We Tested 20 Liners For The Perfect Cat Eye — Here’s The Ranking

When it comes to beauty feats of strength, crafting the perfect cat-eye ranks pretty high on the list. From nailing the outer flick to oh, recreating it to a T on the other eye, *pats sweat off brow* it can be intimidating for makeup novices and seasoned pros alike.

And with holiday parties and winter weddings galore on our Google Calendar, we're standing by this statement: Winged liner is the LBD of makeup, meaning that it'll likely be in heavy rotation over the next couple months. Well, in the name of quality journalism, the R29 shopping team dutifully spent the past month testing, reapplying (shoutout to the ones that stayed put all day — not all of them did), and accidentally rubbing off 20 different formulas.

As for our testers, there's Marissa (our shopping director and boss lady), Emily (our fashion guru), Liz, (lifestyle editor and coming for Martha Stewart's throne), and me, the beauty & wellness whisperer with a love affair with snatched, sharp winged liner. We all have a moderate level of expertise when it comes to cat-eyes (none of us are novice nor pro), and as you'll read in the mini reviews below, all had wildly different #hottakes when it comes to the eyeliners tested. Find out which ones topped our list starting from the ones that could use a little improvement to our 5-star MVP.