Shu Uemura Lasting Gel Pencil Eye Liner- Green (Brave Beauty Collection)

The green Shu Uemura Lasting Gel Pencil Eye Liner looked like a good companion for the Brave eye shadow palette. I'm seriously into green this season, as you may have been able to tell from recent posts, so this forest green eyeliner was just perfect. Except that it's everything but.

Oh, the color is beautiful. Not too bold, but adds just enough interest to any old taupe, gray, or brown eye shadow. I can usually pull off this kind of green with the proper glossy black mascara and a good blush, so I was looking forward to playing with it. But apparently, there's a reason that my makeup collection is free of Shu Uemura pencils: the texture is iffy at best.

This automatic eyeliner pencil is called "gel" but there's nothing gel-like about the performance or finish. It's surprisingly hard and unyielding, and requires too much pressure to release even a semi-adequate amount of pigment. It was unpleasant to do on my wrist (above), and unhealthy for delicate eyelids. To add insult to almost-injury, the eyeliner is far from being waterproof or non-smudging. Shu Uemura promised a 12-hour wear, but the line doesn't last through the day, a walk in the rain, or the accidental touch. I have no idea where or how it was tested, but this was the weakest performance I've seen from a pencil in a very long time.

Bottom Line: No.

Shu Uemura Lasting Gel Pencil Eye Liner- Green ($24, Brave Beauty Collection) is available from shuuemura-usa.com.