Saw these Jillian Dempsey for Avon Professional Multi-Pencils on clearance and my curiosity got the best of me (it always does, I haven't gotten very far from meenke roots). These are double-ended pencils, one end for eyes, the other for cheeks and lips. Sounds pretty neat, no? I only saw 3 color variations, Twice the Spice, Raspberry Radiance, and Sugar Plum, and I bought all 3 to play with.
Twice the Spice and Raspberry Radiance. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.
Twice the Spice and Raspberry Radiance. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.
But I got lucky and these pencils turn out to be great! Both the eye and cheek/lip ends are soft and glide smoothly on my skin without any tugging. The eye pencils go on thicker and more opaque, and while they're not creamy like the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils, they are blendable. The biggest downside is that even though they don't feel greasy, they crease on my upper lids anyway, though that probably has a lot more to do with my upper lids being very oily than with the quality of these pencils. I don't blame them is what I'm saying. To avoid the creasing I use them on my brow bones and lower lash lines instead.
The cheeks/lips pencils are more emollient than the eye pencils. Again, they aren't as moisturizing and buttery soft like the Stila Lip Glaze Sticks, but they are for both lips and cheeks and so I can understand why they can't melt like butter upon application. Also, the colors appear to be gradient in terms of translucency and I will note this below with each combo. The more translucent color is better on the lips, and the more opaque color is better on the cheeks. But despite this they are very decent pencils and I like them enough to secure backups via E(vil)bay. Actually E(vil)bay is not so evil in this instant as I got all 3 pencils for a mere $6 ^.^ What a steal!
- Twice the Spice: this is a very warm combination of golden bronze for the eyes and peach for the cheeks and lips. Both the eye end as well as the lip/cheek end in this combo have limited use for me.
- Eye end: golden bronze with gold shimmers. This is the darkest and most opaque eye color in all 3 combinations. However because it creases, I can only use it to liner the outer end of my lower lash line. While it's great for this purpose, I can't use it for anything else. I would totally line my upper lash line with it too, only it's not dark enough and is better as an accent color on the lower lash line.
- Lip/cheek end: a peach with very fine silver shimmers that gives a nice sheen instead of appearing shimmery. However, despite this silvery sheen it is a very warm color. I like it, though it's much better on my lips than on my cheeks as the translucent peach color matches my natural lip color really well. The silvery sheen disappears on my lips, so it goes on a pretty my-lips-but-better color. However, it's precisely because of this translucency that it appears nothing more than a hint of natural color on my cheeks, and I'm fair medium! That means unless you're fair and are going for natural cheeks, it probably won't show at all!
- Raspberry Radiance: I think this was meant to be the neutral combination, however I do think it leans towards warm, at least it does on me. This combo includes a powder pink for the eyes and a warm rose pink for the lips and cheeks, too warm on me to be raspberry but is gorgeous nonetheless! In my opinion, this is probably the best color combination and if you can only get just one of these pencils, get this one! The eye end does wonders as an eye-opener, highlighting the brow bones, the inner corners of the eyes, as well as a makeshift under eye concealer (serious!), while the lip/cheek end really does work on both the lips and the cheeks!
- Eye end: an opaque milky pearly powder pink. Believe it or not this color is really excellent for highlighting the brow bones as well as for the inner corners of the eyes. The few times I didn't get enough sleep and got major dark circles, I used this as under eye concealer also, swiping it a few times and then blend with my fingertips. Too bad it creases on my upper lids, because I bet it'd make a nice eye shadow base too!
- Lip/cheek end: a translucent rose pink that goes on me warmer than intended ^.^ It has shimmers, but the shimmers don't show at all. It is a very pretty blush pink (raspberry, ha!) on my lips and gives a gorgeous flush on my cheeks. Love it!
- Sugar Plum: this third cool color combination is the trickiest to use. It includes an pearly off white and a cooler raspberry (finally ^.^)
- Eye end: a semi-metallic pearly off white. Yes, it's semi-metallic, that means it can't be used to highlight brow bones because it's too frosty. I can only use it to highlight the inner corners of the eyes and even then, I'd have to be careful or it will turn frosty there too.
- Lip/cheek end: an opaque and pigmented cool raspberry pink. This pencil is definitely not for the lips, at least not my lips :P, because it's too opaque. On my lips, its opacity brings out every single flake and crack and that just can't be pretty. On the cheeks it's a nice pigmented blush, though a bit too pigmented for me so I apply it only sparingly.
From top to bottom: Sugar Plum, Raspberry Radiance, and Twice the Spice.
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