Here's how to prevent your eyeliner from smudging at all

Searching for a smudge-proof solution to streaky gel liner? Brace yourself for a tremendous tip that's guaranteed to blow your brains clean out of your skull.

Drumroll, please - just don't use eyeliner. Make for mascara or a brow gel to line your lids instead.

Wait, what? But, but how? Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. Here's how.

Grab an angled eyeliner brush and dip it in mascara or brow gel - you can check out my previously posted selection of the swankiest mascaras around, but my obsession du jour has got to be Laura Mercier's perfectly pigmented and totally transfer-proof Brow Dimension Fiber-Infused Colour Gel, $38 from September 2016.

In any case, proceed to brandish the brush like you would with any eyeliner and go to town on your lids.

This cool scoop comes courtesy of my Mum herself - yes, Mdm Quek is a veritable warehouse of wisdom! - who says that she stumbled upon this secret when she was clinking champers at one of her hoity-toity high tea shindigs and discovered with dismay that she had extinguished her eyeliner supply. Some emergency experimentation with her trusty tube of brow gel and the rest, as they say, is history.

How this trick works

Okay, there's the obvious and perfectly valid rebuttal - waterproof gel liners are a dime a dozen on the beauty market - but hey, most of these gel liners come in tedious twist-cap tubs that are cumbersome to carry around, and ain't nobody has time for that.

Then there's how most mascaras and brow gels have a weightier proportion of waxes and oils in their formulas, making them highly "hydrophobic" (chem-speak for water-repellant) and therefore better suited for our budge-proof purposes. Translation: Moisture-resistant mascaras and budge-proof brow products make for an excellent eyeliner alternative.

Are we seeing eye to eye yet? Good. So do as my Mum does and make your mascara or brow product work doubly hard for its money. Simply slip your multi-tasking makeup marvel together with a slim liner brush into your beauty bag, then try not to smirk as the jaws of your girlfriends drop as you casually dip it into your mascara tube when touching up in the powder-room.

Botoxed brows still raised in skepticism? Let us know if you know of any eyeliners that live up to their smudgeproof name - Laura Mercier's new Instant Ink 24-Hour Brush Eyeliner, $49 from September 2016, is an incredibly competent contender - and do me a favour by sharing this story with your fellow beauty buddies. Cheers to getting your everlasting eyeliner on fleek!

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