Best Eye Pencil Sharpener Review | Apply your eyeliner easily?

The best eye pencil sharpener is important because you can apply your eyeliner accurately & get the most use out of your eye pencil, without the tip breaking.

Eye pencil sharpeners are cheap & there are so many to choose from it can be difficult to find a sharpener that creates that perfectly fine and rounded point on your eye makeup pencils. To make your decision easy, forget all those cheap plastic pretty looking sharpeners that break your eyeliner tip, the best eye pencil sharpener is the Beautique round metal pencil sharpener.

This Beautique eye pencil sharpener is adjustable, won’t break your eyeliner and has two sized openings. Read on to find out why it’s my favourite and see some quality alternative choices.

Beautique Round Metal Pencil Sharpener

Click this image to view the Beautique sharpener on Amazon

For years I experimented using eyebrow pencil sharpeners from all the big beauty brands, Maybelline, Loreal, Milani Duo and Revlon Universal points to name just a few. Some looked beautiful and worked well for a little while. Others destroyed my eye pencil tips quickly or become clogged and couldn’t be cleaned easily.

Recently I was introduced to this rounded metal Beautique sharpener. At first I though it looked like my school pencil sharpener, I wanted something that looked pretty. My friend convinced me that looks don’t matter and to try it out and see the results myself.

I hesitantly tried using it to sharpen my liner pencil and it worked, the top was round and sharp, even though the liner I used was a little soft. The real test of any beauty product is whether it works consistently over time, let’s take a close look and then talk about when it’s time to sharpen, how sharp your eyeliner pencil should be and look at a few popular alternatives.

Contents

A good  eye pencil sharpener will make your life easier ( at least the part where you sharpen and apply eyeliner)

women using eye pencil

I love makeup accessories and most of the time I look for accessories that claim to make me look more beautiful or younger. I think the most important accessories are often those that make your life a little bit easier and solve simple tasks in your makeup routine.

One of the things I like most about this tool is that it’s made of metal and feels so heavy and solid and that the blade sharpens such a small amount of the eye pencil tip each time I rotate it that it doesn’t damage the pencil or waste any of the product. A less sharp blade usually leads to a snapped tip, loss of more product or the product squashing.

There are two holes on the Beautique eye pencil sharpener, one on either side. One hole is smaller and perfect for most liner pencils but if you have one of the jumbo eyebrow pencils the large slot fits most larger sizes.


Best features

  • The metal is easy to clean and often the shavings fall out when I shake it. If they get stuck, try using some tweezers, a tooth pick or paper clip to dislodge them.
  • The blade is super sharp and made from a heavy solid metal. You can adjust the sharpness of the blade, but it came sharpened nicely for me so you might not need to.

What could be improved with this product

  • I would love for the design to be better suited to the beauty industry with a more colourful or appealing design.
  • When you need to tighten or loosen the blade ( You probably won’t ever need to) you have to use a screwdriver, it would be great if they included a tool which made this easier.

With a poor quality sharpener the wood chips off and the colour ends up clogged along and inside the blades but the metal is solid and the blade it easy to access. If the blade itself starts to become blunt over time you can actually replace it quite easily.

You can sharpen both wood and the soft plastic eyeliners using this tool. I personally prefer wooden pencils because I find they create a better texture and finer lines.

Currently I’m using the Rimmel Scandaleyes eyeliner pencil which is a wooden pencil with a very thin plastic coating that sharpens just as well as a completely wooden pencil eyeliner stick. The Rimmel Scandaleyes is one of my favourite pencils because it doesn’t run and holds lots of waterproof pigment so I can easily build up my lines with it.

Rimmel London Scandaleyes Waterproof Gel Pencil Eyeliner, Long-Wearing, Ultra-Smooth, Smudge-Proof, 001, Black, 0.04oz

Click the image to view the Rimmel Scandaleyes eyeliner pencil on Amazon


How to sharpen and how sharp should an eye pencil be ( important safety advice & tips)

makeup artist applying eyeliner

Sharpening an eye pencil is simple, but there are a few things you need to think about before you put the pencil inside and start twisting it against the blades. Here are a few tips that might help you sharpen your eyeliners better.

  • Consider putting your eye pencil in the fridge for a little while before sharpening it, especially if the tip is very soft, often breaks and doesn’t sharpen smoothly and accurately.
  • Often there is a safety feature inside makeup pencil or eye pencil sharpeners that doesn’t allow the pencil to sharpen too much. Take a look and see whether there is one before using it.
  • One tip I learnt is to hold your eye liner pencil still and gently turn the sharpener itself. This works well because usually people apply pressure on the eyeliner and grind it into the device which make it more likely that the tip will break off or the soft formula will squash.
  • After sharpening, before using your eyeliner, place it between your hands and rub to warm it up and then do the same with the tip by rolling the point between your fingertips. Be aware that a creamy or Kohl pencil has a much softer substance inside and won’t need warming up in the same way.

How sharp you want your eyeliner to be depends on the effect you are looking for and how much you want your eyes to pop. A sharp beauty pencil creates a thinner more accurate line than any makeup brush and lets you shape your eyeliner onto your eyebrows to create your own unique look.

If the pencil is thicker, flatter and more rounded the lines will be thicker and you can more easily create cat eye or a thick black line if that’s the look you want to experiment with.

