I was avoiding buying NYX Micro Brow Pencil for such a long time, because I just thought it's too expensive. But then I had the chance to check out shades in person in store and I gave it a go. It's always compared to Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz. I am cheap when it comes to brown pencils, because I use them daily and there's so little product in it, that I go through it so fast. 

Packaging

It comes in plastic black pencil packaging. It's double sided. On side you have the pencil which doesn't need to be sharpened. On the other side you have a spoolie. I think every pencil should have a spoolie, so I love that. Tip is very fine and you can create precise lines with it. 

In it is 0.09 grams of product and it costs 9.99€.

Formula

It's one of those harder pencil formulas that still has enough glide to it that you don't need to particularly tug on your skin. But it's harder than most such brow pencils I've tried before. Almost feels like a regular wooden brow pencil. I would sometimes like for it to have more glide to it, because I need to build up color on certain bold spots. You can definitely create individual hair strokes with it though. 

Pigmentation is good, but it's one of those slightly sheerer formulas, which is to be expect for brow products, because it can quickly look too much.

Colors

It comes in 8 shades and it's definitely one of the best drugstore shade selection for every possible brow color. I went with Taupe, just because it looked the most grey toned for my natural brows. Taupe is light to medium brown color with a bit of grey undertone. But it's still much warmer than I expected it to be.

Comparison

NYX Micro Brow Pencil Taupe - the hardest formula out of all these three. It's also the sheerest in color and the color looks most warm toned medium brown, but there is a bit of grey tone feel to it. 

Essence Micro Precise Eyebrow Pencil 02 light brown - it has the most creamy and pigmented formula. Shade is also the most cool toned medium brown and it has a lot of grey undertone. 

Catrice Slim'matic Ultra Precise Brow Pencil 030 dark - it has the most similar formula to NYX, but it's less hard than NYX. Shade is medium brown with slight grey undertone.

Performance

As I've mentioned, I sometimes have a hard time with the color not being intense enough on my bold spots where I don't have any hair. I usually grab a more pigmented brow pencil for those parts to just fill it in quicker. But in general this is a nice formula. Because it's harder and not super pigmented, you can create natural looking brow hairs. It also means that you're not using product up as quickly as with other creamier formulas. 

Once this is on the brows and skin, it doesn't move at all. I find it to be very long lasting. I also like that because the formula is not creamy, it doesn't look shiny or sheeny at all. It gives you that matte brow. 

Brows are very personal thing and everyone likes them different way. I prefer using creamier brow pencils that don't need to be sharpened to add color where I don't have any hair and to give them a nice outline at the bottom. 

If you want something really pigmented and creamy that will give you instant color, then I recommend you get Essence version, which is like a brow pomade in pencil form. But if you want something that looks less harsh, more natural in a way and allows you to create individual hairs, then you might prefer NYX version. I like NYX for when my brows look good and I just want something to fill in any gaps. But when I want to really add pigmentation on bold spots, I always go for Essence. NYX is more expensive, but it also has 0.04 grams more product than Essence and Catrice and you will be using it up slower than other two formulas, so I can justify the price.