Before I got started on writing this NYX Automatic Eyebrow Pencil review, I went to read the MAC Automatic Eyebrow Pencil review written 11 months ago. I love reading old posts, they make me realize how much I’ve grown, how my writing style has improved, photography skills have progressed, and some throw me back to the moment when I was writing them, allowing me to relive memories.
If I had access to endless supplies of MAC products without forking out a single cent (your wish, my wish, every makeup obsessed person’s wish), I would say the MAC Eyebrow Pencil is an ideal pencil. There are about 5 shades to choose from on the MAC website (I don’t know why Brunette isn’t one of them. It’s available in MAC Singapore though), a precise tip, and since I have endless free supply to MAC products, I can simply throw one away when I twist it up too much causing the product to break.
But because the probability of that wish coming true is as good as believing that Bun Bun will become a real fairy, and my pocket and brain were telling me there must be as good and cheaper alternatives to the MAC automatic brow pencil out there, I soon found myself in possession of the NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil.
Pigmented Brow Color
The NYX Automatic Eyebrow Pencil goes on very smoothly, much smoother than those pencils that need manual sharpening, like the Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil (another old post!).
You don’t need a lot of effort to get great color payoff, and this intense pigmentation might be a bane to some since you might have to be light-handed to avoid having dark slugs as brows at first. Once you get the hang of it though, this NYX brow pencil is a great time saver since just a few strokes are needed to alter light-colored brows to defined ones.
NYX Auto Brow Pencil has better staying power than MAC Auto Brow Pencil.
GO DRUGSTORE!!! 
Bare, black, harsh brows.
Using the not-very-useful attached brush. Haha
Natural-looking, well-defined brows!
Dark Brown Brows for Dark-haired Asian Girls
In general, the color of your brows should suit the color of your hair. If you have:
Blonde hair – Choose 1 to 2 shades darker than your hair color
Brunette hair – Choose 1 to 2 shades lighter than your hair color
Red hair (like the Weasley family; ginger, auburn, strawberry blonde) – Choose shades with brownish-red tones in them
Dark-to-black hair – No black, please! Choose charcoal, soft black, grey, dark brown
This is where NYX has provided an excellent range in brow shades. There are EIGHT shades to choose from on the NYX website.
I own EP05 Dark Brown, a deep chocolate brown, and it looked great on me when I used to have darker hair.
If you have dark hair, like most Asian girls do, Dark Brown is a great option because it is not too harsh like EP07 Charcoal and I don’t recommend EP08 Black.
As you might have seen the shade of my current hair in the L’Oreal Color Infallible Goldmine post, it is now a much lighter shade than when a mosquito kissed my forehead. Also, since EP05 Dark Brown has a tiny bit of redness in it, and my hair color leans yellow now, it just doesn’t look that complimenting anymore. I can’t use the NYX Dark Brown brow pencil now, but still keep it around for the day when I might get my hair dyed a darker shade of brown again. For my current hair color, I think NYX EP01 Light Brown or EP06 Taupe, and MAC Fling would be more suitable.
I’ve used it for about a year and there’s still a lot of product in it! I use other eyebrow products, like Face It Designing Cake Eyebrow from The Face Shop and MAC Brunette, but the NYX one is used 90% of the time.
I tend to have my hair dyed dark brown, light brown, golden highlights; I haven’t seen myself with a full head of my natural hair color in years.
I’ve tried Dark Brown on several of my Asian, dark-haired girl friends and it looks great on them.
Retractable Twist-up Pencil with Precise Tip
Ah, the huge plus point of the NYX Auto Brow Pencil is its retractability. Sheesh, I don’t know why MAC made theirs non-retractable. It’s like using red permanent marker to write on white paper – non-removable and an eyesore. LOL.
The NYX auto brow pencil has a self-sharpening tip and gets a huge thumbs up for people like me who don’t like to sharpen their pencils.
You get a slender, oval tip to apply both thin and super thin lines on the eyebrows. Control is great, but when you reach the ends of the brow, you have to twist the pencil in a way to ensure a thin tip. You can use the flat side of the pencil on the middle and inner parts of the brows.
Reminds me of a platypus’ beak. Kekeke.
Flimsy Brush Tip
So, you don’t have to sharpen your pencil and they give you a built-in brush on the other end! Love!
Many people use the brush, but I don’t use it that much as it doesn’t perform that well in the blending department. I sometimes use it to brush the hairs in place, but most of the time use a separate spoolie to comb and blend.
Great Product, Great Price
For such good quality, the price is a steal. The NYX Auto Brow Pencil costs 1/3 of MAC’s, has more shades to choose from and better lasting power.
Here are just two pictures of eye makeup looks with brows drawn using the NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown.
In most of my eye makeup posts and tutorials, I used the NYX Auto Brow Pencil, so you can see just how much I love it!
Check them out here:
- Colorful Eye Makeup Tutorial: Asians Can Rock Multi-Color Eye Makeup Looks Too!
- Two Eye Makeup Looks Created with Sugarpill Eyeshadows!
- 8 Days of Christmas Eye Makeup Tutorials: Day 2
- 8 Days of Christmas Eye Makeup Tutorials: Day 4
- 8 Days of Christmas Eye Makeup Tutorials: Day 8
- And it was used in Parts 1 to 4 of the Eyeshadow Tutorial for Asian Eyes series as well!
Where to buy:
NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil (Amazon)
MAC Eyebrow Pencil Spiked (Amazon)
MAC Eyebrow Pencil Fling (Amazon)
Bun Bun rates NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil:
Have you tried cheap and good NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil before? What is one eyebrow product you use most often?
