A good lip liner is transformative. Take it from me: A simple overlining technique can make your lips look double their size, no prick of filler necessary. But what separates a good lip liner from a really freaking great one is its staying power once you dash out the door. Does the color smudge after your first sip of water, or does it stick around for hours without a single reapplication?
My beauty pet peeve is painstakingly applying my lip combo, only to glance in the mirror minutes later to find it magically erased. (Anyone else?!) So I decided to conduct a little experiment: wear-test five of my all-time favorite liners to see which formula holds up the longest. I ate, drank, sweated on the subway, and even braved a windy rainstorm (sans umbrella, much to my dismay) to discover the créme de la créme of long-lasting lip liners. Honestly, I was surprised by the winner—scroll ahead, and I’d wager you will be, too.
1. Rhode Peptide Lip Shape
Rhode’s Peptide Lip Shape is probably my all-time favorite Rhode product (although the Pocket Blush comes at a very close second!). The shades are unparalleled, meant to create a contour effect that helps your lips look naturally fuller. I can personally attest to that claim; my lips look literally twice their size. I’m partial to the shade Lunge, a rosy beige, which has a neutral, my-lips-but-better finish that helps me effortlessly extend my natural lip border. The application is creamy and deliciously blendable; in fact, I don’t even need to use the built-in smudger on the other end of the pencil. It’s that easy to diffuse on the skin.
I won’t sugarcoat it: Rhode sadly doesn’t last as long as some of the other options on this list. That being said, it’s not marketed as a smudge-proof, water-resistant formula; smudging is the name of the game for that blurred, soft-focus effect it’s famous for! But if you’re hoping for some no-fuss staying power, I’d probably head in a different direction. I’m genuinely obsessed with the finish, though, so I’d happily apply multiple times per day if it means I wind up with effortlessly full lips each time.
You can also hack your way to extra staying power by making sure the skin around your lips is completely dry no lingering moisturizer or sunscreen) and lightly setting them with powder before applying. It’s a pro tip I learned from makeup artist Kelli Anne Sewell, and it’s what I did in the photos above.
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Rhode
Peptide Lip Shape in Lunge
cocokind
Ceramide Lip Blur Balm in Be Powerful
2. Tarte Maracuja Juicy Lip Stain Liner
This Tarte number definitely intrigued me from the jump. It’s a “lip stain liner,” so the formula supplies lips with juicy, no-budge color and defines the border with a precise, pointed tip. You can either fill in your entire lip area with the felt marker or buff out the liner and top it off with a balm or gloss. (I did the latter in the photos above.) True to its name, the liner stains your lips but is actually pretty forgiving; I was initially worried that if I messed up my line (shaky fingers, and all) I’d wind up with wonky-looking lips all day, but the formula blurs beautifully with the press of my fingertip, resulting in a velvety, just-bitten finish.
I applied in the morning before a breakfast event, and while the glossiness did fade after eating and drinking, the liner did remain faithful! If you look closely at my Uber selfie, you can even see the faint line underneath the belly of my lower lip, right where I overlined. I did ultimately reapply my gloss before walking into the office (I crave the shine!), but still, I consider the liner a total mainstay.
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Tarte
Maracuja Juicy Lip Stain Liner in Honeysuckle
Vitamasques
Tinted Lip Butter Balm in Wild Cherry
3. Refy Lip Sculpt Longwear Liner
Refy recently revamped its beloved Lip Sculpt to include a 16-hour wear time and a no-touch-up formula (very bold claims!). The product used to have a dual-ended setter you’d apply after to increase the liner’s longevity, but this new version streamlines the application by infusing that setting power into the long-wearing pigment. As someone who rarely used the attached setter in the OG formula, I’m thrilled the brand made this change.
What made me even giddier, however, was its all-day definition. Pardon the sweaty subway selfie, but I was just so impressed by how long the formula lasted on my lips! I used the shade Rosewood, a medium warm pink perfect for everyday wear, as it easily enhances the natural color of my lips. I took the aforementioned subway selfie after a full work day (during which I dashed across the city to multiple events), and if you look closely, you can still see where I filled in my Cupid’s bow to create a rounder, fuller effect.
