The inspiration for this post came to me as I was sharpening my Charlotte Tilbury Diamond Eyes Eyeshadow Pencil. I can even pinpoint the exact moment – it was the sound of my expensive eye pencil being mangled and crunched as I rotated it.
I do own a Charlotte Tilbury pencil sharpener, but the clear ziplock bag I keep sharpeners in was murky – how DO you keep sharpeners clean? Also, top (obvious) tip, always sharpen make up pencils in the bathroom. It’s a lot easier to scrape off a waxy smudge of pencil from a tiled floor, than a carpeted one.
BENEFIT ALL PURPOSE PENCIL SHARPENER
Keep pencils on point with this universal sharpener.
It adjusts to fit 3 pencil sizes from standard to jumbo and sharpens brow & eye pencils to a perfect tip for precise application.
- Removable size-adjuster – Haven’t found a pencil yet that fits this ‘adjuster’ aka little plastic hoop
- Eye-catching pink – Gets grubby very quickly. Have you ever tried wiping pencil lead from plastic?
- Includes blade-cleaning tool – Useless little plastic stick
If you don’t like your pencils overly pointy and razor sharp tipped, then this might be perfect for you. None of the pencils came out super sharp, all had a faintly rounded tip.
PENCILS THAT FIT
CHANEL SCULPTING EYEBROW PENCIL
Old favourite. Little bit expensive, but if you have non existent fair brows, then the lightest shade 10 Blond Clair, will give you natural looking, polished brows. The pencil is surprisingly hard, so doesn’t need frequent sharpening which means it lasts longer.
CHARLOTTE TILBURY ROCK ‘N’ KOHL (Review here)
A bit of a pain to use, it’s very soft and needs to ‘set’ in your waterline. If you get it on your lower lashes then it’s tricky to pick off. I put all my pencils in the fridge overnight before sharpening, but of course the lead on this one never hardens up.
I still haven’t found an reliable alternative, Benefit Eye Bright is still knocking about, but I find the pencil too chunky to use on my waterline. I bought MAC Studio Chromagraphic Pencil and although the colour is very natural looking (it comes in 3 shades too), it wears within a couple of hours.
CHARLOTTE TILBURY DIAMOND EYES (Review here)
I love this pencil. QUICK TIP A couple of tiny dots on the lower lash line, directly below your pupil will make eye sparkle during the day.
ESTEE LAUDER DOUBLE WEAR STAY-IN-PLACE LIP PENCIL
A new discovery for me. A little bit soft, it needs frequent sharpening, but it’s strongly pigmented – you could fill in your lips with this to lock in a long lasting stain. The colour stays put and the lip brush at one end is surprisingly handy and good quality.
BODY SHOP LIP DEFINER (Review here)
I don’t know what happened here. I used to love this liner (in shade Beech) as a universal ‘all colour’ lip liner which helps to seal in lipstick and it bleeding, but they’ve changed the formula (cutting costs?) and it’s suddenly as hard as a brick to apply and drags across lips. Disappointing.
NYX JUMBO EYE PENCIL (Review here)
The cheapest ‘eyeshadow primer’ that isn’t billed as an eyeshadow primer. Slightly soft, but because you need only tiny dab each time, you can let it go really blunt before it needs sharpening.
CHRISTIAN DIOR LIP LINER
Meh! It’s OK. Strongly pigmented, but a bit hard.
MAC POWERPOINT EYE PENCIL (Review here)
It just doesn’t smudge, or should I say shade Stubborn Brown, doesn’t smudge or budge. I live in fear of it being discontinued – in fact, I stopped editing this post to panic buy a few more because I’ve noticed only Stubborn Brown and Engraved are still available in this line and it used to come in loads of shades.
AND ONE THAT DOESN’T
NARS EYELINER PENCIL
Doesn’t work, the pencil is a little bit narrow and is too loose fitting for the sharpener.
This, by the way, is not to be confused with Nars Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner. That one has built-in sharpener at one end and only a complete idiot would attempt to sharpen it. I imagine it would leave the woody part of the pencil with jagged sharp edges making it impossible to use without slicing through your eyeball. I imagine.
