This Near-Magic Lip Liner Makes My Lips Look Like I Got Filler
My seemingly endless search for the perfect lip liner is finally over.
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by Audie Metcalf
I wish I had the bravery for filler. I wish the newly formed lines on my shrinking lips didn’t bother me so much. I wish the ever-expanding gap between my top lip and nose wasn’t all I saw in photos of myself.
I share this so that you really believe me when I tell you that I have tried over 100 “your lips but better” lip liner colors and formulas in the last few years, and that isn’t hyperbole. Most of them are too orange, and the rest are too pink. And if the color is sort of ok, the formula is too hard and doesn’t glide easily. And if the color is ok and the formula is ok, it still just ends up looking … ok. Not like I have bigger lips, just that I’m wearing lip liner. All of this to say, a few months ago, I found a lip liner that really and truly changed my life. Insofar as a lip liner can change a person’s life. Which, let’s be honest, it absolutely can.
I wrote about this lip liner so much on our site, it got the attention of Merit Beauty, and now I am sort of gobsmacked and humbled to say that this article is now an official collaboration with them. But as you can see, the chicken and egg scenario is that I found this product months ago, shouted it from the rooftops, and now here we are. So after all these ridiculously verbose paragraphs, let’s get to the goods. It’s the Merit Signature Sheer Lip Liner in the color bespoke*, and it is utterly, utterly, uniquely perfect:
In this case, it is both the formula and the color that are wildly different from anything I have ever used in my 33 years of wearing makeup. I can’t say why exactly, so I think it’s best I just show you with a visual:
This is … astonishing, yes? So the color is unlike any color that exists. It’s simply undupable. UNDUPABLE! It’s a little bit brownish but it actually has a very mauvey pink to it, so that it nevvvvvvver looks orange, which is always the dead giveaway of “LOOK AT MY LINER I USE TO PRETEND I HAVE BIGGER LIPS” and why most of us hate how we look in lip liner.
But here’s its other magic: it’s sheer. It’s wild no one has done this before, but it gives almost a shadow effect instead of an opaque line, making it, well, the single best lip liner of all time IF your goal is to make your lips look bigger and juicier and plumper. Which seems like a universal goal, yes? I originally bought like 6 liners in bespoke because it was sold out for months and I actually got quite panicky. But now I get the lip duo* with the bespoke liner and the tinted lip oil*, which is all I’m wearing in this before-and-after photo on the right:
And here’s the lip liner shown with a whole face of Merit, so you can see the whole shebang in action, including the most incredible, lengthening mascara* for hooded eyes:
And so. In conclusion. Merit is very, very good. The lip liner* will change your life. The rest of it will definitely change your face. And of course, if you support this article by sharing it or, gasp, buying something from it, perhaps Merit will work with us again, and I’ll continue to have a job so that I can bring you similarly urgent news that will help you like what you see in the mirror every morning. A not insignificant thing.
Audie Metcalf is the Editor-in-chief of The Candidly, and lives in LA with her family. You can find more of her articles here.
We only work with companies we feel passionately about, and this post contains sponsored content. Our opinions are 100% our own, and in fact we only work with brands AFTER we've discovered something of theirs we love. Supporting this content means we all get to keep doing what we're doing here at The Candidly. And keep our jobs. So thanks for that.
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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