My desire to try out ALL the brush tip liquid liners in a pen style format continues! I may love my Physicians Formula Eye Booster, but I’m still on the hunt for a truly matte formula in this style of liquid liner.

When I came across the Sephora Collection Hot Line Brush Tip Liquid Liner on Sephora’s site while browsing one day… well, I was intrigued. I was even more intrigued when one of the reviews on the site indicated that this was a MATTE liner. COULD IT BE TRUE? Could all my hopes and dreams be fulfilled by Sephora Collection? I was chomping at the bit to find out!

On initial swatch, I was sad to see a hint of a gleam to the product. You can see the sun glaring slightly off my arm swatch thus indicating that it’s not truly matte. I was disappointed, but still eager to try the liner out since I go through liquid liner frequently, and Sephora Collection‘s price point is always quite good ($18 CAD/$14 USD).

Application with this liner is pretty similar to most brush tip liquid pen liners, but I did feel that it didn’t glide as easily as other ones I’ve used frequently (Physicians Formula, ARTDECO, Too Faced). I also find that the very tip of the brush has a few too many hairs at the end (which I may end up trimming down with a pair of scissors myself). However, despite those small nitpicks, I did feel like it laid down colour very evenly and opaquely.

What shocked me was that the longer the liner was on my eyes, the more it dried down to a matte texture. Like… what?? What just happened? In the shot just above this text you can see that the liner is significantly more matte than in the previous eye shot. Yes, they’re from two different days, but the first eye shot I took the picture within 5 minutes of application, and the second one was taken 30 minutes after application. (I know there’s some sparkly bits in it, but that’s from my lid colour that transferred down because I have hooded eyes).

So my initial impression that the liner wasn’t matte was entirely accurate, as it seems to formula somehow “settles” on the eyes and goes more matte over time. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life – this is truly unique and completely unexpected.

Final Thoughts

I’m amazed really – Sephora Collection has actually, somehow, developed a brush tip liquid liner that dries down (eventually) matte. I do have some gripes with it though, and I think that’s what’s stopping me from calling this my holy grail eyeliner from hereon out. Number one, I’m not as in love with the tip of the brush as I am with my PF one – it needs just a little bit more tapering. I can work around it, but I do find it a bit of a nuisance. Number 2, the glide factor isn’t as smooth as my other ones, but I really think that comes down to the formula. It makes sense to me that a more fluid liner would have a more shiny texture, whereas a less fluid one would be more matte. I don’t know the science behind it, but in my head that makes sense.

I’ve used it for a week straight now and found that I had no issues with feathering (thank heavens!), nor did it bleed out on me when I got caught in the rain one morning on my way to work (it does claim to be waterproof, but I wouldn’t go around rubbing my eyes if I had water on them, you know?). So far, I’m REALLY liking it, but I still love my Physicians Formula slightly more just because of the ease of the fluidity of the product. If you want a matte brush tip liner though? GO TRY THIS ONE!

The Sephora Collection Hot Line Brush Tip Liquid Liner can be purchased on sephora.ca for $18 CAD or on sephora.com for $14 USD).

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