7 Iconic Eyeliners and the 7 Affordable Dupes You'll Love Even More

Regardless of whether you're a liquid, gel, or kohl type of person, if you frequently ride the liner train (translation: You rely on it to look awake each morning like your life depends on it), you know how pivotal finding the absolute perfect formula is. Once you've found your holy-grail pot, pencil, or what have you, chances are you're never letting go Jack and Rose–style. But there is a but, or rather, a budget

Eyeliners fall into that annoying category of beauty products that seem like they should only cost $5 but typically manage to run us upward of $15, $20, even $30. Uh, not cool! Previously, we've grinned, purchased, and born it, but what if we were to tell you this little place called the drugstore is home to formulas that are identical to, if not better than, some of the best eyeliners in the business? 

Hung Vanngo x Elsa Hosk Elvis Premiere

(Image credit: @hungvanngo)

What to Look For

Part of our jobs as beauty editors is to test and review endless products, setting apart the ones that reach and exceed our expectations from those that don't even get close. Before investing in any eyeliner (no matter the price point), it helps to identify what you want from the product. For example, is longevity the name of the game, or does color payoff and versatility matter more? Would a multipurpose product that doubles as an eye shadow be helpful in your makeup routine or get in the way of your creativity?

Taking the formula of particular products into consideration can also hugely impact your experience with your eyeliner. While liquid eyeliners often deliver pigment and control, gel pencils are easy to use and super practical. It all depends on what you want from your product, so it's smart to shop accordingly. Now, we love our Stilas, Laura Merciers, Bobbi Browns, and Kat Von Ds just as much as anyone, but when we have bills to pay, Postmates to order, and highly salted overpriced margaritas to sip, our enthusiasm for extremely expensive eyeliners starts to wane.

Thus, in the spirit of saving money without sacrificing our perfectly eyelined prerogative, we set out to find the seven best dupes to match the seven best eyeliners. Ahead, the crème de la crème of drugstore pencils, pots, felt tips, and, yes, even rollerballs, that give cult-status eyeliners a serious run for their money performance-wise and completely whip their bums price-wise. Keep scrolling! 

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This article was originally published at an earlier date and has been updated.

Beauty Director

Erin has been writing a mix of beauty and wellness content for Who What Wear for over four years. Prior to that, she spent two and half years writing for Byrdie. She now calls Santa Monica home but grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and studied writing, rhetoric, and communication at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, and spent a summer in L.A. interning with the Byrdie and Who What Wear family. After graduating from UW, she spent one year in San Francisco, where she worked as a writer for Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen before moving down to L.A. to begin her career as a beauty editor. She considers her day-to-day beauty aesthetic very low-maintenance and relies on staples like clear brow serum (from Kimiko!), Lawless's Lip Plumping Mask in Cherry Vanilla, and an eyelash curler. For special occasions or days when she's taking more meetings or has an event, she'll wear anything and everything from Charlotte Tilbury (the foundations are game-changing), some shimmer on her lids (Stila and Róen do it best), and a few coats of the best mascara-type product on earth, Surratt's Noir Lash Tint.

With contributions from