I have more eye make up that I could possibly wear in my lifetime, even if I were a spider, with eight blinkers. Still, in my world you can never have too much of (almost) anything so I could not resist when I came across this 7 eye pencil set by Studio, in Superdrug.

Usually, I am a bit sceptic about cheap make up, especially those in a “Christmas gift pack”, as I’ve had plenty disappointment in the past with poor pigmentation and durability. For £6.99 (and also part of their buy 3 for 2), it sounded like too good a deal to overlook, as it is less than £1 per pencil and the colours were appealing basics.

Just to have an idea of how good (or not) they were, I tried it at home one night, after work, pretty much on top of my worn out, basic day eye make up.

The pencils are really soft and the colours really bright, even though they are not super solid when on the eye, and the shimmery ones reflect light well. I also like that the colour have rather cute names, such as “silver moonbeam”. Application was easy, the pencils glide smoothly on the lid, and following the instructions inside the box to emulate the suggested design was quite easy, taking me well under ten minutes (even though the photo on the cover of the pack is definitely not done with the pencils in question) . The green and blue colour seem to mix quite a bit, and although when side by side they are quite similar, separately they are distinctive.

Durability was standard – I went on doing my usual things at home, and it seem to stay put, but losing intensity quite rapidly. I tend to think that if I had prepped my lids properly, as I do before applying make up to go out, they would have held better. Still to see if it passes the “night out” test.

I also used the green one to draw on my face, as a pumpkin stalk coming out of my orange eye make up for Halloween, and application was easy and it lasted well.

Overall, a pleasant surprise;  a good purchase that won’t break the bank with a very versatile colour range. I found great it also came with the eye-opening basic white pencil and the classic black, which are always welcome in any make up bag. Dare I say, the black is quite close to my current MAC black liner (Smoulder Eye Kohl),  and even though it is not a like-for-like swap (the MAC one is, in my view, far superior in quite a few aspects), it seems to be an acceptable budget alternative.

I might check out more of the Studio products available at Superdrug, they have a Eye Create Large Look Book (£9.99) and  a Lash Set (£14.99) I quite fancy!