Product Review: Jane Iredale Eyeliner Pencil

I dropped by the Beauty Store Salon & Spa the other day because it's the only place you can find Jane Iredale products here in Austin (that I know of). I've heard about this brand many times before, but I always seem to confuse it with Josie Maran. Note: they are not the same thing. I learned this the hard way.

I was actually on the look out for something similar to this little do-dad that was recently featured in an awesome Beauty by Britanie video. However, per usual, I forgot what I'd come for and got distracted by eyeliner. I've been somewhat underwhelmed by the natural eyeliner I've purchased before, which is sad because if I'm wearing makeup, eyeliner is a must. The liner I most recently tried out basically snapped in half and I'd been awkwardly attempting to keep using it, but was getting pretty fed up. That's when I met the Jane Iredale Eyeliner Pencil. Here's a picture from their website:

Pretty standard-looking pencil, am I right? But no my friends, this pencil is magical. Like I mentioned before, I've often been disappointed with eyeliners -- natural or conventional. I've tried using dark eyeshadow as a liner, but I can't get the definition I like. Even when I used conventional, chemical-filled eyeliner pencils (before I knew better), it was hard to find one I liked. I was committed to a drugstore brand called Prestige before I switched to clean products and nothing so far had lived up to that precedent... until now.



This liner pencil is the perfect compromise between soft and hard. With harder pencils, you tend to tug uncomfortably at the delicate skin around your eyes and often end up with an uneven line. With softer pencils, it's hard to get a strong, defined line rather than a smudge-y, smokey eye sort of thing. Smokey eyes are great and all, but I usually don't like to bother with that before work. This pencil is soft enough that it pretty much glides along the skin with no tugging, but easily leaves a nice, defined line. It's easy to build from a subtle hint of color to darker and more dramatic.

I always go with dark brown liners because I'm afraid of black, but they have a nice selection of other colors, too. Nothing too flashy like teal or purple, but a grey, some browns, dark navy... you get the idea. It comes with a sturdy cap that stays in place, rather than fall off and decorate the inside of your makeup bag. From what I can tell, it has great staying power, too. It doesn't smudge around or leave those annoying dark marks under your eyes or in the crease. It also features some great, skin-loving ingredients like jojoba oil, shea butter, meadowfoam seed oil, and vitamin E. Cleans up nicely with an oil- or butter-based cleanser. At $13, it's well worth it.

All in all, this is a great standard eyeliner pencil. This would be especially good for someone transitioning from conventional to natural products, or for those who don't like to deal with the mineral powders too much. I highly recommend it and I'll definitely be looking into some more Jane Iredale products in the future!