As a beauty reporter, being pleasantly surprised by a product is one of my favorite things, especially when it’s an industry underdog with an accessible price tag. This was my experience when I tried the af94 Star69 gel eyeliner, an under-the-radar cosmetic that, upon first swipe, proved itself to be a true hidden gem that I now use nearly every day.
There’s understandably a lot of skepticism surrounding celebrity-founded brands — I too have been guilty of extra criticism towards these ventures, especially when it comes to beauty. So when I received a sample of the Star69 liner and learned that the af94 brand belonged to pop singer Halsey, I almost didn’t bother. However, I quickly ate my words when it applied like literal butter to my lids, with a type of ease and level of control that I typically don’t find with eyeliners of this consistency.
Historically, creamy-feeling liners, though amazing when it comes to a drag-proof and skip-free application, make it difficult to achieve defined points or skinnier lines because the texture is too soft. The Star69 eyeliner, on the other hand, is actually a gel formula, so you get that super opaque and pigmented payoff without compromising on definition or tugging on delicate eyelid skin. Other well-known eyeliners I’ve seen that claim to share a similar formula are the Bobby Brown Perfectly Defined gel eyeliner, priced at $36 a tube, and the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On pencil, priced at $23.
