Huda Beauty Icon Lip Contour Matte Lip Pencil Review

Hello gorgeous gals,

Today’s review is on another shade of Lip Contour from Huda Beauty. This one (Icon) is probably my favourite shade from the line. I have reviewed the Liquid Matte version of Icon earlier, along with Trophy Wife. Let us see how this one worked.

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Product Description:
What it is:  A line of easy-glide contouring and filling lip pencils featuring intense color payoff and a matte finish.

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What it does:  Balance and beautify your lips with the Lip Contour Matte Lip Pencil to address flat lips, thin lips, wide or narrow mouth, or uneven shape. These easy-glide lip pencils are simple to use and provide an intense payoff with a matte finish in a single swipe. Each shade is waterproof and transfer-proof and can be used alone or combined for the perfect lip look. It is formulated without parabens, phthalates. “They are literally the only thing I am using on my lips at the moment. The glide and payoff is so perfect and long lasting. They fit ideally in my mini bag too! My favorite combos are Trendsetter used as a contour plus Bombshell as a highlighter or Famous and Trophy Wife. But when I want to add drama to my look, I use Vixen combined with Famous.”—Huda Kattan, Brand Founder. This product is vegan and cruelty-free.

Choose your favorite shade: Vixen (poisonous deep brown), Famous (effortlessly chic burgundy), Cheerleader (delicately muted red), Gossip Gurl (everyday cute pink), Video Star (shout out pink red), Bombshell (subtle pinkish nude), Trendsetter (stylish brown nude), Trophy Wife (bestselling rose wood), or Icon (classic peachy pink).

Price:
$19 in US / GBP 16 for 1.2 gm. For perspective – A MAC Lip pencil is $16.50 for 1.45 gm. I compare it to MAC because MAC is a mid end popular and accepted brand of good standing.

Ingredients:
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Packaging;
The lip pencil is a regular sharpen-able wooden pencil in black, which comes packaged in a black cardboard box. The product look and feel is definitely good – goes with the pricing of the product. The plastic cap fits snuggly and doesn’t come off easily. The end of the pencil, as well as the box, are colour coded corresponding to the product shade – so its easy to identify in the stash. As is usual with pretty much all lip pencils – it does not come with a sharpener.

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My Experience with Huda Beauty Icon Lip Contour Matte Lip Pencil:

A quick brief on the brand. Huda Kattan is a successful Youtube and Blogger based out of Dubai. She, along with her sisters, run the Huda Beauty empire. Their initial foray into the beauty industry was with the ever popular Huda beauty lashes. The iconic packaging along with a good product sent the beauty brand soaring. Next to launch were these – the Huda Beauty Lip Contours, which in effect are lip liners. These were followed by the Liquid Matte Lipsticks and the recently-launched limited edition Huda Beauty Rose Gold Edition eyeshadow palette.

huda-beauty-icon-lip-contour-matte-lip-pencil-outer-packaging

huda-beauty-icon-lip-contour-matte-lip-pencil-tip-shades

Color: The shade “Icon” is described as a “classic peachy pink.” I think the description is apt. This is a fairly neutral shade and would suit most skin tones. It has similar vibes as Kat Von D Double Dare, Colourpop Bumble, Estee Lauder Rebellious Rose. I wouldn’t call them dupes but they are pretty much in the same range, with Bumble being the darkest. If you want, I will post comparative swatches of these – let me know in the comments.

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When I compare it to the Liquid Matte Icon – the Lip Contour seems a tad bit more pink while the liquid version leans a bit more towards peach. Refer the #LOTD shared with you wherein I have applied each product on one half of my lips. The shades are still fairly close and work well together.

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The shade will work great for an everyday wear, for office, and for gals who would like a more neutral/MLBB shade and aren’t really comfortable wearing a n*de. In the #LOTD, I am wearing this with a neutral day time matte eye look. I feel the lipstick goes very well with that.

These are called Lip Contours since they can apparently be used on their own, under the Liquid Mattes or as a means to contour your lips. So a lighter shade in conjunction with a darker once can be used to create the effect of fuller/more poutier lips. Does it work? Yes, to an extent, but then, any lip pencil/lipstick can work because the principle remains the same. Nothing unique in the product to further aide this concept. Having said that, do not go by the marketing pics of Huda on the lip contouring thing – she has lip fillers. So, her lips are anyway pouty. This product will not suddenly make your normal lips look like her.

