Frugal Friday, Thursday Edition: Wet N Wild Idol Eyes Creme Shadow Pencil

One of my favorite go-to products is the Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencil. You can apply straight from the pencil, smudge it out with your finger, and head out the door. It pops easily into a purse or travel bag, and the color lasts forever with zero creasing--no primer needed. It's a must-have, god-send, holy grail product. So, imagine my delight when I saw that Wet N Wild had their own version, with a beautiful $1.99 price tag. Drugstore dupes for the UD pencils are popping up everywhere, but this is the least expensive version I've seen, yet. I snapped up one in Techno, a gorgeous opalescent purple, and gave it a go this morning. Here's how that went down:

This is super saftey-sealed! I ended up having to go all "HULK SMASH!" on it to get into the product. Pro tip: have scissors handy.

First, here's a quick look at the pencil, itself, with a Revlon lip butter for size reference. I didn't photograph the pencil against the UD for size comparison, simply because my UD are deluxe travel size and not standard length. It wouldn't have been a true assessment. For the curious, the WNW is about the same size as the UD deluxe travel.

Now, here's a swatch. The shade is really, really pretty. The pigmentation could be a little better, but it's certainly not bad, and the lilac color payoff is just lovely. With the opalescence, it practically glows. Gorgeous.

Here it is before I set it with shadow. Pay no attention to the lack of any other makeup on my face...ugh...

I wish I could leave it at that, but I can't. There's, unfortunately, a downside. The product is downright oily. It feels greasy on your skin, and slides around badly. That swatch on my hand wiped right off with a tissue. I tried to set the pencil with a matching powder shadow from the Too Faced Glamour To Go Dream Edition (it's a perfect match), and had problems with my brush wiping off the pencil!!! Seriously!!! Even with the shadow, it creased like crazy, and has required multiple touch-ups. I'd take a picture, but I'm pretty sure I'm down to only shadow now. It just didn't work.

Can it work? I think so. I think it could work over a very dry primer, like UD Primer Potion, and set with a colorless powder, like Ben Nye's Neutral Set.

Final Verdict: 4 out of 10. The color and price are amazing, but it's going to take a lot of work to wear it well.