Natural Eyebrows: NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Taupe

I will let you on a little secret: I hate Instagram brows. Drawing on thick, blocky, ombre eyebrows with a brush and cleaning up your lines with concealer seems like a living make-up nightmare to me. If it's a style that works for you, then great, but personally I think they're not only over the top, but a little... aging. Remember all those Disney villains with sharp, angled brows? They kinda remind me of that.

In about 95% of my face shots from the past year, I've been wearing Shu Uemura's Hard Pencil Formula 9 in Seal Brown, and I still love it (by the way, it's the little pencil that just won't quit). I was however getting a bit bored using the same brow product every day, so when I spotted the new NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Taupe ($9.99 for 0.003 oz/ 0.09 g, I got mine 40% off, muahaha) on Ulta's website, I pulled the trigger. Essentially, it's a dupe for Anastasia Brow Wiz; it features the same tiny nib, retractable mechanism and a small spoolie on the other end for combing through your brows - except, it's $11 cheaper for the same amount of product.

Speaking of the amount of product: yes, you only get a tiny bit in one pencil. The Shu pencil comes  with 0.14 oz/ 4 grams of pencil, which is about 44 times the amount of the NYX - that's insane! So no, you're not getting good value for your money by buying one of those ultra-thin eyebrow pencils, but you do get the precision. While I do think that both Anastasia's and NYX's brow pencils should be priced lower to reflect their small volume, I'm quite glad that this pencil won't be lasting me another five years; I've wanted to try it, use it up, and move on to something else later.

As for the texture and performance of the NYX Micro Brow Pencil, I have absolutely no complaints. The texture is a bit softer than the hard Shu pencil, but still easy to control through the brows. The tiny tip allows me to fill in exactly where I need it, and it allows for drawing in short little strokes to resemble actual brow hairs. It doesn't look heavy or obvious in the brows and lasts an entire day on me.

The shade Taupe is a great match for me - although it's not quite as ashy as the Shu Uemura's Seal Brown. It's a bit darker and also warmer than the Benefit Gimme Brow in Light/Medium (which is too light and ashy in my brows). I think if you need/ prefer very cool tones in your brows, I'd look at some of NYX's other shades - maybe Ash Brown would be a good option for those with slightly darker brows. By the way, sorry there are no arm swatches in this post - swatching firm eyebrow pencils on my inner arm is just not my idea of a pleasant blogging session.

Hopefully you can see in this photo that the NYX Micro Brow looks quite natural and effortless on me. I realize that for some, the way I do my brows looks just too messy and unkept, but I really like that slightly 'wilder' style - I enjoy bushy, textured arches and think they're very youthful. Now tell me, what do you make of the Instagram brow trend? What is your favorite way of filling in your brows - powder, pencil, gel or pomade?