Matte Gel Pencil

1 Review

1. 

   annoyedCockatoo0

   Reply

   After Make Up For Ever reformulated their Aqua Eyes and I hated the new version, I went on the hunt for a new black eyeliner pencil that wouldn’t smug or faded into nothingness with my oily eyelids. After seeing this eyeliner as Allure’s Best of Beauty Winner 2017, I figured I’d give it a try. I’m not sure why, but it really irritates me when a cosmetics company only has their products available on their website. (Maybe it feels elitist to me.) Anyway, to get free shipping, I bought two of the Matte Gel Pencil and one of the Black Brush Tip Eyeliner. Annoyingly, EM doesn’t ship to APO/FPO addresses, so I had to send it to my parents in the States and have them mail it to me in Japan.

   Pros:
   – Pigment is a deep, rich black that deposits smoothly and with the slightest touch, so I don’t have to press or tug to lay down the liner
   – There’s a brief window of time before it sets to smug or wing it out how I want
   – Once it sets, it is SET, only makeup remover will take it off (which can be a pro or con depending on what you want)
   – It lasts all day without smudging or migrating, even my oily lids won’t smear it
   – It even lasts on my top waterline (I’ve never tried it on the lower waterline) all day
   – It doesn’t irritate my sensitive, contact lens-wearing eyes

   Cons:
   – Since it has such a strong, stay-put formula, it can be difficult to remove. I use a rich oil-based remover (DHC Cleansing Oil) that works best, but I can still have some raccoon eyes in the morning if I’m not super-diligent to get every speck off the night before, which usually means going in twice with the cleansing oil.
   – The pencil is VERY soft. While this allows the pigment to glide on smoothly, it also means the tip gets dull after every use (after both eyes, not after one eye), so I have to sharpen it almost every day (I lazily stretch this to every three or four days, but it applies best with a sharp tip) and I go through a pencil with daily use in four-five months. I’d go through it faster if I sharpened it every time it really needs it (every other day). Maybe this doesn’t seem fast to some, but it does to me.

   Still, the cons are preventing me from purchasing again. I’ve already bought 3 more as I go through them pretty quickly and the long wait for them to arrive. The packaging is adequate, nothing special, but hasn’t broken yet and the cap stays on snuggly. The pencil is that plastic-y composite material that MUFE uses, which is a bit too hard to go with the soft pencil core. I will note they cost $15 each the first time I bought them, then four months later when I reordered the price had jumped to $20 each. Not thrilled about that. If I go back to reorder and the price has jumped again I might start the search for my perfect black eyeliner over, again.