NYX: Jumbo Eye Pencil Collection "Center Stage"

Let's talk about some drugstore beauty products today :) NYX Cosmetics is a brand that I totally love from drugstore or high-street, whatever you call it! When I used to live in Assam few years ago, it was very difficult to access different cosmetics brands. In fact, I started using NYX only after I came here and I love almost everything I own from them. Their cream blush in "Rose Petal" is pretty much my go-to shade. I also enjoyed their powder blush in "Mocha" before I gave it to my sister :) I love their round lipsticks and mega shine lip glosses. Their butter lip glosses and matte lipsticks are also very popular and among the few products that I want to try sooner or later :) It's a cruelty free brand, in case you are wondering.

Today I will discuss their wildly popular jumbo eye pencils, specifically a set titled "Center Stage". It contains 6 pencils each weighing 0.18 oz (5 g) and retails for $19.99 at ulta.com. And yes, you can use coupons in Ulta, they almost always have $3.50 off $10 purchase. I don't see it anymore in Ulta website, but it may still be available in stores! Individual jumbo pencil costs around $4.49 in Ulta and NYX's website. These are already very affordable, but with coupons they are definitely worth checking.  

 

Outer cardboard packaging of the kit is simple; nothing too appealing about it. I do like the look of the actual tube! It’s white with letters printed in black and has a clear plastic cap that makes the colors easy to find. But the cap does not appear very sturdy. All over simple and cute packaging! These are not twist-up type, so you need sharpening which is very annoying to me.

The colors in the set are Electric Blue, Sparkle Nude, Iced Mocha, Yogurt with their cult favourite Milk and Black Bean. I love these names! :) The pencils are crazy crazy pigmented. I mean, I don't usually expect that at this price point. 

They have a very creamy formula and can be used both as eyeliner and eye shadows. They glide on smoothly and appear true to the color in the tube. They also make great base for other shadows. Keep in mind though they are 'jumbo' size; it’s difficult to draw a thin liner with these. Also, I am not able to give an honest opinion on its staying power; if you keep reading you will know why! Lets talk about the colors 

• Black Bean: Classic black shade. Useful as a base with smokey eye look. 
• Milk: If you watch YouTube vloggs as much as I do, you already are familiar with 'milk' :) I am not SUPER adventurous with my eye makeup, so I don't find much use of it on its own. However, I have tried the technique where milk is used to make eye shadows appear more vibrant. I put Lorac 'behind the scenes eye primer' and a THIN layer of this white shade before using one of my not-so-crazily-pigmented shadows. I definitely saw a difference. The color looked relatively vibrant and gave me a longer wear too! 
• Electric Blue: Color wise, this is my most fav. It’s such a bright sky-blue shade; definitely a welcome change in my otherwise boring array of neutral-toned eye shadows. It is difficult to put it all over the lid without looking like a flashback from '80s though (No offence to that era :)). My favorite way of using it is as a thick eyeliner combined with a thin black liner close to the lash line. Amazing way to pop some color into your makeup looks!

The other three colors are a bit difficult to differentiate from each other. They all have a beautiful sheen to them. Each of them look very pretty on the lid on its own; perfect for those one-lid-color looks for your work or for days when you don't want to spend a lot of time on makeup, but still want to look polished!

• Sparkle Nude: Beautiful beautiful color, somewhat in between bronze and rose.
• Iced Mocha: It’s a bronzy color with a tiny hint of taupe.
• Yogurt: It’s a rosy champagne color. Very lovely!

Even though I L.O.V.E these pencils for their amazing pigmentation and easy-to-wear quality, I hate how it creases on me! I always apply a thin layer yet I can't wear it for more than 5 minutes without noticing some kind of creasing. I have tried it with Mac paint pot, Urban Decay Primer Potion and ELF eye primer, but no improvement. Even when I set this with eye shadow it creases after 1-2 hrs. Not cool! Only Lorac 'behind the scenes eye primer' has been able to give me somewhat longer wear than the others. 

Pros:  

• Super affordable. More so because it’s in a kit!
• Good range of color; includes basics with a bright shade.
• NYX has an amazing color range for these pencils.

Cons:

• Not automatic, so sharpening is necessary.
• Creases on me even after preventative measures.

If you are interested in these pencils, my suggestion will be to test a single shade to check if it stays on your eyelids. Depending on your skin type, it may not crease on you! If not, these are some amazing products at equally amazing price. I don't see the set in Ulta anymore, but it’s still available in nyxcosmetics.com if you want to try! And for my readers from India, some NYX products are available at Nykka, Snapdeal, Jabong, Flipkart etc. So it’s not extremely difficult to access NYX products compared to some other brands. Because it creases on me almost immediately, I may not be picking anymore of these shades. 

Hope it was helpful.

Love,

~Aru