Drugstore Dupe Alert: Revlon Emerald vs Urban Decay Junkie 24/7 Liner

When I saw this post by Blushing Noir with her swatch of Revlon's Grow Luscious Emerald liner, I thought it might be a viable dupe for Urban Decay Junkie 24/7 Liner. I've been obsessed with Junkie ever since I saw it featured on Mu-Tokki but it isn't available from Urban Decay other than in their Holiday 2011 Electric 24/7 Travel Size Set of 5. While Emerald isn't a perfect dupe, for Junkie, I do think it's close enough though to stave off cravings for the more expensive Urban Decay liner.

A comparison of the two pencils, Junkie on the left and Emerald on the right. Both are in a plastic barrel as opposed to a wooden barrel.

The left scribbly swatch is Revlon Emerald, right scribbly swatch is Urban Decay Junkie. The left single swipe is Emerald and the right single swipe is Junkie.


A closeup of the scribbly swatches. Though it looks like the Emerald is sheerer than Junkie, it actually turns out that Emerald is more pigmented in one swipe when applied on the eyes. Emerald and Junkie have a very similar colored base but the reason that Junkie looks bluer is because Emerald has a higher concentration of the sparkle that makes it appear the slightest bit more green. Though the difference looks quite drastic here, it isn't as prominent when worn on the eyes.

I applied both on my eyes so you could see just how subtle the differences are when worn. Emerald is on the upper lashline, Junkie is on the lower lashline.

I think the two are so similar, but I do like the slightly bluer Junkie. Junkie does have its downsides because it is sheerer in one pass (but can be built up to similar opacity) and can't be purchased on its own quite yet (only in the Holiday 2011 Kit on Urban Decay) so its availability is quite restricted.

Emerald on the other hand is pigmented in one swipe, readily available at any drugstore, $8.99 for .04 grams and often goes on sale (I got it for 40% off this week at Rite Aid). As an added benefit, Emerald is a Grow Luscious liner with a formula that is supposed to "help support healthy lashes" though I don't necessarily give much credence to that. If you don't have a Rite Aid nearby, you can get it on Amazon for about $5!

I usually don't like to wear pencil liners because they transfer a little more easily on my oily Asian eyes when I wear them on my upper lashline (which are slightly hooded). The Revlon liner makes no mention of wear time which was troubling at first because I thought it meant that it would have virtually no wear time. It turns out though that it fared quite similarly to the Urban Decay 24/7 liner on me (your mileage will definitely vary, it always seems like the products that last amazing on everyone is less impressive on me because of my eye shape)

With or without primer (I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance), both lasted about 4 1/2 hours before I started seeing the slightest hint of transfer on my eyelid (and I do mean the slightest hint, I was looking hard). Wear time is much better if I wear eyeshadow underneath the liner (over 8 hours).

I hope you guys found this post useful! Thank you so much to everyone wishing me luck on my finals :D I managed four A's and one B this semester (the 2nd B I've ever gotten in college) and I may or may not have rewarded myself with a Fyrinnae order that I'll be posting about tomorrow :X (I had a gift card from Klout so really, I didn't pay anything out of pocket!)