Another Product Endorsement For Which I Will Not Receive Compensation - Maybelline Expert Eyes Twin Brow & Eye Pencil

I know it's been some time since I've endorsed anything...shame on me! But this product, my friends, gets one of my most enthusiastic endorsements ever.

I didn't just discover Maybelline's Twin Brow & Eye Pencils. No, this is a classic product, something I've been aware of and coveted for most of my life.

My Mom used these when I was a kid. She kept her makeup kit in the bathroom and I'd go in there and pretend to be using the bathroom, when in reality, I'd be fooling with her makeup, dreaming of a day when I could wear it outside of the bathroom. (Had I been born a boy, I am most certain I'd be a drag queen now.) Anyway, I remember seeing the red pointy capped pencils in there among all the other goodies...

So, these little gems have been around a loooooong time, and if Maybelline ever stops making them, I might die.

"How could eye pencils be so important to her?" you wonder... Well, here is a little known fact: I don't have eyebrows! It's true. Me and Whoopie Goldberg and those two from The Thompson Twins. I was born this way...my situation is not from over-plucking. I actually envy my friends who get their eyebrows waxed! I have, like, seven clear hairs above each eye. (Besides looking kinda freaky without makeup, you really miss brows when it's really hot outside...brows keep perspiration out of your eyes!)

Anyway, I don't want to look like Whoopie (no offense to her...she rocks it fine, but I can't) or the Thompson Twins (no offense there, either), but I also never wanted the big chola-type drawn on brows. I also don't want to look like the mother of the girl I went to Jr. High with...she just made one thin, red line above each eye. She may have even had them tattooed on - I don't know. But no matter how they got there, they were not human-looking and she was an absolutely lovely person, inside and out, save for those "brows."

So! Maybelline Twin Brow & Eye Pencils! You don't want to use these on your actual eyes as liner (as the name implies) unless you want to melt the tips of them on a hot lightbulb or with a match or lighter like my sister did back in the 80's with her hard liners. No, Maybelline Twin Brow & Eye Pencils are really rockin' because they are hard and waxy - perfect for brows, just not so perfect for eyes.

Hard and waxy is just what you want when you want to sketch fine, feathery, hair-looking lines on your brow. Whether you're filling in or creating the whole darn thing like I have to, these waxy pencils sharpen to a needly tip and are perfect for brow enhancing.

Stop to sharpen once or twice as you're sketching short, easy strokes across your brow. In minutes, you've got what you were meant to have - full, shapely, feminine eyebrows.

What's even better is, you get TWO (thus the "twin") pencils in every pack! AND, they are butt-cheap...a pack is less than $4, depending on where you go.

Tip - when you begin using the second pencil in the pack? Go and buy your next pack. Then, you're never without a pencil. Another tip - watch your Walgreens flyers for the B1G1 50% off Maybelline specials, and you can get two packs for under $6!!

That way, you'll never be out of your Twin Brow pencils! (Unlike me, who used the remainder of my stub this morning and will have to buy a pack on the way home, or not leave the house tomorrow!)

Let me know how you like them! I've stopped trying other brands because they are mushy/don't last/too expensive while being ineffective. These are the way to go for awesome, natural looking brows!

Product Endorsements (for which I will not be compensated)

Why should you have to spend your hard-earned cash to try products out when I can do it for you?! I admit it: I try things! Call it my spirit of adventure... or my pursuit of perfection. If I try something and it turns out to be extraordinary, I'll let you know...I promise! And I will even let you know if I feel you need a warning if I find that a product is The Suck.

Mascara
Right now, there are about six mascaras on the drug store market actively claiming to make those of us with wimpy eyelashes appear to have long, dark, glamorous, outrageously full, long, curled lashes. (Apparently it makes our legs longer, our lips fuller, our hair glossier and our *sses smaller, too, because these mascara models look amazing!)

The first thing I can tell you from experience is that the only way to make your short, blonde, sparse eyelashes look like those on the mascara models is to carefully apply false eyelashes, and then (even more carefully) apply the advertised mascara over top of them. You will have some seriously fabulous eyelashes if you do this. (Do I do that? Yes, sometimes. Love it. But not really work appropriate.)

However, the second thing I'll tell you is that after trying just about every mascara on the drugstore market, I really like Maybelline's Colossal Volum' Express mascara and it makes me look as though I have lovely, thick, long, black eyelashes. I like Glam Black. It's blacker than whatever the other black they offer is called, and why bother with the smoky or brown? Black helps define your eyes and makes them stand out.

A couple other points on this awesome stuff -

• I wear contact lenses and this mascara doesn't seem to bother my eyes.
• It's reasonably priced ( About $8) and there have been coupons in the Sunday papers the last few weeks.
• It washes off well with warm water and soap/your favorite cleansing product (unless you wash your face with mascara, and then, well, I don't know/can't help you at all besides to recommend that you stop it.)

I also gave Maybelline's newest mascara a whirl - Lash Stiletto - and I like the Colossal way better. I think if you have decent lashes already, Stiletto would be fine. Stiletto isn't a big volume builder. It's more like black, heavy hold gel for your lashes. It will define them, slick them and curve them up a little, but it's like a push up bra - you gotta have something to put in the cups, or all the pushin' up in the world won't help you.

I have another product to review for you (yogurt!) but I'm going to save that for another day. (I know you can "hardly wait," but the sarcasm really isn't necessary...)