No Lie, You Can Find 5 of the Best Lip Liners at the Drugstore—Here’s Your $10-and-Under Shopping List

Harper Rose4 hours agoLast Updated: 23 December 2024

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No Lie, You Can Find 5 of the Best Lip Liners at the Drugstore—Here's Your $10-and-Under Shopping List

Lip liner is one of those products that can feel unnecessary (I can apply lipstick pretty well without one, ahem) until I remember how much of an impact they have. You don’t even have to spend a ton of cash—the best drugstore lip liners can easily accentuate one’s natural lip shape or, depending on how it’s drawn, deliciously exaggerate your lip shape. (I once got my lipstick done by a makeup artist who magically made my lips into a more defined, Rihanna-style Cupid’s bow.) Allan “Whitey” Snyder, makeup artist for Marilyn Monroe, knew the power of lip liner, having used darker shades along the edges of her lips to create a contoured effect.

When I was a teen, you’d always find lip liner in my vintage lunch-box purse—and more often than actual lipstick. This was the late ’90s, so I was either using a brownish lip liner with Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker (influenced by my chola classmates) or lining my lips with black eyeliner and filling it in with red lipstick. This was my perfectly witchy, Nancy Downs–inspired look. Hung Vanngo recently executed a similar look on Selena Gomez (using Rare Beauty Kind Words Matte Lip Liners in Strong, $15, and Devoted, $15), but obviously way, way better than mine.

As I mentioned, you don’t have to spend much money to find high-quality lip liners that glide on like buttah and have an assortment of shades. While there are some incredible mid-priced or high-end lip liners (Refy Lip Blur Lip Liner, $24, and Makeup by Mario Ultra Suede Sculpting Lip Pencil, $24, I’m talking to you!), there are tons of drugstore lip liners that do the job just as well as, or even better than, pricier ones. To find the best drugstore lip liners, I tested a range of favorites and best sellers to see which ones delivered on precision, pigment, and staying power—without breaking the bank.