The Smashbox Always Sharp Liner was one of the duty free products that I picked up on my recent trip to Oslo. I have to admit, I usually go for a pencil that you sharpen, rather than the various twist up kinds that are on offer; however I was having a bit of a meltdown with my usual liner. (Snapping and breaking constantly - Don't even ask!) The colour that I chose is called Raven, your typical black liner.
When I spotted the Smashbox liner, I was intrigued by the 'Always Sharp' aspect of it. It seemed to take the hassle out of sharpening a bog-standard pencil; first world problems and all that. The lid of the Smashbox liner is designed in a way that means each time you unscrew the cap, you are presented with a neatly sharpened tip. How convenient.
Whilst the tip is indeed, 'sharpened' each time you come to use it; you're just not going to get a fine point like you would with a well-sharpened pencil liner or a liquid kind. I still managed to get a fairly decent winged liner look out of it though.
I have to say, I'm not entirely thrilled with this product and to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed by it. For a start, when I used the kohl liner over the top of my eye shadow on my lids, it picked up so much shadow and I had to keep wiping it to get even a hint of black from it. It's not as pigmented as I like and you pretty much can't use this liner on your inner eyelids/waterline. I found little to no colour actually made its way onto my skin here and it all looked very wishy-washy. It is worth mentioning though, that when you do get a decent application of the Smashbox liner, it is long-lasting and waterproof.
As I mentioned already, you can get a fairly reasonable flick with this liner and so I will give it some credit for that; although you won't achieve a super sharp finish. The liner is better when not used over shadow, but for the price, I would have expected it to perform in this area. I would have also liked a little smudgy, sponge bit on the end too, but I know that's probably nit-picking.
One thing that does bug me a bit, is that I found myself having to take the lid on and off a few times throughout application to have a constantly sharp tip, which is actually more time consuming than just giving it a quick sharpen. Also, after purchasing, I did end up reading a few horror reviews that say the tip has a tendency to break off due to a flaw in the mechanism and once that happens, the liner is a dud. Fortunately, this hasn't happened to me yet, but I have been using it fairly cautiously.
All in all, I'm not blown away by the Smashbox liner. I think it's a great idea and I feel that if Smashbox tweak the formula, they could be onto something with this. I just feel that I was left hoping for a little more and the payoff wasn't up to scratch compared to many of the cheaper, drugstore brand kohl liners. For me, it's not one that I will be repurchasing, sorry Smashbox.
What are your thoughts? Have you tried the Smashbox Always Sharp liner?
