Pixi Taster Trio Mini Eyeliner Set for Holiday 2011 Swatches and Review

Pixi has a couple new items just in time for holiday gift shopping, and this is my favorite one. It's called the Pixi Taster Trio Mini Eyeliner Set and it contains three mini sizes of their Endless Silky Eye Pen (which is a pencil, go figure) in Black Noir, Black Tulip and Black Cocoa.



The pencils are 0.03oz. A full size Endless Silky Eye Pen is 0.04oz ($14) so you're getting some pretty generously sized 'mini' pencils in this kit.

Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen in Black Cocoa, Black Tulip and Black Noir.



No.1 Black Noir, No.3 Black Tulip and No.4 Black Cocoa.

The formula on these is extremely soft. It glides on very easily with no tugging. It's much softer and smoother than an Urban Decay 24/7 pencil, and somewhat similar to a Milani Liquif'Eye pencil.

What I liked:

• The pencils are super smooth and creamy so they apply beautifully.
• Pigmentation is great.
• The formula of the minis is the same as the full sized product, no watered down quality.
  
• Perfect color selection for me. Nice and dark with a little hint of color. Only wish it had the Black Blue pencil in it, too.
• Very big for a 'mini' product, it's nearly full size.
• The set is a great value; it's $12 and contains three 3/4 size pencils. One full size is $14.
  
• The brown and purple shades actually look like blackened brown and purple on the eye, not just plain black.
  
• They're available at Target so you can find them locally instead of online only.
  

What I didn't like:

• They're called pens, but they are actually pencils that need to be sharpened, not liquids or self sharpening (twist up) style liners. That's not a bad thing, but it is strange to call them that.
  
• The pencils are so soft that the tips break easily (especially when sharpening) and wear down quickly. I could probably finish one of these in two weeks.
• They're very soft and smudgy, almost oily feeling, so if you usually have a problem with your eyeliner melting, smudging or migrating, these might not work for you.
• They're long wearing but don't seem to be waterproof or smudge-proof.
• They work well for me on the waterline but tend to migrate/melt out onto my lower lashline after a while.

Despite how fragile they are, I like the Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen liners and I'm glad they did this set. It's a super cheap way to try out the colors and formula. The formula is much softer and meltier than I'm used to, but the pigmentation is great, application feels smooth and tug-free and the colors work for me. I'll probably buy a backup of this set for when I eventually finish these minis since it's so much cheaper than buying the full sized pencils individually. If you're curious about the Pixi eyeliners, this is definitely the best way to try them. Now all they need to do is make a mini set with all the Endless shades, that would be perfect.

This set is available at Target or on Pixi's website, $12 for three 0.03oz pencils.

(This was sent to me for review.)