I received a gift card from Sephora and decided to review the things I bought: Make Up For Ever HD Primer in Green, Kevyn Aucoin’s Eyebrow Pencil in Brunette, Sephora’s makeup eraserpen and their sharpener.
The primer is fantastic, the best I have everused. I have combination skin and most primers are so mattifying that theycause my cheeks to flake and my t-zone to get greasy fairly quickly. Not so with this product! My face becomes matte and without dryness and after using this daily for a week, I have yet to experience oiliness while wearing it.
I have natural pink undertones that I despise, which is why Iselected the green shade. I see a slight reduction in redness afterapplying, but the real impact comes after I put on my foundation (MAC StudioFix NC15) because my skin is so well prepped. It goes on smoother and coverage is much better and my blush blends much better. I see a longevity in my makeup as well; I usually wear it about 15 hours and need no touchups.
In terms of price, at $32, it is a bit more than I wanted to spend, but the quality is truly worth it and a little bit of this product goes along way so it should last quite a while. I am extremely likely to buy this again.
The brow pencil is almost akin to the holy grail! ;) Since my ink has faded, I draw my eyebrows on, preferring them very thin and highly arched, so I have beensearching for a very small tipped pencil for that sort of ‘detail work.’ I’ve tried some other self sharpening pencils that had fairly small tips,but they just did not get sharp enough to suit me. This one is even smaller than any of those and while it does not come to a point as I had hoped, I find it does not need to be pointy; it is still sharper than any of the others.
This pencil is nearly perfect! Staying power is excellent, whic his very important to me since I have no hairs left. It does not smudge, so it would not be a good candidate to use as eyeliner. It is not cakey like so many of the long-wear variety, nor is it shiny like so many eyeliner pencils that I’ve tried to use for brows instead. I can sketch freely with it to get the right size/shape and I can easily remove any excess/mistakes without screwing up the whole brow.
The only cons are: 1)the brunette shade is a light brown, which is considerably lighter than mynaturally black hair and 2) it is $24. Still, this pencil is so close to being exactly what I am looking for that I will definitely buy again. I expected quality because of the brand name and I got it. I cannot wait to try some of Kevyn’s other items.
The Sephora eraser beats out thecompetition too. Others I have tried did take off product, but they were sooily that they smeared the entire area, causing me to have to start all overanyway. This one does the trick. The only drawback is whatever you remove ends up on the tip. This isn’t a problem if you quickly blot the tip on something before capping it again. Price is about what I paid for similarproducts in a drugstore. Good deal, nice item I will use and re-purchase.
The Sephora sharpener is a steal. At $3, it is cheaper than you’ll find in many drugstores. As of yet, it has not broken off the tips of any of my pencils. It sharpens evenly and well enough. Will purchase another when necessary.
Edited: January 7th, 2009
