Eye Shadow Pencils Spend or Save

I love an eye shadow pencil. They make application so easy, they travel well and are often a great base for eye shadows if you need to give them a bit of oomph or longevity. You can use them as an eyes shadow or straight liner, or as a blended liner or base. They make for a great, quick and easy smokey eye too. But they not only vary wildly in quality but also in price. So I've gathered together all the ones that I've either been using for a while myself or have been recommended and have been testing them out to see how they compare. Do you really get what you pay for? Are they actually all the same?

There are so many things to take into consideration so I've tried to test take the same things into consideration for each pencil. Longevity, price, packaging, whether they are sharpen or twist up. In my opinion there is less to go wrong with a pencil that you sharpen - the product doesn't dry out and you don't get a fault with the mechanism. It is a bit of a ballache to have to sharpen. I feel I should just mention the difference in shimmery and sparkley here. For me 'shimmery' means a not matte but not noticable glittery finish, 'sparkley' means there are noticable bits of glitter of whatever size. I've included some swatches below so hopefully you'll be able to see what I mean. I've used these a lot but when testing and re-testing for this post I've worn for a couple of days on their own to see how they looked and lasted and a couple of days more as a base with a shadow over the top.


Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Shadow Sticks - £23 | 1.6g | 19 colours | twist up | plastic packaging but good quality | colours tried: Pinkle Sparkle and Sand Dune
These are very soft and go on nicely but I feel like they will run out the soonest as a lot of product goes on with application. They apply nicely, last well and come in a good variety of colours. But they don't set the world on fire and considering the quality of cheaper versions they seem a bit pricey to me.Would like to try Golden Pink, Goldstone and Truffle. Best for: soft blending.

Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon - £19 | 1.6g | 12 colours | cruelty free | sharpen | pencil with plastic lid | colour tried: Bronze Garnet
Not actually the most expensive as I thought it would be and for me this one shows it's quality when you want to blend the colour out, you still keep the brightness of the colour as you blend it it doesn't completely disappear as with some of the NYX ones. You do get what you pay for in terms of colour payoff though the others really aren't that far behind, these are just brighter than a lot of the shades from the other brands tested. Some have found that this irritates their eyes. I've worn it on the waterline and have had no problem. Would like to try: Gold Digger and Amethyst Aphrodisiac. Best for: brightness of colour and making your eye colour stand out.

Kiko Golden Beige and Golden Brown

Kiko Long Lasting Eye Shadow Pencil - £6.90 | 1.6g |31 colours | cruelty free | twist up | plastic packaging | colours tried: Golden Brown and Golden Beige
The twist on this broke. Which is annoying, you can still work it and it was cheap so I'm not sure what I'm complaining about really but it's worth mentioning. The rest of the packaging is really nice. These are definitely sparkley rather than shimmery but maybe I just picked two sparkley ones - the
colour range is impressive but actually a lot of them are very similar. Best for: a quick, cheap smokey eye.

No 7 Shade and Define - £8 | 1.4g | 8 colours | cruelty free | twist up | plastic packaging | colour tried: Cool Mink
This definitely felt like the most grown up, need to blend quickly and with a brush and the colour is smooth, slight shimmer and blends nicely with either shadows or sticks. Lasts all day. Best for: flattering finish

Nudestix Magnetic Eye Colour - £24 | 2.8g | 8 colours | sharpen | pencil with plastic lid | colour tried: Angel
I love this one and the annoyance of having to sharpen it is taken away but it having it's only tin and sharpener. I love everything about this brand except it's price and availability in the UK. It's the most expensive but you get 2.8g as opposed to the 1.6g for £23 with the Bobbi Brown. Would like to try Spirit and Twilight.  Best for: packaging and all round decadent experience!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - £5.50 | 5g | 32 colours | sharpen | pencil with plastic lid | colour tried: loads inc. youghurt, iced mocha, rust and strawberry milk
These are the softest and most blendable - you can scribble on the lid blend the top out a bit with your fingertip and they are good to go. They do have a bit of movement in them and are best with a bit of eyeshadow on top if you want them to last all day. But then they are incredibly reasonably priced and the choice of colours is amazing. However, some of the colours do not blend out well so you either get the intense pop of colour or a sort of greyish blurry mess so if intensity is what you want then these are good. Best for: price vs amount and choice of colours

Rimmel Scandal'Eyes Eye Shadow Stick - £4.49 | 3.25g | 8 colours | sharpen | pencil with plastic lid | colour tried: Bluffing
Definitely sparkley but one of the only brands (apart from Bobbi Brown) to offer matte colours. Pretty good staying power but did get slightly worn and patchy but in a wearable way. This one wowed me the least and having seen the others I probably wouldn't rebuy. Best for: matte choices and amount of product vs price

Rosie for Augograph Cream Eyeshadow Sticks - £12.50 | 4 colours | cruelty free | twist up | colours tried: Sparkle & Magic, Almond Eyes, Feline Fox

Rosie for Autograph: Almond Eyes, Sparkle & Magic, Feline Fox

I actually called these in, something I never do. I was planning and researching this piece and kept hearing great things about these pencils and every time I went into M&S to get them they were either sold out or in a gross state (Hammersmith need to sort out their make-up situation). I'm not really into celebrity ranges but I was and am so impressed with these. The colour payoff, the longevity, the packaging, the price. I feel like these just nail it on every level. They set well but you have lots of time to blend them nicely after application. My only complaint is that all the colours are quite sparkley though not excessively and I always get asked about them when I'm wearing them. I'd just like to see some shimmer rather than sparkle. They don't write the colour on the pencil so you have to guess. The fact that there are only four colours available also makes me feel that they are committed to doing a good quality product rather than just churning them out. Best for: all round, price, packaging, look. Would like to see more!


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