How To Save Dried Gel Eye Liners
I have found a very effective way to save my gel liners even when I don’t have a product like Inglot Duraline or some other mixing medium. Many of us I am sure already have the one thing needed to do this at home or it is easily available anywhere. I have been using gel liners a lot these days. My absolute favorite has to be the Bobbi Brown Gel Liner! But I have a few colors from ELF too and for their price, sometimes I find it hard to differentiate between the two once I have applied them.
Anyway, I have noticed that some of the colors from ELF were very dried up or were drying up with use, even the Bobbi Brown gel liner is prone to dryness if left open for long. Sometimes, when I do elaborate eyeliner looks, my gel liner pot stays open in my hand for long and that can cause it to dry. I read a lot online and saw many videos regarding using heat to “melt” the product, but that seemed time consuming and very temporary. Also, the idea of using heat on makeup repeatedly just doesn’t sound that appealing to me, in case the chemical composition ends up breaking up or something. I can be paranoid about my makeup! So, I thought of trying a method that theoretically made sense to me, I just had to be bold enough to t it – using baby oil and I am happy to say that it worked like a charm!
This is how dry my ELF Cream Liner – Midnight had become, almost a solid to touch and swatching it with a brush caused those flakes you can see in the following image. It was getting near impossible to use it and it is such a pretty color that I did not want to toss it. If you notice on the sides, the product had become so dry that it seized up upon itself, as in the product was not touching the sides any more. It just made a lump in the middle.
The process to make it creamy once again is very simple:
Being cautious, I just added a drop of baby oil.
I then made a few holes in the gel with a safety pin. I first washed the needle and held it over a flame to ensure it was clean. Once it was cool to touch, I used it to make the holes.
Within a few seconds, the oil just sunk in those dry-patched holes!
I took the brush that comes with these ELF liners and picked up some color from the surface and swatched it beside the dry gel swatch. You can surely see below that it became nice and creamy and not at all oily as I was worrying it might become oily.
Now, that I knew oil won’t harm this gel, I cracked the gel liner right in the middle and added about 3 more drops of baby oil and with the needle, I mixed it all up till it had the consistency of a smooth cream.
The swatch now was far creamier from before. With the 3 swatches side by side, I hope you can make out how helpful a few drops of baby oil have been to the dry gel.
Now. I love using this even more. I had done this almost 10 days back and it is still creamy. I am so glad I could save one of my best colors with such a simple technique! I love the blue of this gel, it’s not a sharp, “in your face” kind of blue, but it gets highlighted nicely when you pair it with colors that compliment blue. Anyway, I am sure this technique would work with any color.
My biggest fear before I tried this method was that I was using oil, who wants a slick, oily, drippy liner on the lids! It would spoil not only the product but the eye makeup! But surprisingly the dry gel, just drinks up the oil and the texture left is creamy and not at all oily. This was surely a worth-it try and I hope it helps you too.
So, how do you girls fix your dry liners? Would love to hear more ideas!
Happy Makeuping!
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wow this is such a useful post ! i’ll remember it forever and thankyou for this !
my maybelline gel liners hvnt dried up yet but thanks to u i can revive them if they ever do … without the price tag of a duraline !
great post 🙂
Most welcome Poorva! 🙂
great tip!
Thanku! 🙂
I use eye drops the same way and works like a charm 🙂 thanks for sharing this method..m bookmarking it 🙂 btw lovely eye makeup
Thanks Parita! 🙂 ♥
Ooooh! eye drops! 🙂 will surely remember that for days when I run out of baby oil , thanq for tat tip Parita 🙂
I placed my dry eyeliner in a small cup with warm water (the temp was not too high) 🙂 It works like earlier 🙂 no change in substance 🙂
Aah! so easy-breezy! 🙂 thanks for th tip!
Great tip! Will keep it in mind. Thankfully the MAC ones don’t dry up
Thanks 🙂
I just take out a bit of my gel liner on the back of my hand….dip my liner brush into my eye makup remover(maybelline bi-phasic one) and then use it as usual 😀 (i used to do oil painting…..saved so many pots of colors using similar method 😀 )
wow! That is so unique!! thanks for sharing! 🙂
Wow just at the right time 🙂 will try on my coffee gel liner from Elf thanks for Sharing!!
😀 cool! most welcome dear!! 🙂
wow thats an awesome tip. m doing this today itself. thanks!
Most welcome Ayesha 🙂
wonderful tip. Thank you for sharing with us
Glad u liked it , most welcome Nidhi 🙂
great tip nafisa 🙂
Thanks Inderjeet! 😀
wow gr8 tips nafisa……..will def try it love the eye make up
Thanks Hana! 🙂 n hope it helps u out too!
great 🙂
thanks!
Welcome Triya! 🙂
wow….excellent method…thnx for this…:)
😀 thanks Renji! 🙂
Wow! Didn’t know this 🙂
Thanks Nafisa 🙂
Glad to point it out 😀 most welcome Abinaya 🙂
My maybelline liner is drying up, even I thought about adding baby oil but was scared that it would become gooey. thanks for sharing Nafisa!
🙂 I was so scared too so can totally imagine!! Beyond glad it worked out n happy to share! Most welcome 🙂
this was my problme 3 days ago nd i used both the eye drops nd warm water method suggested by heer
🙂 glad v can rescue these liners!
wow.. by far the simplest and effective way.. I am going to rescue my e.l.f cream liner now.. 😀 😀
Thanks so much hun for sharing your tip.. 🙂
Most welcome sweets 🙂 <3
Interesting post 🙂
Thanks 🙂 🙂
hey…………i read the article first….forgot to read the name of the writer….and somehow i guessed it was you 😛 😛 and it WAS you!!!! superb idea yar!!! simple superb!!
Hihihi 😀 so cool that u cud make out! how exactly though? 😀
n thanks! 🙂
Thank you, great ideea. Does it work on Paint Pots also?
Welcome Sandra, have not tried on paint pots so can’t say for sure 🙂
Wow thanks Nafisa. Great tip! Even I love gel liners since kohl gives me raccoon eyes 😉 This is gonna be a great help for us oily-lidded-gel-liner-loving beauties 🙂
Most welcome Aruna 🙂 glad cud point out this tip to y’all 🙂
hey!
thanks for the great tip! just a question though, does it affect the staying power of the gel eyeliner?
welcome 🙂
n nopes it hasnt effected that at all , the gel liner just becomes same as it always was, jst th texture changed n became criemier 🙂
good to know! thanks again 🙂
Can we use olive oil too?
My Maybelline gel liner have dried so bad :weep:
Wow !!! Great idea . I just want to know …will it stick to the eyes as earlier it was ?. Because of it creamy texture it can be smudged 🤔🤔
Hi,
It’s a very helpful post. I’ve used coconut oil for my dried up Maybelline gel liner. It has worked like a charm. The shelf life of the product has increased at least 6 months. Next time I would try the baby oil. The most amazing part of using a few drops of oil is that the liner becomes creamy enough to spread well, yet it doesn’t smudge. However, I feel that it takes a little more time to set properly. That’s okay with me though. Thanks for sharing the tip.