There’s some thing exotic about loose kohl powder. Matin said that everyone in his native Afghanistan used surma (kohl) powder to line their eyes and that it remains his favorite product to use. My husband, who grew up in Calcutta, remembers how the Afghan wallahs walked up and down the streets peddling surma and hing, a sulfurous natural resin used in cooking (because of its odor, hing is usually cut with rice flour or chickpea flour).

L’Oreal HiP high intensity pigments™ Kohl Eyeliner

Now L’Oreal has come out with its HiP high intensity pigments™ Kohl Eyeliner. At $12-13, it’s nearly one-third the cost of Guerlain Terracotta Loose Powder Kohl Liner ($34.00), a similar product.

When I first tried L’Oreal HIP Kohl Eyeliner , I had a lot of problems with smearing on my lower lids – as though I had some sort of Alice Cooper thing going on. At first, I thought that it might be the Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer that I was using. The Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer has a lot of slip, due to the presence of silicones. I switched to L’Oreal True Match™ Super-Blendable Concealer , but had the same problem.

With some experimentation, I learned how to work HiP high intensity pigments™ Kohl Eyeliner. Here’s how:

* Stroke the fine-tipped brush on the back of your hand to remove excess.
* Apply. The brush enables you to get right at the root of your lashes.
* To intensify or smudge the line, pick up the pigment on your hand with a chisel-head eyeliner brush, and smudge

You might also use a sealer, but bypass an overpriced product like Paula Dorf Transformer ($19-20) in favor of La Femme Cake Eyeliner Sealer ($3.50) through makeupmania.com.

Now that I’ve gotten the hang of using HiP high intensity pigments™ Kohl Eyeliner, I’m enjoying using it.

You may find HiP high intensity pigments™ Kohl Eyeliner at big box stores (Target, Walmart), supermarkets, drugstores (particularly The Big Three), and drugstore.com.