Drugstore Beauty: Essence Long Lasting Eye Pencil in Black Fever

Essence is one of my favorite drugstore brand here in Toronto cos they combine super affordable price with great quality and awesome packaging. Notice the use of too many adjectives - but what to do, it is true [now I've started Rhyming]!


Most of their products are around $2-$3 and I think they are a great alternative to E.L.F cosmetics which is anyways not sold in Toronto. The best part for me is how often they release pretty Limited Edition products with cute themes. The last one I got was named 'Blossom Me Up' and 'Kalinka' something. Overall, a great brand and thank you Essence for coming to enrich our lives in Toronto :) :)

About this eye pencil [from Essence website]: " long-lasting and color-intense: the long-lasting eye pencil is super-easy to apply accurately thanks to its innovative twist-mechanism and guarantees long-lasting color results."

Price: $2.49 CAD approx for 0.34gm

Now, don't confuse this one with its Evil Twin - Essence 24 Hr Stay no matter what Eye pencil [I hope I got the long name correctly] - I tried it and didn't like it at all, but that's another review.

My Experience: 

1st of all, lets take a minute to admire the sleek black shiny packaging - other than NYX, how many other drugstore brands can boast of such superb packaging? [Yeah, I'm looking at you NYC, Revlon & others] Its always a pleasure to buy Essence products sometimes just because of the packaging - the latest Kalinka collection is something I am planning to check out soon, cos it features a cute Matryoshka doll design. 

Black fever is a moderately creamy somewhat intensely black eye pencil that applies pretty nicely on your lids with minimum tugging. f

What I don't like about this pencil is - the rounded tip makes it hard to get precise lines, which is okay by me cos I like thick eye lines but if you want those sleek cat eyes, this aint the pencil for you. 

What I like-  The color, the staying power [easily around 6-7 hours], the slight smudge-ability making it a great pencil for lightly smoky eyes and the fact that I don't have to sharpen this pencil! :)

Overall: I think if you can ignore Essence's claim of accurate application, this is a nice everyday pencil. If you want thinner lines, I suggest using  - 

 - a cigar lighter to lightly heat the tip to make it super creamy & then apply a liner brush to get super long stay eye liner.

 - a coffee stirrer to lightly taper of the ends to make it sleek & pointy

For the price, I don't think there are many other eye pencils that can beat this! Just as a comparison:

Too Faced Perfect Eyes pencil [I like this -much more creamier, less smudgy, almost similar staying power]  is $23 CAD for 1.1.4 gms i.e. approx $20.20 for 1 gm

Essence pencil - which works almost as good  but not as intensely pigmented- is $7.35 for 1gm. Thats $13 CAD in savings for a daily use pencil, my dears!!