Maybe it’s because I’ve got barely there brows, but I’m always interested in trying out new brow products on the market. I’m not especially GOOD at doing my brows, mind you, but I’m always eager to give something new a shot. There’s been a lot of brow markers coming out lately, and I was eager to try the new Revlon Colorstay Brow Shape & Glow. I was sent the shade Taupe, which is perfect because that’s the shade I use in just about every brow product out on the market.

The Revlon Colorstay Brow Shape & Glow is a 2 in 1 product packed into a slim pen tube. The brand claims it’s a replacement for the look of microblading, which I imagine is because of the skinny felt tip on one end of the pen.

The felt tip end is very flexible and slim – the perfect shape for creating brow strokes I would say since it’s not too thick.

The opposite end of the tube contains a sponge tip applicator that dips into the cap to retrieve powder that you can use to highlight your browbone. I don’t always feel that having one of these built into my brow product is necessary, but it’s a neat to have item regardless.

On first stroke of the felt tip side I was astonished – it was so, SO nice! The colour was perfect for my brows and the strokes seemed to be feather-light, but I could vary the intensity based on pressure . I was less interested in the browbone powder, but it was a decent tone to suit my (roughly) NW20 skin.

HOWEVER.

First impression swatches are a dirty, dirty liar and I went on to have three absolute garbage attempts while I tried to apply this product to my brows. I’m sorry there are no pictures of my brows for this, but a) they looked awful and I had to redo them each day and b) the photo would show you basically nothing because that’s what happened with this pen – NOTHING happened. Allow me to describe my miserable experience:

• Day 1 – 7:40 AM before work: I decided not to wear foundation this day, so I was applying the brow product on fairly naked skin/brow hairs. The first two strokes at the front of my brow were great. Fluid and soft looking, easy to use. But when I went in for the third stroke? No more product was coming out of the tip. What the heck! So I shook the pen (nothing jangled inside) and tried to do my brows some more. No dice. Not enough pigment was coming out, and I couldn’t be bothered anymore, so I used my regular pencil for my brows.
• Day 2 – 7:50 AM before work: I’m running a little later today as I had applied foundation, hoping that maybe that would provide a little extra grip to the product around my brows. I had also laid the pencil vertically in a cup this time to ensure that the product sunk down to the tip (it had been laying flat the previous day). Despite these steps… still nothing. I could get a very faint WHISPER of colour to appear on my brows, but it was nothing like what my swatches showed above, and it was certainly not enough to actually look like I had an eyebrow on my face. I gave up, and switched back to my regular brow product.
• Day 3 – 5:00 pm after work: As a last ditch effort I decided I’d try this one more time on my completely naked face just to see if I could get enough of a photo so I could at least put something in this blog post. No such lucky. I shook the pen, mashed the tip against the top of my hand, and STILL product would not reach the end of the felt tip. I could get a little pool going on my hand if I smashed the tip enough so that the base collected pigment, but that was obviously not going to be good enough to create a brow look. What a joke.

So… I’m done with this thing. I thought it was going to be lovely, but it’s just really bad. The product itself seems nice – I love the colour, the tone and the idea behind it all… but that delivery system absolutely does not work on me. I have to chalk it up to the felt tip applicator just not getting enough product out to the end. And after three days of trying this blasted thing… I’m done. It’s not worth picking up at all in my opinion.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration.

There’s always a new mascara out on the market (or so it seems!), and for me, the most recent one I’ve tried out is the new Revlon So Fierce!  mascara.

It wasn’t till I started using this mascara that I realized that I honestly can’t remember a time when I used a Revlon mascara with any kind of consistency. I feel like when I think of drugstore mascara I think of Maybelline or Covergirl. To me, Revlon has always represented the very best of lipstick and foundation… so I’m drawing a total blank on mascaras I’ve tried by them. (In editing this post I’ve realized my memory is gash. I *have* reviewed at least one Revlon mascara in the past: the Mega Multiplier.)

Anyway, moving on to the So Fierce! mascara. I was initially excited for this mascara because I love smaller conical wands. I find they’re the easiest to use for my eye shape and make it super simple to get into the inner corners of my eyes without getting mascara all over my eyeshadow (I guess I’m super messy with mascara application). The So Fierce! mascara is what I would call a medium-sized conical wand, and has a plastic bristle brush that contains 252 multi-layered bristles .

The packaging for the So Fierce! mascara indicates that it has a glossy formula (??? I do not agree) with parraffin and rice bran waxes to quickly build up your lashes. The formula promises to be clump free, smudgeproof and flake free.

The formula itself is more on the dry side of things (not my favourite – I do prefer a rather wet mascara), and it imparts an incredible amount of volume. I’m more of a one coat mascara person myself, and found that I got incredible volume with just one coat with this mascara. Once you start going into two coats your lashes start to look somewhat fake (not a bad thing!) but you will notice that it does have a tendency to clump some of your lashes together. Of course, this creates gargantuan volume, but it’s definitely not for someone who is looking for a lot of separation.

Final Thoughts

For a dry mascara, I was so surprised and impressed with this one! The Revlon So Fierce! mascara gave me a heck of a lot of volume with only one coat, something I feel like I only generally experience with wet formulas. So Fierce! does has a tendency to clump (unlike their claim that it’s clump-free), and while you could comb it out with a lash brush, I find that that clumps really help to amp up the volume without looking too spidery.

I found that the wear-time was excellent, nor did it flake on me. I did have a little bit of smudging when I wore the mascara on my lower lashes, but it was only around the seventh hour of my day. On a day-to-day basis I don’t tend to wear mascara on my lower lash line, and I found I had no smudging when I wore this mascara just on my upper lashes. (Most mascaras, even when I only wear them on my upper lashes, have a tendency to transfer and leave smudges on the hollows under my eyes – I have no idea how this happens, but it does – and thankfully this mascara does NOT do that). I also like that my lashes don’t feel crusty when I have this mascara on. If I touch them they feel a bit waxy, but pliable and smooth.

In short, I was quite impressed with So Fierce! 

The Revlon So Fierce! mascara can be purchased at shoppersdrugmart.com for $11.99 CAD or on ulta.com for $8.99 USD.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.