How To Sharpen a Plastic Lip Liner

When you find the perfect shade of lip liner for your lips, chances are you’ll use it most of the time. But a dull lip liner pencil can be a challenge to use. It is more challenging to be precise, and if you’re not careful, your beautiful lips will look like clown makeup. 

So what do you do when your plastic lip liner is dull? You sharpen it! But if you don’t know how to sharpen a plastic lip liner, you could waste a lot of product trying to sharpen it. 

Or maybe you are unable to sharpen it properly or are afraid to sharpen it because it isn’t a typical liner with a wooden shaft.

Regardless, we’ll help you get your lip liner back on point! 

Did you know that there are lip liner sharpeners that are specifically made for plastic lip liners? That’s right, the ones that you typically find in drug stores are usually designed for wooden lips and eyeliners. 

In this article we’ll go over how to sharpen a plastic lip liner, and what you’ll need to get it done!

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Plastic Lip Liners 101

Lip liners are nifty makeup products that allow you to precisely line your lips so that you can put more emphasis on them. They can make your lips look fuller, and better define your lips.

They are usually made of wood or plastic encasement with pigment in the middle. 

When it comes to how the products look, the plastic and wooden lip liners look pretty similar. Sometimes, you may not be able to easily identify which is which, and you might pick up one accidentally that’s a plastic lip liner . 

The main difference between the two is the material used for the pencil. Traditionally, wood is used for lip liners. However, there are now lip liners with a plastic encasement. 

When it comes to functionality, they are the same as wooden eyeliners. However, when it comes to sharpening them, the process can be different. 

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How To Sharpen a Plastic Lip Liner

When sharpening a plastic lip liner, it’s possible a regular sharpener could work. But most of the time it doesn’t. A standard sharpener may not be able to create that fine and clean point that you want to achieve. 

To properly sharpen your plastic lip liner, you need to find the right kind of sharpener for it. There are a few options that you could select from.

1. Double-Blade Sharpener

Have you ever tried sharpening your plastic lip liner with a regular sharpener? Chances are you’ve become frustrated because it keeps on breaking. No matter how carefully you try to use the sharpener, you could still end up breaking it. 

The reason for this is that plastic, compared to wood, is softer. The usual sharpeners that are available in the market are made of strong blades so that they can successfully carve through the wood.

However, these tear up the plastic pencils. 

This is where double-blade sharpeners come into the picture. As the name implies, these sharpeners are made up of two blades, the primary and the secondary. 

The function of the secondary blade in this type of sharpener is to help create a cleaner tip or smoother edge. The double-blades are better as compared to a single strong blade when it comes to sharpening plastic lip liners. 

When you use a double-blade sharpener, you can sharpen the plastic liner faster and cleaner. If you decide to purchase a double-blade sharpener, make sure to select one with good quality too. It can also be difficult to find one because most that are available are single-bladed only.

When you use a double-blade sharpener, you can sharpen the plastic liner faster and cleaner. 

2. Single-Blade Sharpener

Although the best sharpener for plastic lip liners is the double-blade sharpener. It is still possible to sharpen the plastic lip liner with the use of a single-blade sharpener .

However, it is more likely for the plastic lip liners to have a jagged edge if they are used. 

If you can’t find any double-blade sharpeners and are only accessible to single-blade ones, make sure that you select a high-quality one.

It needs to be very sharp, but it doesn’t need to be too strong to sharpen your plastic lip liner properly. 

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Useful Tips When It Comes To Sharpening Your Plastic Lip Liner

Finding a double-blade sharpener is one of the best things you should do to properly sharpen your plastic lip liner.

Apart from that, there are other things that you could do to further improve the results. Here are some tips and tricks you can follow:

1. Freeze The Lip Liner

It may seem a weird tip to freeze your lip liner, but this is quite useful and it works. You don’t need to put on your lip liner in the freezer for a long time. You only need to pop it in for about 15 to 30 minutes and that will work. 

Putting your lip liner inside the freezer will help the pigment harden a bit so it is easier to sharpen. This helps ensure that you achieve a smooth surface and a smooth cut.

Putting your lip liner inside the freezer will help the pigment harden a bit so it is easier to sharpen. 

It would be best not to leave it inside the freezer for far too long. 30 minutes is enough to dsharden the pigment. 

2. Regularly Clean Your Sharpener

After using your sharpener, it is important to always clean it. Even if you are the only one who is using it, you should clean the sharpener regularly. This is to prevent makeup buildup that could quickly happen. 

If you let the old makeup buildup in your sharpener, it could interfere greatly with the process of sharpening. It can act as a block, resulting in you not getting the tip that you wanted. 

Apart from that, it is also possible for the bacteria to reside in sharpeners. That could cause contamination when your lip liner sticks to the old makeup residue. 

Cleaning your sharpener is easy, just grab some alcohol and a cotton swab. Soak the cotton swab in alcohol then use it to wipe the inside and outside of the sharpener. 

You may need to repeat this process, depending on the amount of residue that’s on your sharpener. 

This is recommended to be done at least once a week. But it would be best to clean your sharpener after you use it each time.

That way, buildup won’t happen especially when you tend to use your sharpener often. 

3. Give Your Lip Liner A Test

After sharpening your lip liner, you need to give it a try by applying it to the back of your hand. Swatch the product to see if the small line that you’ve drawn is even and smooth. 

Sometimes, it may have a very sharp or even a jagged edge. By swatching it at the back of your hand, you can smooth the tip so that it is smooth enough when used on your lips. 

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Sharpening Without A Sharpener

Ok double bladed sharpener, got it. But it’s not going to come for two days, and you have a date in 30 minutes! Is it still possible to sharpen your plastic lip liner?

Well, there are a few ways to do that, but we only recommend trying these in a pinch. 

1. Use An X-Acto Knife

The X-Acto knife  is known to be a sharp knife and has many uses. One of these uses is to sharpen your plastic lip liner. 

To use this, make sure that your movements are away from you because this knife is very sharp. Simply apply a bit of pressure toward the tip of the pencil.

2. Use Scissors

Scissors aren’t the ideal tools to use to sharpen your plastic lip liner pencil, but you could use them if there is nothing else to use. When using the scissors, you only need one of the blades, and use it as you would if you were using the knife. 

Be careful about the other blade because you can accidentally cut yourself. Make sure to do this very carefully and only do it if you don’t have anything else to use. 

3. Use A Pencil Sharpener

A normal pencil sharpener that you use for No. 2 Dixon Ticonderogas could also be a substitute for makeup sharpeners. However, you have to remember that these weren’t made for your makeup, so they will waste some product.

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Conclusion

Although each of these three solutions could be used to sharpen the plastic lip liner, they aren’t ideal. You could use them only when you need to have your plastic lip liner sharpened immediately.

If not, it is best to get the proper double bladed sharpener first. 

If you do use one of these methods, remember that they may not produce the same results as if you were to use the ideal sharpeners. They could be jagged and can also waste your product because it could keep breaking.