There’s nothing worse (in makeup land, that is) than going to line your pout with your favorite nude, red, or bright lip liner only to find it is broken. The tip has broken off or the wooden component has shattered in the sharpener. Perhaps the product has dried into a sad little crumble.
Don’t toss it in the bin just yet, as you may just be able to salvage it!
Here’s my trusty little guide for how to fix broken lip liners.
How to fix broken lip liners
Wood pencil liners
The issue: the wooden tip is breaking off and shattering into a mess of splinters when you try to sharpen it.
The fix: check your sharpener to see if it is caked with product, and give it a clean with a Q-tip soaked in water or makeup remover. Make sure to dry it off thoroughly.
If the sharpener stores the shavings and is full, empty it. If the shavings compartment is very full, it can cause the liner to be pushed away from the blades—meaning they can’t get a clean shave.
The issue: the liner is dry and crumbly.
The fix: give the liner a gentle sharpen to remove the outermost layer (hoping that it won’t simply crumble away). Hold the tip over the flame of a lighter for a couple of seconds. Be careful to hold it as far away from the flame as you can to avoid completely melting the product.
You should now be able to draw a clean line with the soft, slightly heated product.
Plastic sharpener liners and retractable liners
The issue: some lip pencils come in plastic components that can be sharpened just like a wooden pencil. If the product inside dries out, it tends to shrink and come away from the sides of the liner. This causes the liner to slip and slide around, eventually sliding right out of the component. Retractable liners can suffer this fate too— meaning they can no longer be screwed up or down.
The fix: find an old lip balm pot (or buy a fresh, clean one). Slide the liner out of the pencil and, with clean hands, break it into pieces and put them in the container.
Warm a metal teaspoon under hot water until it is hot to touch. Use the back of the spoon to gently heat and melt the liner fragments. Press the pieces with the spoon until they create one solid mass of product. Add a small amount of plain, clear lip balm or even a dollop of Vaseline and combine. You’ve now got a solid lipstick or balm in the shade of your tragically-broken liner!
Get fresh liners!
Liners running out of steam? Get some fresh new lip liners by shopping our collection of lip liners!
LiveGlam