I THINK IT MAY BE… Ever since I had my make up done by that lovely artist in Brown Thomas, lining my upper inner eyelid has been an inviolate part of my beauty routine. I had been happy enough with the pencil I’d ended up buying, but quickly switched to an Origins dial-up one. No, not like an old modem: the type of liner that doesn’t require sharpening because the product is encased in plastic.

Then Origins stopped selling their make up line in Ireland, and I began casting around, desperately, for a replacement. I eventually settled on my famous Karaja’s Super Longwear Semi-Permanent Soft Eyeliner, which has been the perfect replacement…

But I began to feel like I needed to replace the replacement, and only due to technical difficulties, which have resulted in using the pencil unerringly for a long time. It has gotten shorter. Because it is shorter, my hand is closer to my eye, and my eye thinks I am about to poke it out, because the fingers are so close. As a result, I blink like a crazy-blinking person, and I can’t get a good line on my inner eyelid.

Quel horreur! I’d been down this road before, and felt like I’d tried everything! And then I decided to give the Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense in Intense Black a go. I had tried a Clinique pencil in the past — the wooden kind you have to sharpen — and wasn’t that keen. This one though? It is gooood. It’s the dial-up sort, and the line is always thin and precise. It has a bit of the ish that the regular pencil had, in that the product is so soft, it tends to smear during the course of the day/night. If you mind it, you can nip in the bud before you start looking like a panda. Otherwise, my eyes no longer fear the poking, and that softness does, of course, have its plus side: this goes on smooth as silk.

I’ve also got one in Intense Plum. I think that may be a great way to shake up the look.

€17.50/£14/$15