idôle Ultra Precise Waterproof Liner
My holy grail liquid liner. I must’ve gone through 10 of these! The black ink is satisfyingly saturated, and the felt-top marker makes getting even the most subtle line a breeze.
2. Sunnies Face Easy Line
This liner is what I’ve been using the most lately. If you want a suuuuper skinny line, this is your best bet. Do tiny, short strokes versus a continuous line for best results!
3. Pat McGrath Labs Perma Precision Liner
Behold, the liquid liner so precise I’ve applied it in a moving car, subway, boat, and cable car (true story). It also happens to be the liner I wore while running the NYC marathon, and I sweatily, successfully crossed the finish line with no smudge in sight.
4. Tom Ford Eye Defining Pen
Famous cat eye-lover Taylor Swift uses this bougie liquid liner (as I identified while watching her documentary Miss Americana). It’s double-ended, with one calligraphy-style tip and one super tiny and skinny brush tip that helps you get in the inner corners with ease. Here’s a tutorial:
5. Makeup by Mario Master Mattes Liquid Liner
I knew I loved this liner when my cat eye remained perfect after a tear-filled therapy session. No flaking, no bleeding, no fading.
6. Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Smudge-Proof Liner
For those of you who prefer a cream liner and a brush, try this pot from Bobbi Brown. You can definitely get a sharp eye, but if you’re aiming for more of what I call a “Whisper Cat Eye” this is the ideal formula.
7. Maybelline Tattoo Studio Ink Pen Waterproof Liquid Liner
I love a drugstore liner! Maybelline has been my go-to liner brand since I was a teenager, and the Tattoo Studio liner has a brush tip that makes getting a perfect wing fool-proof.
P.S. If you suck at doing your own eyeliner, try this…
Half Magic, the makeup line started by makeup artist Donni Davy of euphoria fame, has a nifty silicone tool to guide you to a perfect line. The brand also has “Flik Eraser,” a makeup corrector pen filled with micellar water to quickly fix errant strokes. Genius!
Which liquid liner do you love? I know my Pearls have tried a ton, so please share your favorite one in the comments!
Links I’m Loving
Okay, I’m not loving this link, but it’s important to share: The Philippine Dermatological Society issued a public warning on intravenous glutathione, a popular but off-label skin-whitening procedure. This came after one woman went viral for sharing that her IV treatment allegedly caused an eye nerve infection that completely shut her right eye. It makes me deeply sad that colorism still has Filipinas risking their health for lighter skin in 2025.
This Timeline of the Filipina Dress from the 1600s to 1840s is beautifully illustrated and educational. There’s more to our traditional clothing than the butterfly sleeves!
Dr. Marinette Asuncion, aka @the.brown.psych, is one of my favorite follows lately for deep-dives on the intersection of mental health and Filipino culture. Read through this explanation of how our love for music is ancestral. Standout quote: “When colonization arrived, it sought to erase what made us whole…we learned to view joy with suspicion as if too much of it meant we weren’t working hard enough. This mindset is not ours – it is inherited.”
I love this Tita who works at Costco and posts daily updates on TikTok. She made a video about the price of eggs and…well, I’ll just leave it here. Watch until the end for LOLs.