The following video is of a makeup artist giving some tips about how to safely sharpen your eyeliner pencil. She shows how sharp the point can become and that you shouldn’t aim to make it as sharp as an everyday sketching pencil because then you are likely to damage your eyes.

If you over sharpen your pencil you can rub the tip on the back of your hand until it becomes more rounded and not a sharp point. Warming up the tip on your hand like this can also help the product inside to soften and become a little easier to apply above your eyes.

When is it time to sharpen your eye pencil

There is never a right time to sharpen your eyeliner but I would always recommend sharpening your makeup pencils long before they begin to become wide and flat. Once the tip become flatter and less pointed you lose the ability to accurately apply your liner and create those perfectly shaped lines.

Usually people wait for the liners tip to become flat and start to disappear behind the thin plastic layer at the side of the pencil. One good tip to avoid this happening is to try and sharpen your eye pencil a little bit after every use, just give it a little half turn in the sharpener to keep the tip sharp and rounded.

Doing this regularly means you will always be applying eyeliner with a pencil that is ready to perform accurately.

How to clean an eyeliner pencil sharpener

Cleaning a makeup pencil sharpener is simple. Here is a list of my method for cleaning the Beautique sharpener.

  1. Place some tissue on a hard surface and gentle hit the sharpener against the tissue so that any loose shavings come out.
  2. Rinse with warm soapy water.
  3. Use a cotton stick to wipe any dirt from the blade by placing the cotton in some alcohol and wiping the cotton in the hard to reach parts of the blade to sterilise it.
  4. Rinse with warm water and dry using tissue to absorb as much moisture as possible.

Alternative choice eyeliner pencil sharpeners

If you aren’t convinced by the Beautique eyeliner sharpener I’ve found another few choices for you that offer something a little bit different in their design and features.

Milani Duo Sharpener

Milani Duo Sharpener (0.1 Ounce) Cruelty-Free Dual Makeup Sharpener with Cover for Small or Jumbo Eye & Lip Pencils

Click image to view the Milani Duo Sharpener on Amazon

The Milani Duo sharpener doesn’t offer a blade quality or heavy weight like the Beautique offers but if you are looking for a product that looks more like a beauty tool with a little bit of branding and colour this is a good choice for you with a blade that does work well.

The Milani Duo has two slots on either side which you can slide your eyeliner into. When the shavings come off there is a top section covered by plastic which stops the product shavings from coming out. This is a great feature because you can put it back in your makeup bag and use it anywhere and then empty out the product shavings later.

If appearance is important to you, the design is a see through golden yellow and is very lightweight. Some users suggested that it could be best to put your makeup pencil into the fridge or freezer before using it because it can make softer pencils a little bit mushy if you push too hard.

Revlon Universal Points Sharpener

Revlon Makeup Sharpener for Eyeliner, Lip Liner, and More! Universal Sharpener for All Wooden & Plastic Pencil Sizes

Click image to view the Revlon Universal Points Sharpener on Amazon

The Revlon Universal points is created to fit standard and large size makeup pencils and can sharpen both wood and plastic eyeliners. I have chosen the Revlon Universal points as one of my alternative choices because I like the black plastic design and adjustable larger hole.

Just like the Milani Duo above there is a plastic section for storing shavings. This section can be removed but be careful it tends to stick and can be difficult to remove without making a mess. The blades are good quality and shouldn’t break your eyeliner, but it won’t sharpen quite as cleanly as the Beautique.


FAQ

Can I sharpen plastic and wooden eyeliner pencils?

Yes, It is possible to sharpen wood and plastic eyeliner pencils. Some gel pencils and other types of eyeliners can’t be sharpened though so make sure you choose a product that can be.

Can I sharpen a soft makeup pencil?

Yes, soft makeup pencils can be sharpened. If you are using the Beautique sharpener you can adjust the position of the blade using the screw on the top. Adjusting the blade affects how thin and pointy the tip becomes.

Reducing the pressure on the tip makes sharpening thicker and softer eyeliners easier. If you are struggling to sharpen a soft eyeliner, put it in the freezer for a few minutes first so it hardens and doesn’t crumble.

Conclusion – What makes this eyeliner sharpener the best

Beautique Round Metal Pencil Sharpener

Click this image to view the Beautique sharpener on Amazon

Over the years I’ve used a number of cosmetic eye pencil sharpeners for eyeliner, lip pencils and other makeup tools but most of the plastic designs were cheap and would eventually break. Some would become clogged up with shavings and product and others weren’t sharp enough and snapped the eye pencils tip.

I have no doubt there are other good product choices out there, I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of different makeup sharpeners around, but the Beautique was recommended to me and after testing it out it performs it’s job nicely without all the shiny sparkly fancy plastic.

This is a tool that’s been designed to perform the task at hand as smoothly and reliably as possible and the Beautique does that very well.

If you have different sized eyeliners then the two slot should fit any size pencil you have. Having an adjustable screw on top also helps you to be able to tighten the blade and create a sharper or more rounded and thicker point on your eyeliner pencil depending on what works best for you.

I hope you have a great experience with whichever product you choose and please share your experiences with me in the comment section below, I’d love to hear what you recommend.

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