Brow pens are literally all the rage now and it was only a matter of time when are they going to come to drugstore. Well, here's one of the affordable brow pens.
The Catrice Brow Definer Brush Pen Longlasting is a brow pen that looks just like a liquid liner and has a flat brush tip. It comes in 4 shades, I have the shade 040 Ash Brown and it retails for 90 Crowns for 0.7ml of product.
The packaging always has the shade of the pen, at least a little bit. You sort of know which shade to go for when you're in the store. The flat brush tip is a mystery to me because I'm not sure how it's supposed to help you create the hair-like strokes. To me it makes sense to use it with the thin side to my face.
It was clearly created to create a natural looking eyebrows that go well with the fluffy brow trend. I am not great at using any of these brow pens so I will probably struggle with it a lot. I've used felt tip ones but I feel like the brush might be a little better at application. We'll see how it goes.
I like the shade Ash Brown though as it's really a nice medium toned taupe and it's not too warm. I didn't have many brush pens to compare it with so there are some pencils in the swatches as well for you to see how the shade looks.
Application
These days I have quite a complicated eyebrow routine. I've been trying to get into the brow pens so I usually use one pencil that is lighter then my eyebrows to create the overall shape. Then I use the brow pen to fill in sparse areas (or at least I try to do so) and lastly I use a brow gel, soap or wax to keep them in place and fluff them up. I sometimes apply multiple layers of the last product.
First of all, the pen tends to bleed a little bit when it just lays down. So watch out for that if you pick it up and want to go straight in, it might make a bit of a mess. It's kind of hard to do the thin strokes as it's the case with all brow pens. I like the bristles because they are very flexible and you can kind of flick it up. But it's still pretty hard.
The shade is really nice and it blends with my natural eyebrows quite well. No product applied on top messed up the color or the strokes so I'm happy the pen dries down completely.
Wear test
I wanted to see if the pen actually lasts all day or if it starts to fade or move during the day. It's supposed to be semi-permanent so I assume it should be a longlasting formula that just dries down and doesn't move at all. But I want to test it out.
The application was a little bit of a struggle but I manages to create a pretty decent brows with the pen. I used just the pen and a brow gel to really let the pen shine. In the tail section of my brow it was the hardest to use because there's not much space to draw the hairs so they end up a little stubby and thick but they don't look that bad. Overall, I feel like the pen gave me more textured and fluffy looking brows which is exactly what I was looking for.
Wear time 11 hours
After time many hours I can tell with certainty that this brow pen is really longlasting and it just won't move no matter what. I was outside when it was pouring rain, I had quite a day today and the brows are in place looking the same as in the morning. The color didn't face or oxidize at all. Which is great but if you make a mistake while drawing them on, the mistake is going to be there the whole day.
Final thoughts
Overall I really like this brow pen because of the brush tip. It doesn't get clogged with makeup and it just glides on. It's also a little less beginner friendly as it's harder to manage as more pigment comes out. It's quite opaque and dries really fast so you have to be careful with it a lot more then with the felt tip pens.
That being said I love the shade and I reach for it a lot especially when I'm not in a hurry. I have to take my time with it to make it look natural but it's worth it because the shade really looks a lot like my brows. I also like that it's affordable and the shades provide at least a cool-toned light brown which is sometimes a rarity. Its lasting abilities are amazing. Once it dries it won't move or change color, it will just stay put until you decide to take it off.
I would recommend it if you're skilled with this type of brow product or if you don't mind thicker strokes. If you've never used a brow pen this might be a bit of a ride like it was for me. I bought this one as my first brow pen and I like it but my current abilities are better working with more user friendly pens.
Do you have any favorite drugstore brow pens I should check out? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!