Brand after brand have launched eye pencils with outrageous claims such as ’24 hour wear’ and ‘creaseless’ perfection. After realising that I owned a fair few myself, I thought it was only right to have a little battle to see which one takes the crown, and really does do all they claim to. I decided to do this using pencils that are similar in colour as that seemed to be the fairest way to do it. I have both low end and high end products in the mix so nobody gets left out!

Above I have Avon Supershock eye duo in Chocolate Melt, Collection Work the Colour Eyeshadow pencil in Hot Chocolate, Max Factor Wild Shadow Pencil in 05, NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk, Rimmel Scandaleyes in Bad Girl Bronze, Bobbi Brown’s Long Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Bronze and MAC’s Greasepaint Stick in Brown, Now.

Swatches are shown in the order in which the products were listed above.

What I want from an eye pencil

When I buy an eye pencil (which I intend to use as a base) I am looking for a number of things before I go ahead and make the purchase.

1) I need to make sure that the pencil is creamy. If it is creamy, then this normally means it will blend easily meaning minimal effort providing you with a quick eye look. However, if a product is too creamy, this could mean it is prone to creasing.

2) Pigmentation. As you can see above from the swatches, all of these pencils have good pigmentation when first applied. If they maintain that pigmentation when blended out, that is even better meaning minimal extra products need to be used to make the most out of the colours.

3) Longevity. When the eye pencil has been applied and blended out, if it doesn’t last the full day then it is no good. 9/10 times I use products like these as a base for my eyeshadow so if the base won’t last, then neither will whatever you put on top of it. And creased eyeshadow is never a good look.

Out of all of these, I found 2 stand out products:

Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Shadow Stick

This product is an absolute dream. Not only is the colour stunning but when it says long wearing, believe me, they weren’t kidding. When wiping these swatches off my sister’s arm (she’s a very helpful blogging assistant) this took some real rubbing to get off! It also makes any shadow you put on top of it look so vibrant and it enhances the colour so much more.

Rimmel Scandaleyes

Now we all know that just because something comes from the drugstore, doesn’t mean it’s going to be rubbish. Nevertheless, I was surprised that I liked this product so much. I haven’t bought much from Rimmel in a long time because I found myself not enjoying their products but they seem to have upped their game recently and this product certainly falls into that category. Out of all of the pencils shown above, this one was my favourite colour. It is a warmer brown compared to the rest of them and I would liken it to Antiqued by MAC (which looks gorgeous over the top of this). It doesn’t last quite as long as the Bobbi Brown stick but it can be forgiven as the pigmentation is brilliant for such a bargain item.

What is your favourite eye pencil?

Thanks for reading

Bea x