Sunday, January 8, 2012

Review: Sephora Jumbo Crayon 12 Hour Wear, Waterproof (as compared to Urban Decay 24/7 Liner)


First off, sorry for the badly written headline.

This review comes after quite a while of me searching for a good, long lasting black eyeliner that's strong enough to deal with my super oily skin.

For quite a while I used the Sephora brand kohl eyeliner (waterproof, which is always a must for me). It sucked, as it smeared badly throughout the day, but I never managed to smudge it to my liking fast enough since it dried really quickly, but badly. Anyway, no good, and I no longer really have it so no picture...although quite frankly, the packaging on this sort of stuff really isn't very interesting either way.

Anyway, I'd heard great stuff about the Urban Decay 24/7 liners, so I got the matte black one (Zero). I had tried it before at the store by putting it on my hand. After scrubbing with alcohol, some make up remover, and having it on my hand it still stood up well (and I wash my hands with the fervor of the mentally ill). Seeing how well it stood up to this barrage of chemicals and scrubbing, I decided to smear it along my delicate eye area.

Unfortunately, I was surprised by how horrible it was!

I'm not sure why I had such awful results as compared to all the good press this had! I'm usually very happy with Urban Decay products but this was worse than the Sephora brand eyeliner (and every other eyeliner I've ever used). It smeared like crazy and was gone within some hours (excluding the amount smeared under my eyes).

So that ended up being the first thing I've ever returned to Sephora.

The day I returned it I picked up the Jumbo Crayon from the Sephora brand after I'd heard a good review about it somewhere online, though I (unfortunately) don't recall where. I admittedly didn't have high hopes for it since I've had nothing but bad luck with Sephora brand stuff (I had always found it really overpriced and really under performing).

But I was really pleasantly surprised with this! It is actually really perfect. It goes on very smoothly, doesn't smudge after it dries, and stays on all day. And at $10 it's a pretty good price for such quality (the Urban Decay eyeliner was $18).

So the Sephora brand did redeem itself quite a bit in my eyes, this eyeliner is wonderful. I won't write off the rest of the Urban Decay 24/7 pencils, since a lot of them are really unique colors and hey, maybe they work better than Zero did.

But I'd definitely get all of the Sephora Jumbo Crayon ones first! They have other colors that look nice, like plum and navy.

Anyway, swatching a black eyeliner seems a bit...unnecessary but here we go, just to be fun:


**Note:It should be said that lately, despite my earlier praise, I have been getting some smudging. It isn't bad, nothing compared to the previous products, but still there.

However, this may be the result of my smearing myself with rich lotions to combat the winter induced dry skin I get. Perhaps the eyeliner performance varies for skin type, as many products do.

UPDATE: One problem (though, is it really a "problem"?) I've encountered is that I can't find a sharpener to use for this eyeliner. I have to hope/imagine Sephora sells one, but I don't quite want to buy one, admittedly, and I did a rather botched job of trying to sharpen it with a razor.

So, unless you have a larger than average sharpener, be warned?

I'm pretty damn late :/

But belated is better than never. Plus, a happy new year wish is always in good order, so happy new year!