Sometimes that smallest changes to a delivery system can make a huge difference to how you feel about a product. The Always Sharp Lip Liners have taken the process of sharpening a retractable lip liner, which is not always easy due to the size of the nib and the fact that you need to clean the sharpener regularly and made it something that you don’t have to think about. At all!
I have been playing with three of the twelve shades that are available for the past few weeks and have been impressed. Dark Nude which is a dark brown colour. I have been wearing it on its own for a brown lip colour but mainly it is my go to lip liner for when I wear a nude lip. Violet is my favourite of the three shades that I have (obviously). It is a bright pinky purple shade that is not fuchsia but not quite purple. It works well with all the shades of pink in my lip wardrobe. Peony is the shade I wear the least. It is a light pink that does not sit well on my skintone. The colour range is quite extensive and Smashbox get a big thumbs up for including three shades of ‘nude’ (light, fair and dark) in their range. I really hope that other brands follow their example. The are a great range of light medium and dark shades to cover the majority of your lipstick shades (with the exception of a bright orange)
The texture is lovely. It is firm but not too firm so you don’t drag the lips or ‘need’ to put a lip balm on first to protect the lips. The colour glides on and is long lasting whether you wear them to just outline the lips or to fill in both lips.
The innovation with this product is that the sharpener is in the lid. Every time you screw the pencil back into the lid, it sharpens it. This means that every time you use it the nib of the lip liner is sharpened (but not too pointy). In addition, there is no to clean up the sharpener as all the shavings stay within the lid.
As much as I love the fact that the sharpener is in the lid. I have found that I have broken the nib off a couple of time and when that happens, it is really hard to twist the end so that there is sufficient nib to be resharpened. It takes a bit of perseverance but it can be done. My recommendation is to twist it a couple of times every time you use it so that there is always a little bit of nib available to use.
Smashbox Always Sharp Lip Liners are available from the Smashbox website and selected Boots stores and retails for £15
PR Sample