Review: Avon Ultra Luxury Brow Liner in Dark Brown B03

    I have a love-hate relationship with my eyebrows. They are unruly and grow fast. The hairs are a weird wiry texture, making them almost impossible to make an eyebrow pencil work with them. The ashy, gray tone makes purchasing brow products difficult because they're not brown, and they're not black. The darkest color in a brow product is always too dark for me, and the brown shades are always too brown. I picked up the Avon Ultra Luxury Brow Liner in the shade Dark Brown a while ago, almost six months ago, hoping that this shade would have the right amount of gray and brown to it. Thankfully, it did. However, there were a few technical issues I had with this product that doesn't make this product work for me.

The Avon Ultra Luxury Brow Liner is just what it sounds like- a nice brow liner at a good price. However, I feel that there are products out there that are cheaper and just do a better job.

(Note: I believe that Avon is not cruelty free. Boo!)

With the cap. I've used this a lot in my testing process! 

Availability: This brow liner comes in four shades- Blonde, Light Golden Brown, Dark Brown, and Soft Black. I purchased mine from a local seller at a flea market on sale for $1.99, but these pencils are regularly $5. You can almost always find these on sale at an Avon store, from a seller at a flea market, or ordering from a representative online or by phone.

Claims: From the Avon website, the only claims I could find were,

"Precision pencil sharpens to a fine point. Won't tug or pull."

 This pencil is very easy to sharpen and is soft enough where it won't tug or pull on your brows. However, it doesn't sharpen to a precise point and it wears down very fast, so it's difficult to use this brow liner for anything besides simply filling in your brows. If you wanted to change the shape, i.e. straighten arch, create an arch, make them look fuller, etc, you won't be able to. It's hard to get crisp lines.

Packaging: The product comes in a traditional wooden pencil that is surprisingly easy to sharpen (I use the Essence Dual Sharpener which is a dupe for the UD Grindhouse sharpener). Sometimes I feel like the cap may come off easily if you have this product in your purse or makeup bag, so you really have to make sure that you're putting the cap completely on to ensure that you have a tight seal.

Ingredients: From the Avon website:

ETHYLHEXYL ISOSTEARATE NEOPENTYL GLYCOL DIETHYLHEXANOATE NYLON-12 EUPHORBIA CERIFERA (CANDELILLA) WAX/CIRE DE CANDELILLA COPERNICIA CERIFERA (CARNAUBA) WAX/CIRE DE CARNAUBA CERESIN PARAFFIN MAGNESIUM ALUMINUM SILICATE KAOLIN TOCOPHEROL ASCORBYL PALMITATE 
MAY CONTAIN:MICAIRON OXIDESTITANIUM DIOXIDEALUMINUM POWDERBISMUTH OXYCHLORIDEBLUE 1 LAKECHROMIUM HYDROXIDE GREENCHROMIUM OXIDE GREENSYELLOW 5 LAKEFERRIC FERROCYANIDEMANGANESE VIOLETRED 40 LAKEULTRAMARINESZINC OXIDE CARMINE

Formula & Pigmentation: The formula on this brow pencil is rather dry, but very soft, which is something that bothers me because when you're applying this product, it will "stick" the brow hairs together almost. If you're traveling with this products, you'd definitely need to bring some kind of spoolie or eyebrow brush, or some kind of clear gel to hold your brows in place.  I haven't tried any other brow liners before so I can't say if this is a typical texture for a brow pencil or not. The color on this product is perfect for me because it has the right ashy, dark brown balance. As expected, the product has a very "soft" pigmentation, but it is still a dark brow liner. The color is definitely buildable- you can get a soft look for when you just want to lightly fill in some sparse areas, or a dark defined brow. As I mentioned earlier, the texture is very dry. I feel that this product won't hold my brows in shape all day so when you use this, you'll definitely want to set your brows with a clear mascara or brow gel.

Water test Results

Smudge test Results

Wear: This brow pencil lasts around five hours for me in any weather condition before I start seeing some major fading. This brow pencil just lacks the staying power that I want in a brow product. I don't want to have to worry about carrying this pencil with me and checking my brows throughout the day to make sure they're still there! I think if you live in a warmer area, such as Florida, the dry texture is nice on this because you don't need to worry about your brows melting off but expect having to make a few touch-ups during the day. This eyebrow pencil is not smudge or water proof.

Value: You're getting .04 oz/ 1.14 g of product for $5. I personally don't feel that this is a good buy at the regular price. If you purchase this, I would suggest purchasing it when it's on sale because I feel it's not worth the full price. Because this is a soft pencil that gets dull easily, you have to sharpen it a lot so it feels like I'm going through the product at a very fast rate because after just two uses I have to sharpen it again.

Overall: This is a good, simple eyebrow pencil, but there's definitely less expensive products that'll do the job for either the same or a better price. I've been using the Essence Eyebrow Designer and I much prefer it to this product. This pencil does give some nice definition to the brows, but not much of anything else. It doesn't hold the brows without some help from a clear mascara or brow gel. I feel like this would make a good base for your eyebrows if you're putting a tinted brow mascara over them, but by itself it's just not something I'd repurchase. If you're looking for a brow liner that will give definition and hold the shape of your brows, I would recommend looking somewhere else.  This isn't the kind of product that you can carry in your purse and not have to worry about carrying other products to make it work.

Would I recommend this to a friend?: No.

Top is my bare eyebrow, middle is the pencil applied lightly, and the bottom is applied heavily.

*For the smudge test, I rub vigorously for about ten seconds, and for the water test I rub the swatch under running water for ten seconds*


*I purchased the product(s) with my personal funds, and am in no way affiliated/associated with the company/companies featured in this post. I was not sent any products from the company/companies featured in this post to review.*