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The NYX Lift & Snatch Brow Tint Pen is a brush-tip brow product that comes in 10 shades. The product inside is a semi-sheer liquid, similar to an eyeliner but not as pigmented and the brush tip is very fine and offers a high level of control compared to pencils, powders, and pomades.
Price: $13 each
Availability: NYX, Ulta, Amazon, Target, Walmart
I’ve used several brow pens over the years and I keep coming back to this one because the price for how it performs plus the color match is the best balance I’ve found. Others I’m familiar with are ones from Anastasia Beverly Hills, Urban Decay, Essence, Maybelline, Elf, and Mac (they discontinued theirs).
The formula stays on the skin well but isn’t waterproof. It will hold up all day very well and even withstand accidentally touching my brows without completely fading away but it will come off if I splash my face with water and is super easy to remove with makeup remover. Pigmentation varies from shade to shade but these are generally semi-sheer and buildable. They look like eyeliner pens but have about 1/2 the opacity of a liquid eyeliner. Taupe, Soft Brown and Gray-Black were sheerer than the rest but I felt they still worked well with a bit more layering.
I started out using the shade Ash Brown and used that for a LONG time, before deciding to try out other shades. Over time I noticed that sometimes the brush tip can become leaky, which is disappointing, but because I still like how this product works and I’m able to get it under control without too much hassle, I can look past this. It’s not a drippy kind of leak but more of a bubbling I notice at the brush tip along with excessive ink application. After adding the other shades to my collection, I found this happened with one other shade.
I store it flat to keep the ink evenly distributed inside the pen and I’ve never had it leak while being stored with the cap on. Only during use. When these are brand new or if they’ve been sitting unused for a while, it’s not a bad idea to shake them up before using them to make sure the ink is making its way through the brush tip.
I use the brow pen along with a brow gel to do my entire brow but you can mix and match this product along with any regular brow pencils, powders, or pomades if you want. I apply the brow gel first and allow it to dry down before going in with the brow pen. Then I fill in sparse areas at the front of my brow, which usually needs the most attention, fill in a few bare spots where it looks like I’ve got some hairs missing through the middle of my brows, and sharpen up the outer “tail” as well.
Swatches
Here are swatches of all the shades this pen comes in. I have two sets here to help make the color of each one clearer. On top, the shades are swatched heavily and layered and the bottom one is 1-2 light passes of the color. The bottom one shows better what the undertone of the shades are. Some of them stain the skin a little bit. A few of them were more sheer than the others (Taupe, Soft Brown, and Gray-Black).
01 Blonde – Greenish toned. Leaves a light yellow/orange stain behind.
02 Auburn – Reddish brown. Deep reddish grey stain.
03 Taupe – Medium neutral brown. Leaves a greyish stain.
04 Soft Brown – Light, warm yellow brown. Leaves a light yellow/orange stain behind.
05 Caramel – Medium, slightly warm brown. Leaves a deeper greyish stain.
06 Ash Brown – Medium brown with slight red tones. Leaves an orange stain.
07 Brunette – Deep reddish brown. Leaves a burgundy stain.
08 Espresso – Deep brown. Leaves a red stain.
09 Gray-Black – Medium neutral grey. Left a faint blue-grey stain behind.
10 Black – Soft, semi-sheer black. Didn’t leave any stain behind.
How It Compares To Other Brow Pens I’ve Tried
Original ABH Brow Pen – Slightly thicker brush but draws lines that are pretty similar in thickness and opacity. ABH is more expensive per mL. It looks like this product is being phased out.
ABH Microstroke Brow Pen – Brush tip is a tiny bit smaller than the NYX one and I get sheerer color payoff from this one. Requires more layering to show up well on me. It looks like maybe this could be the permanent replacement for the Original ABH Brow Pen.
Urban Decay Brow Blade – This one offers a pencil side in addition to the brush tip. I like how it works, the brush tip offers great control, lines are very fine and have good color payoff but the colors I’ve tried have been weird and just a bad match.
Maybelline Brow Inserts – This has a three-pronged brush tip which I find more difficult /awkward to use. Similar color payoff, slightly thicker lines. Also offers a sheer tinted brow gel on the opposite side of the brush, which I actually enjoy using.
Essence Microblading Brow Brush Liner – This is a waterproof pen and requires effort and a good makeup remover to take off. It is more opaque and closer to what I think of as a liquid eyeliner than a brow pen, but I have only tried the darkest shade, so lighter ones may not give me those same results. The lines I got were thicker, felt less controlled, and the color (04 Dark Brown) was clearly too dark for me. I disliked it enough to not bother buying a lighter shade.
Elf Holy Strokes Micro Fine Brow Pen – These are noticeably sheerer than most. Color payoff was similar to the ABH Microstroke Brow Pen and required more layering or use of a deeper shade to show up well. I didn’t dislike these but found they were easier for filling in larger areas of the brow quickly rather than drawing hairlike strokes.