Tuesday 18 January 2011

Save vs Splurge - Concealer pens

Concealer pens. I think almost every brand of cosmetics have one and perhaps the most famous is YSL Touche Eclat but at £24.51 this is a little out of my price range. I haven't tried many of these as I prefer to use a cream concealer but a few months ago I thought I'd give two different ones a go.


I first bought Benefit's Lyin' Eyes concealer pen (on the right in the photo above) which is £16.85 for 1ml. Yes that's right you get a whole 1ml of product! This is probably why this lasted me about 2 weeks! So for a 100ml (which is what products are generally rounded up to for a ml for ml comparison) it would cost you a staggering £1685.00!

Most recently I bought Avon's Magix illuminator, on the left on the photo. This is cheaper at £10 for 1.7g. Can't do a ml for ml comparison as the maths to convert grams to millilitres is past me!


Top: Avon. Bottom: Benefit

I have to say that I loved the Benefit concealer. It had a thick consistency which covered well and it lasted all day but like mentioned above it didn't last long at all. In fact when no more came out I thought it had broke because it only felt like I'd been using it 2 minutes.

Avon's Magix illuminator has a thinner consistency, and more notably I chose 'light' which is way too light to use under my eyes. It didn't cover as well and needed reapplying during the day. Because I chose a shade which is too light I haven't used this much so I can't comment on how long it lasts in comparison.

Whilst researching this and being astonished at how little you get for your money of Benefit's concealer I was curious to see how YSL's would compare. Yes it's more expensive but you get 2.5ml! This is one and a half times more than Lyin' Eyes, so for 100ml this works out at £980.00! The only thing I can't compare is the quality as like I said at the beginning of this post I haven't used it.

This all got me thinking about price comparisons for other concealer pens so here is the price, size and 100ml comparison:

  • No7 Instant Radiance - £13.50 - 2.5ml - £540.00 100ml
  • Clinique Airbrush - £15.32 - 1.5ml - £1021.30 100ml
  • Nip + Fab Eye Fix - £10.16 - 2ml - £500.80 100ml 
  • Collection 2000 - £4.99 - 1ml - £499.00 100ml 
  • Revlon Colorstay - £7.49 - 1ml - £749.00 100ml
  • 17 Hide & Chic - £4.99 - 1.8ml - £277.20 100ml
  • Benefit Lyin' Eyes - £16.85 - 1ml - £1688.50 100ml
  • YSL Touche Eclat - £24.51 - 2.5ml - £980.00 100ml
So overall Benefit works out the most expensive and 17's Hide and Chic works out the cheapest and they are both 1ml products. I might buy the 17 product and do a comparison for a future post.

But back to my original products: Avon and Benefit. 

I've come to the conclusion that with concealer pens it doesn't really matter how much a product costs but more about how much you get for your money and then the quality of the product. Even though I prefer Benefit's Lyin' Eyes I wouldn't buy it again due to how expensive it works out but I also wouldn't buy Avon's Magix Illuminator again because of the thin consistency. 

Has anyone else used any of these? Which concealer pen do you recommend?


Product stockists:
No7 & 17 - Boots
Nip + Fab - Boots, ASOS, Harvey Nichols
Revlon & Collection 2000 - Boots, Superdrug

4 comments:

Miss War Paint (Nic) said...

Hey sweets I have 3 of the ysl pens and don't use them! I've found this cheap cheap cheapo alternative. A brand called Technic do one of these pens for about £2 and swatched next to ysl is identical. I love the coverage and the way it helps the light bounce off my dark circles! You can find it in cheapy chemist places like Bodycare....I really recommend it! xxx

Miss Blogitis said...

Great post! Thanks for doing it xx

Emily said...

I love touche eclat but if I'm on a budget I actually quite like l'oreals touche magique. Thanks for putting all the price comparisons in- very useful!xx

Karla said...

@Nic - I'll have to keep a look out for that one x

@Emily Charlotte - No problems! But they did take some working out! x

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