MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked Review

Hello gorgeous gals,

Switching gears from lipsticks to share with you some new (actually not so new!!) brow products that I have been using – trying and testing. I am liking them – let’s us dig in and find out. Today’s review is on a brow product from MAC. This released a while back – a copy of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer.

MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked

Product Description:
A retractable pencil with a chiseled tip that shapes and gently fills brows in with matte colour. An elegant, retractable pencil with a chiseled tip that adheres to your brow hairs, shaping and gently filling in with matte colour. The angled tip lets you size and shape them any way you want. Use the flat edge for a natural, diffused look or the pointed tip for a precise HD effect. Remove the opposite end cap to find a grooming brush to set your look.

Price:
$21/INR 1650 for 0.23 gm.

My Experience with MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked:

Packaging: The product is a “thicker” twist-up pencil, which can be retracted. When I say “thicker,” – I don’t mean like a chubby stick. Instead it is quite like the Anastasia Brow Definer. So, definitely thicker than the non-retractable brow pencils which MAC had earlier. The stick has a spoolie brush at its rear end, which has slightly harder bristles, but there is a reason why it is so – which I will cover in my review. At this time, suffice to say that it is effective. The product side and the spoolie side have their individual caps which close fairly securely. The product comes packaged in an outer cardboard box. A thing which irritates me a bit about the packaging is that the product has an ever so slight movement. The tube of the pen could have been slightly lesser in diameter or the product could have been secured better at the base. While, the brow product did not get dislodged or come out, it does move a little while applying and this mars the application.

MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked packaging

Quick update on my brows: I have dark brown hair with naturally sparse hair growth and lots of gap in between. And to add to this – my brows are naturally imbalanced. You can imagine the verbal torture “salon-aunty: subjects me to every time I go for threading! What I need from my brow product is to match my hair colour because I don’t just need to fill in, I also need for it to mimic individual hair that I need to draw to look like brow hair. I do not like a “solid-block, Insta type of brows.” Also, towards the tapering end, I need some help with keeping the longer hair in place to maintain the shape.

Color: The shade “Spiked” is described by the brand as a deep brunette color. It is a dark brown shade, slightly shy from being a deep brown, which in this range would probably be “Stud.” I use this shade because it matches my hair the best.

MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked shade label

Texture: The product slides easily on to the skin when you try to swatch it – it feels creamy but not overly emollient wherein it would glide more than it needs to. However, the product has a waxy feel which becomes evident when applying on the brows. When you try applying it on the brows, the product gets caught on the hair and starts building up on it, instead of applying on the skin, which is extremely frustrating. The hard spoolie comes in handy by distributing this texture over the brows. So, you start again to apply the product to cover the gap between the hair and the same thing happens again. The end result is a frustrating long time to get half decent brows. Also, the tip becomes blunt and can not mimic fine hair at all. This got so frustrating for me that I started questioning my own ability to do my brows. I though that my comfort with the regular MAC brow pencil was so high that this wasn’t living up to it. So, I went back to my Brow Definer from ABH – which has a similar shape – that is probably where the similarity ends. The ABH Brow Definer is so much easier to apply – has little to no learning curve and gives you great brows in maybe 1/5th the time you take to get half-decent ones out of this. By the way, it has been a while but the ABH Brow Definer has not become dry in the tube.

MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked tip

The only good thing about this brow sculpt by MAC is that it keeps my longer hair in check – somewhat – due to its slightly waxy coating.

Pigmentation: The pigmentation is okay when you apply. It is at par with the regular brow pencil from MAC. However, it fades fairly much more quickly than the regular one. This may well be because the texture does not adhere as well to the skin.

MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked swatch

Lasting Power: About 4-5 hours – depends on how much you sweat (it’s really humid out right now!). It definitely won’t last you a full day.

Pros of MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked:

  • Creamy, glides easily.
  • Good pigmentation.
  • Does not smudge.
  • Will suit Indian skin tones well.
  • Good quality spoolie – manages to distribute the texture well.

Cons of MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked:

  • Texture is difficult to work with, especially if you are trying to fill in the gaps.
  • The product keeps building up on the hair instead of applying on the skin underneath.
  • Not very long lasting as it fades during the course of the day.
  • The packaging needs to be re-looked.
  • You can’t get sharp thin hair-like lines

IMBB Rating:
A 3/5 product.
Would I Repurchase/Recommend MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil Spiked?
This review has been in the writing for over 10 days I think. One, because it’s been really busy. And two, there has been some reluctance on my part. I feel whenever a product does not perform well, I end up pushing writing the review. Net result is that, none of the reviews which are planned post that one get written either. Anyway. I will use up the product, but  no, I do not recommend this, nor will I repurchase. The regular MAC brow pencil is 10 times better. And if I really want the triangular tip – I’d go for the ABH one in a heartbeat.

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