When I decide that I want to try a new makeup product, I become very impatient. I want to try it NOW. Not tomorrow, not next week, right.this.minute. So when I visited every beauty counter within a 5 mile radius of my apartment looking for the Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencil ($24) and was told that it was sold out everywhere, that just made me want it more.
“It’s our most popular product, we can’t keep it in stock,” said a chorus of store clerks.
I needed this liner! So I impatiently waited, for three weeks, until my order finally arrived from Sephora.
Now, I am a huge fan of most of Bobbi’s products. She makes my favorite blush, my favorite bronzer and my favorite gel eyeliner. So I thought that this pencil would also enter the realm of beloved products, but boy, was I wrong.
I purchased the black plum pencil because my favorite Bobbi Liner is the violet ink gel. The color was not a deep eggplant, as advertised, but more of a dark smoky mauve. Disappointing.
The pencil came with a sharpener, but no matter how much I sharpened, and boy, did I sharpen, I could not get the fine line that I’m used to. The second the pencil touched the warm skin on my eye it melted into a thick mauve line. Yippee.
The other issue was that you could not darken the line to save your life. I would apply one coat, which went on moderately opaque. Wanting a darker, heavier color, I applied again. No change. So I applied one.more.time and was shocked when the pencil marred the existing line, leaving me with an application that could best be described as Early Morning Heroin Addict Chic.
I cannot endorse this product’s color or formulation. In brief, I loathed it. However, I still love the Bobbi gel liner in the pot, and will happily endorse that as a replacement for women who want boldly pigmented long-wearing liner.
The NARS long-wear pencil liner is much better than Bobbi Brown's version. Better staying power and color saturation. But, it also goes on thick and is hard to sharpen. I wonder if it's the formula that makes it so soft. If you want a pencil with staying power AND a sharp line AND great pigmentation, try Armani Beauty. They cost a bit more, but are worth it.
I ordered the Mahogany pencil after very mixed reviews online. I've had it a month or so now and absolutely love it! I haven't had any of the problems brought up by other reviews and have been happy with the results. I do tend to like a more smudged/blended look though, so don't want a very fine line.
It might be the particular color as well. I have a NARS pencil in a blue shade that I liked so much I bought the same one in a purple shade and it was a completely different pencil (much less pigmentation for one).