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REFY
Lip Sculpt Longwear Liner in Rosewood
Summer Fridays
Lip Butter Balm in Birthday Cake
4. Ilia Beauty Lip Sketch Hydrating Crayon
I conducted this wear test for longevity, not creaminess, but if there’s a competition for the smoothest, velvetiest application, Ilia Beauty’s Lip Sketch Crayon is 100% the winner. It has a soft-matte finish that makes my lips look effortlessly blurred (never cakey), and I love its versatility. You can use the sharpened tip to precisely overline your pout, and then fill in the entire surface area with the creamy pigment. I’m wearing the shade Genre (a rosy mauve) in the photos above, but I also adore Ilia Beauty’s handful of reds—it’s my go-to whenever I’m gunning for that blurred, French-girl effect.
As you can see in the car selfie above, the definition just above my lip line did fade after a few hours. On my actual lip skin, however, the hydrating mauve-brown pigment remained for most of the day without a single top off. So while I did reapply Lip Sketch along my Cupid’s bow, I didn’t have to fill in the rest of my pout; I simply smudged out the liner with my fingertip and wound up with a perfectly romantic, blurry lip.
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Ilia Beauty
Lip Sketch Hydrating Crayon in Genre
5. Tower 28
Billie Eilish famously uses this Tower 28 liner for her pre-show glam, so I certainly had high hopes for its longevity. I mean, if it can last through hours of performing, it can surely survive my subway commute, right? I’ll get to its wearability in a moment, but let me first gush about this pinky-taupe shade, Work of Art. When I tell you that my lip liner safety net is a rosy mauve situation, I’m referring to this exact Tower 28 hue. It fuses to my natural lip color perfectly, to the point where you can’t even tell I’m wearing a liner at all; my lips just appear naturally plumper. I’ve used multiple of these pencils down to the nub and will forever restock. The shade is really that stunning for daily wear.
Now, admittedly, it wasn’t the most long-lasting liner I wore that week, but I did put it to quite a difficult test. I got caught in a rainstorm sans umbrella (as you can likely tell by my damp, frizzy curls), so the liner had faded by the time I got home, dried off, and picked up my phone for a quick selfie. I promise it did stick around for a while before I stepped out into the rain. You’ll just have to take my word for it!
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Tower 28 Beauty
Oneliner in Work Of Art
Burt’s Bees
Lip Tint Balm in Red Dahlia
The Verdict
Would I wear all five liners again? One thousand percent. They’re my favorites for a reason! Each has unique perks for various lip looks—a natural contour, a “my lip, but better” effect, a French-girl blur, etc. That being said, if I had to crown the formula with the most staying power, I’d say it’s a tie between Tarte’s Lip Stain Liner and Refy’s Lip Sculpt. Both lasted multiple hours with no reapplication, even after eating, drinking, and darting around the city. If I know I won’t be able to easily touch up my makeup or am simply looking for a liner to outlast summer humidity (which, despite the warm weather fake-out we had in NYC, should arrive any day now!), those are the ones I’d grab moving forward.
As a note, you might gravitate towards a different hero depending on your skin type (namely, your level of oil production), so it may take some guess-and-test to ultimately find your MVP. I’d start with my five favorites, but feel free to take a peek at some more honorable mentions below.
More Lip Liners I Love
MERIT
Signature Lip Sheer Lip Liner
These Merit lip liners are just so pretty. The sturdy, luxe packaging looks incredible in my makeup bag, and the pigment—true to its name—is creamy and sheer.
MAKE UP FOR EVER
Artist Color Pencil Longwear Lip Liner
You can never go wrong with this Make Up For Ever fave. I already used mine down to the nub, otherwise I would have tested it with the other five above.
If you do snag the beloved Lip Sculpt, I highly suggest adding this Lip Blur to your cart as well. Like its name implies, it delivers the prettiest blurred lip effect, with no extra blending necessary.
Glossier’s lip liner shades are meant to match the color of your nipples (yes, really), so keep that in mind when selecting your go-to hue.
Ortega
Soft Contour Lip Liner
Leave it to makeup artist Etienne Ortega to create one of the best lip liners I’ve tried. It’s true to its name, as it results in a soft, contoured effect that makes your lips look exponentially plump and juicy.
Charlotte Tilbury
Lip Cheat
SheGlam
Bold Booster Plumping Lip Liner
I adore a deep berry lip moment, and this richly pigmented liner from SheGlam delivers the prettiest just-bitten finish.