LiminellaWhere are you going?Deutsch

Compared

Twist-up vs wooden lip pencil

A wooden pencil can be re-pointed indefinitely, which means it can always draw the finest line it ever drew. A twist-up cannot: it is the shape it was moulded as, and when it wears blunt it stays blunt. In exchange the twist-up is softer and carries hyaluronic acid, so it travels across a dry lip that a hard wax pencil catches on. So it comes down to two things a shade card will not tell you: the state of the lip, and how precise the edge has to be. A defined edge on a lip in good condition wants the wooden one. A dry lip, or a routine that will never contain a sharpener, wants the twist-up.

Maybelline Lifter Liner lip liner

Maybelline

Lifter Liner lip liner

A dry lip, and a routine that will never contain a sharpener

Pros

  • Twist-up, so there is no sharpener and no step
  • Hyaluronic acid in the formula, which the drier wax pencils do not have
  • Soft enough to travel across a bare lip rather than dragging at it

Cons

  • It cannot be re-pointed: once it wears blunt it draws a blunt line
  • Softer also means it moves more easily under a gloss worn over it
Buy on Amazon
NYX Professional Makeup Slim Lip Pencil

NYX Professional Makeup

Slim Lip Pencil

A defined edge, a lip in good condition, and a sharpener already in the drawer

Pros

  • Sharpens back to a point, so the finest line stays available for its whole life
  • A harder wax holds its edge under a lipstick worn over it
  • The slim barrel is the shape sold for outlining rather than filling

Cons

  • It catches on a dry lip -- the hardness that holds the edge is the hardness that drags
  • Every sharpening shortens it, so it is consumed faster than it is used
Buy on Amazon

Side by side

 MaybellineNYX Professional Makeup
TipMoulded, fixed.Sharpenable.
Needs a sharpenerNo.Yes.
On a dry lipTravels.Drags.
The finest lineBlunts over time.Always available.
Under a glossMoves more.Holds.
What ends its lifeThe tip going blunt.Sharpening it away.
The tell you want this oneDry lips, and no sharpener anywhere.A hard edge that has to survive a lipstick.

Everything above is about what these products are, not about tests we ran — we do not test products, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. Prices live on Amazon, where they change hourly, so we never quote one.

A liner is judged on its edge, so the tip matters more than the shade

Shade ranges get the attention and the tip does the work. An outline is a thin line by definition, and a pencil that cannot make one is not doing the job whatever colour it is. Settle the sharpener question before the colour question, because it is the one that cannot be changed afterwards.

Neither fixes a lip that needed a balm first

A liner rides on the surface it is drawn on. On a lip that is flaking, both of these catch and both leave a broken line, and no formula inside a pencil is a treatment. Balm first, then a minute, is the step that makes either of them look like the product it is sold as.

Your turn

What should we dress next?

An occasion you cannot find anything for, or a product you want us to look at properly.