Shiseido Week: Natural Eyebrow Pencil in Deep Brown BR602

Choosing the most flattering eyebrow makeup is much like choosing the best foundation for your skin tone. You need to find a color match, something near to the actual color of your hair. The truth is that nothing beats a good ol' brown eyebrow shade for us dark-haired beauties!

I picked up the Shiseido Natural Eyebrow Pencil in Deep Brown BR602 (P1,100) because of its lovely color. It's a dark brown, definitely, but it's soft and blends on my eyebrow hair perfectly. I have slightly reddish dyed hair right now but it still works since I'm on the dark end of the spectrum.

What I love about the product

• The texture of the pencil isn't as hard as Shu Uemura's (a Holy Grail pencil for me), a feature I like because it's quicker to shade my brows. It delivers a soft, barely there color that mixes with the oil of the hair to create a lovely natural finish.
• Flattering dark brown shade, perfect for brunettes!
• The lasting power is pretty good. I haven't noticed any fading after six hours of wear.

• I particularly love the brush at the other end of this pencil. Most pencils would include a plastic spoolie - a fine tool, indeed - but a natural hair brush does a better job of blending any harsh lines! The brush here is stiff and smudges the color around nicely. Brilliant stuff. More eyebrow pencils should have a brush like this.
• A little goes a veerrrrry long way so even if the pencil is quite expensive, I reckon you'll get more than what you pay for in the end.

What I don't like about the product

• Nothing I can think of. It's a great pencil that I'm sure I'll be using for years! 

Recommendations

If you're dark-haired and want soft, natural-looking yet defined brows, you'll love the Shiseido Natural Eyebrow Pencil in Deep Brown BR602. It's a no-fuss, idiot-proof pencil that can get you out of the door in a couple of minutes. Beginners and professionals allike would appreciate this in their kit!

I feel confident enough to recommend it to people with oily brows, since hard pencils like this are designed to stick to the skin once set. :)

Verdict

Love it! Do I like it better than my Shu Uemura pencil? Hmm. Well, let me put it this way. If I want lighter brows, I would pick the Shu. The shade I have (Walnut Brown) is gorgeous and I won't trade it for anything. If I want something more defined then I'll go with the Shiseido. It depends on the look I want!

If you must pick one, you can save a few hundred pesos with Shiseido since Shu's is a whopping P1,400. BUT, and this is where the other shoe falls, Shiseido's pencil is significantly shorter than Shu. I've had my Shu for three years and it's still longer than Shiseido by 30%. In other words, it's less expensive compared to Shiseido in terms of cost per wear.

Thoughts? A lot of Shiseido's products are comparable to Shu Uemura's, no? Well, they are the leading Japanese cosmetics brands. I advise you get the products that suit your coloring and preferences. :)