Beauty MAC Eye Kohl Smolder Vs Colour Excess Liner, Compared Here
MAC's classic Eye Kohl and the modern Colour Excess gel pencil serve different liner needs. One is soft and smudgy, the other is bold and waterproof. The table compares them directly.
| Factor | MAC Eye Kohl Eyeliner-Smolder 1.36 g / 0 | MAC Colour Excess Gel Pencil Eye Liner - |
|---|---|---|
| Product | MAC Eye Kohl Eyeliner, Smolder | MAC Colour Excess Gel Pencil, Isn't It Iron-Ic |
| Texture | Soft creamy kohl | Intense gel |
| Best for | Smoky blended eyes | Sharp waterproof lines |
| Waterline safe | Yes, ophthalmologist tested | Yes |
| Wear | 6 to 8 hours, set with shadow | All-day waterproof |
| Blendability | Excellent | Sets fast, less blendable |
| Price | Check price | Check price |
Our Verdict
Buy MAC Eye Kohl Smolder if you want the iconic soft kohl for smoky eyes and waterline definition. Its blendability is unmatched for lived-in looks. Buy Colour Excess gel pencil if you want intense, waterproof lines that stay sharp all day. It suits precise wings and long wear needs. Most kohl lovers should start with the classic Eye Kohl, since it defines the category. If your liner always smudges by noon, the gel pencil solves that problem.
More Top Picks in This Category
Not sold on either of these two? Here are more bestselling options worth considering.
Best for: budget kohl alternative
wet n wild Color Icon Kohl Eyeliner Pencil - Rich Hyper-Pigmented Color, Smooth Creamy Application, Long-Wearing Matte Finish Versatility, Cruelty-Free - Simma Brown Now!
- Hyper-pigmented kohl
- Cruelty-free formula
- Under-one-dollar price
Pros
- Unbeatable price
- Surprisingly good pigment
- Good for practice
Cons
- Shorter wear than MAC
- Less refined texture
Want the Full Picture?
Which Eyeliner Colors Flatter Which Eye Colors
The Smolder versus Colour Excess comparison here centers on black and alternative shades, and the eye-color pairing rules go far beyond "black suits everyone." Brown eyes are the most versatile: they take black for drama, but also glow with bronze, copper, and deep plum liners that pick up the amber flecks. Blue eyes pop hardest against warm contrasts, bronze, copper, and warm brown, which sit opposite blue on the color wheel; black works but can overwhelm fair skin. Green eyes ignite with plum, burgundy, and reddish-brown liners. Hazel eyes shift with the liner: bronze pulls the green, plum pulls the gold.
The daytime rule that nobody states plainly: brown or bronze liner for day, black for night. Black liner in daylight, especially on fair skin or with minimal other makeup, can look harsh because the contrast exceeds what natural light flatters. A rich brown gives 80 percent of the definition with none of the severity. This is why brown-black shades like Demolition-style colors outsell pure black for daily wear.
White and nude on the waterline deserve their place in the discussion. They make eyes look bigger and more awake by brightening the inner rim, which is why they are a staple for tired eyes and photography. The effect is optical, not corrective; they do not change eye shape, they just maximize the appearance of whiteness around the iris. Pair a nude waterline with tightlined upper lashes for the wide-awake look without visible liner. Our Charlotte Tilbury Feline Flick guide covers wing techniques that pair with these color choices.
Removing Waterproof and Long-Wear Liner Without Losing Lashes
Stubborn liners like long-wear kohls do not dissolve in regular cleanser, and the scrubbing people resort to is a real cause of lash loss. The lashes at the outer corner are the most vulnerable because that is where people scrub hardest. The method that protects them: saturate a cotton pad with an oil-based or dual-phase eye makeup remover, press it gently over the closed eye for twenty to thirty seconds, then wipe softly downward. The waiting time does the dissolving; the wiping should be almost pressure-free.
Ranked by removal difficulty: standard pencil liner comes off with any cleanser; waterproof pencil needs an oil-based remover; gel and long-wear liquid need the full press-and-wait method; and layered liner-plus-shadow needs two passes. Matching the remover to the formula prevents both the scrubbing that costs lashes and the residue that causes morning-after eye irritation and styes.
The overnight residue problem is underrated. Liner left on overnight migrates into the eyes during sleep, causing redness and sometimes styes, and the pigment stains the lash line over time. Even when exhausted, the sixty-second remover-pad routine beats sleeping in liner. Micellar water on a pad works for non-waterproof formulas and is the gentlest daily option. The waterproof eye pencil guide ranks formulas by how hard they are to remove.
Cost Per Use: The Kohl Pencil Math
Eyeliner pricing misleads because the product amounts differ wildly. A prestige kohl pencil like MAC's contains less product than it appears, and soft kohls get used up faster than hard pencils because each application deposits more. The honest math: estimate your applications per pencil by tracking one pencil's lifespan. Daily users typically get six to ten weeks from a soft kohl used on both upper and lower lines, versus three to five months from a harder pencil used for tightlining only.
Sharpening waste is the hidden cost of wood pencils. Each sharpening removes product, and aggressive sharpeners can waste a third of the pencil over its life. The cold-sharpen technique and stopping at a usable rather than perfect point stretch the pencil noticeably. Retractables waste less to sharpening but the twist mechanisms sometimes jam or break with product still inside, which is its own form of waste.
The value comparison that matters is cost per month of daily wear, not price per pencil. A pencil lasting two months prices vary monthly; an pencil lasting three weeks costs roughly monthly too. When the monthly costs converge, choose by performance and comfort, not price. And for the shades you wear daily, buying during brand sales rather than at full price is the simplest savings available. Our Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On guide discusses another prestige pencil's value equation.