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huda-beauty-icon-lip-contour-matte-lip-pencil-swatches

I did mention this while discussing the shade Bombshell (review coming up soon), the brand claims (through the marketing mambo-jumbo) – “Every shade reacts uniquely, depending on your skin tone. Check the swatch details for further indication, but there will be some color variation on your lips.” The shade does not “react” differently to your skintone. The choice of words could have been better. It just means, that each shade will look slightly different on different skin tone – which is true for any lip product. Being a beauty blogger herself, Huda knows how things can appear different on different skin tones. And as a brand, they wouldn’t want customers to start with – “Oh! But it looks so different on her.” It will, if your skin tone is different from hers, it will look different.

Texture: The Huda Lip contour pencils are quite smooth and creamy. They glide on easily without tugging or pulling on the lips or dragging on. The flip side of it is also that the tip gets used up quickly – just two applications. And if you need sharp point to work with, then you have to sharpen it each time you use it. If you don’t, you will work with a blunt tip. So, all in all, this will get consumed fairly quickly.

huda-beauty-icon-lip-contour-matte-lip-pencil-lip-swatch

It’s a lip pencil, has a matte finish, so you do need prepped and exfoliated lips. If not, it will grab onto any texture on your lips and emphasise it.

Once on, you feel a slight tightening – typical of matte lip products, but it isn’t too bad. It definitely isn’t as comfortable as their liquid lipsticks. It works more like a traditional matte lip. After an hour or so, you feel the dryness on your lips. If you move the upper lip on the lower one, you will get that dry sand paper feeling. It gets fairly drying by the end of its wear time. However, if used as a base for a lipstick, it feels fairly comfortable. The added moisture from the lipstick (regular ones/Huda’s liquid ones) helps add comfort.

Pigmentation:  The pigmentation is excellent. It still covers all lip pigmentation very well and provides an even base. Your natural lip colour will not peep through and will not alter the shade of the lipstick.

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Lasting Power:  The product lasted about 6.5-7 hours on me, on its own, but it did get fairly drying. However, probably not as drying as a traditional MAC lip pencil. It wore fairly well – did not budge with light snacks/ drinks; heavier meal does break it down. Still, it had much better wear time than the Huda Liquid mattes. Also, it did not look patchy as it wore.

Pros of Huda Beauty Icon Lip Contour Matte Lip Pencil:

  • A beautiful neutral colour, will work exceptionally well for medium skintone!
  • Lightweight matte texture.
  • Once sharpened – allows for clean and precise application.
  • The pencil applies without tug or pull!
  • No feathering or bleeding.
  • Convenient packaging, easy to apply and easy to carry – doesn’t take much space in the bag.
  • Decent wear time.

Cons of Huda Beauty Icon Lip Contour Matte Lip Pencil:

  • Not a hydrating formulal; however, considering they are supposed to provide an iron-clad base for lipstick – one kind of expects them to be drying.
  • Tends to cling to dry patches, would suggest exfoliating lips before applying.
  • The creamy texture of the product makes the tip disappear in two uses.
  • Sharpening with every use will result in this getting over fairly quickly.
  • Price point. I have discussed this point in detail while revising Bombshell from this range. I have spoken about the price point – not the price per say. The contention being, does the relatively new brand, Huda Beauty have a better perceived value in the market than say an established brand like MAC? This is considering the offerings are priced at a higher price point than an established mid-priced brand like MAC. The only conclusion I draw is that this involves the built in cost to market/sell them through a retailer like Sephora. Shelf space in Sephora is extremely premium and comes at an additional cost which does eventually get passed on to the customer.

IMBB Rating:
4/5

I do feel that this is a decent product which works even better under the liquid matte lipsticks. The two products work very well in tandem. The liquid lipstick which lacks in longevity gets added wear time from this. While the lip contour which can be quite drying, gets comfort with the liquid matte on top. However, how many people will be willing to buy both products in the same shade – when they want to pick from Huda Beauty offering? Not many, I presume. This puts the whole Kylie Lip Kit in perspective for you – that is $28 for lip pencil and liquid lipstick. While this will work out to about $39 – if taken together. That’s a great marketing ploy to push two products out together. However, in my humble opinion, Huda’s product is definitely far superior than Kylie’s.
Do I Recommend Huda Beauty Icon Lip Contour Matte Lip Pencil?
Yes.

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2 thoughts on “Huda Beauty Icon Lip Contour Matte Lip Pencil Review

  1. I am quite surprised to see good rating for this in a good way.. I was expecting them to b dud like the liquid lip..maybe I got that impression because of the mambo jumbo part..
    Love the 2 tone lips u did to show the difference in the shades
    PS do u even need to ask about the comparison swatches.. YES we need them !!

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