I feel like the skinny brow pencil trend started with Anastasia‘s Brow Wiz. It seems like ever since the Brow Wiz came out, we’ve seen brand after brand attempt to replicate the amazingness of that skinny brow pencil. Over the last year or so, I’ve been able to try out a few brands with similar pencils and I thought I’d compare them to the original Anastasia Brow Wiz.
All of these skinny/micro brow pencils features a 1.5 mm twist up brow pencil and a spoolie. The tiny pencil point helps create natural looking brow hairs (if you’re skilled enough to create them! I’m not!) and gives you an accuracy unlike anything else I’ve tried. The spoolie is a lovely touch as it’ll help you comb out the product through your brow hairs if you happen to get a little too heavy-handed.
Unlike with pencils that require sharpening, these pencils twist up so you actually get to use all of the product. And due to the nature of their tiny diameter, you get accurate precision every time you use them.
Here’s how the three that I have stack up:
- Anastasia Brow Wiz costs $27 for 0.085 grams of product. 8 shades available.
- NYX Micro Brow Pencil costs $11.99 for 0.09 grams of product. 8 shades available.
- Marcelle Nano Brow Pencil costs $11.95 for 0.09 grams of product. 5 shades available.
The first thing you notice is the huge price discrepancy between Anastasia and the other two pencils. NYX and Marcelle are less than HALF the price of the Anastasia one and come with slightly more product!
So what’s the difference, you’re probably asking. And aside from shade selection, there isn’t a whole lot. I have the shade Taupe in both Anastasia and NYX, and Ash Blond in Marcelle. As you can see in the paper swatches above, the Marcelle one is slightly lighter than the other two.
On the skin, the Anastasia and NYX shades perform identically. They seem to have the same pigment and wax combination. The Marcelle leans more towards pigment and less towards wax. Interestingly, the Ash Blond shade comes out a lot more grey on my skin than it did on the paper swatch.
But really, you’re asking, how do they wear? Is there a clear winner?
And the great answer is, there really ISN’T a winner! On the brows, all three products wear exactly the same. They have the same longevity (easily 12+ hours) and apply in an identical manner. When it comes down to it, it’s up to you to choose where you want to spend your money. You can either opt for the cheaper drug store option (although NYX is harder to find in Canada than Marcelle) or go for the more expensive Anastasia one if that’s more your style. I’ve been using all three brow products interchangeably and I really do not notice a difference in them at all!
The Marcelle Nano Brow Pencil was sent to me for consideration.
