Review: Revlon ColorStay Brow Enhancer in Light Brown

I realize it's been quite a long time since I reviewed any type of brow products on this blog, which I can blame 100% on having a Holy Grail brow pencil that makes me never want to try/test anything new (more on that in a bit). But I've had my eye on the ColorStay Brow Enhancer for a couple of years now because I love the ColorStay family in general, so I figured it was finally time to give it a whirl. I picked it up a few weeks ago at CVS and have been wearing it off and on ever since. Keep reading if you'd like to know my thoughts on this one!

Revlon ColorStay Brow Enhancer in 002 Light Brown

(retail: around $8.99, 0.005 oz for the tinted wax, 0.021 oz for the highlighter)

This product comes in six shades. You can view them here.

This is a dual-ended automatic pencil. One end contains a tinted wax and the other end contains a highlighter for use under your brows:

The highlighter is a frosty golden champagne color. (Please note that this highlighter is unique to the Light Brown pencil. The other pencils in this range contain different highlighter shades).

The tinted wax is a warm taupe color.

I have light brown/dark blonde hair that is more ashy in color than honey blonde. The reason I chose Light Brown was because the lightest shade, 001 Blonde, looked far too warm for my brows. It's incredibly difficult to find a cooler-toned light brown/dark blonde eyebrow pencil at the drugstore for some reason--most of the lighter pencil shades lean quite warm and often have red undertones (good for redheads, but not for me!).

So I opted for 002 Light Brown because it looked less red in the tube. HOWEVER, when I got it home and swatched it next to my Holy Grail eyebrow pencil (Maybelline Define-A-Lash in Dark Blonde), you can see that's much warmer:

I knew the minute I swiped this on my hand that it was going to be the wrong color for me, but I still wanted to test it for wear and ease of application, so I've been walking around with funky-colored brows for the past two weeks. (You can thank me later for that. Just kidding of course!)

So here are some before and after photos.

BEFORE:

As you can see, my brows are thin and sparse. I have some slight bald spots that require a pencil that can really adhere to my oily skin without caking up or looking terribly fake.

AFTER:

In the above pic, I applied the tinted wax to my brows, and the highlighter to my arch. I blended it out a bit but it's a sheer product so I didn't want to blend it too much for fear of you not being able to see it.

Looking closely at the image above, you can see that the tinted wax did a decent job of filling in my brows, but the color is off (it's hard to tell in this photo but the color is just way too warm for me and it makes my whole face look weird).

To put this into perspective, here's what my brow looks like when I use Maybelline Define-A-Brow in Dark Blonde:

 

Can you see how it just looks more natural? The color is right and the softness is right. I feel like the Revlon product looks too dark, too warm, and too heavy on my brows.

Another thing I don't care for about the Revlon pencil is the size:

Left: Maybelline Define-A-Brow in Dark Blonde

Right: Revlon ColorStay Brow Enhancer in Light Brown

It's pretty obvious that the Maybelline pencil is much more fine and precise. For me personally, the Revlon pencil is far too thick to be able to get deep down in-between my hairs and onto my skin. I feel like I have to press really hard in order to get this pencil down onto my skin, but when I do this, it leaves a heavy waxy, cakey look behind.The consistency of the pencil is softer than the Maybelline pencil, so I just don't feel like I have the precision or control that I get with the Maybelline product.

I also don't like the fact that, for a larger pencil like this, there's no way to sharpen it. The Maybeline pencil is so fine that it doesn't ever require sharpening, but the Revlon pencil is so wide that I often wished I had a way to sharpen it when I was using it. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a sharpener.

As for staying power (this is a ColorStay product after all), it kind of failed me in that department as well. Since this is heavier, waxier pencil, I found that after a few hours in hot weather, if I accidentally rubbed my brow, this pencil just sort of slide off my skin and smeared. Perhaps if I were to set it with brow powder it might work a bit better, but this product was already so dark and heavy on my brows I didn't want to add another product on top of it.

As for the highlighter, it's nice but the color is wrong for me. It doesn't do anything to give my brows any "lift" in an optical-illusion sort of way, and that's what I was hoping for. I find that it works much better as a highlighter for the inside corners of my eyes than for underneath my brows. It's sheer and easy to blend, so it works nicely on the inside corners of the eyes.

FINAL VERDICT: If you already have thicker, well-groomed brows that only need slight enhancement, this product might be a great match for you. But if your brows are thinner, sparse, or have bald spots and you require serious magic from your brow product, I'd say skip this one. The width of this pencil makes it impossible to do any 'fine-tuning" on your brows because you simply can't get the tip of the pencil deep down between your hairs without leaving a heavy, waxy, cakey residue behind. Also, if you have very oily skin and plan to wear this in the summertime, be prepared for the possibility of smearing. I couldn't get this one to last more than four hours in 90 degree weather without it smearing. Again, if you don't need to get "down and dirty" with your brow pencil and you only need to lightly coat your brows for added intensity, this might be a good fit for you. For the rest of, I'm afraid it's a pass.

Do you own Revlon ColorStay Brow Enhancer? Thoughts?