e.l.f. Instant Lift Waterproof Brow Pencil Review: Brilliant Until the Tip Snaps
We earn commission from qualifying Amazon purchases. It costs you nothing and does not affect what we recommend.
Fifty-six of the newest hundred UK reviews give this dual-ended pencil five stars, yet thirteen buyers watched the tip snap or crumble mid-application. Where you land depends almost entirely on how hard you press.
Thirteen of the hundred most recent UK reviews for the e.l.f. Instant Lift Waterproof Brow Pencil describe the same failure: the tip snapped, crumbled or broke off while they were using it. No other complaint comes close to that count, and it is the biggest reason the newest hundred reviews average 3.71 stars while the listing's lifetime figure still reads 4.4 from 12,236 ratings. A 0.69-star gap between the long-term headline and the recent reality is a finding, not a rounding error.
And yet 56 of those same hundred buyers gave it five stars, seven of them mentioning they have bought it more than once. The split is mechanical rather than random: the soft, creamy, waterproof lead that flatters sparse and greying brows is the same lead that shears off under a heavy hand. We counted every cluster in those 100 reviews before settling on a score of 3.5 out of 5. Here is the full working, and how to tell which side of the split you would land on.
What You Get for the Money
The Instant Lift Waterproof is a dual-ended, retractable pencil: a fine precision tip at one end for drawing hair-like strokes, a spoolie brush at the other for grooming and softening the result. There is no sharpening, a point one four-star reviewer specifically liked, and the formula is billed as creamy, high-pigment and smudge-resistant. All e.l.f. products are vegan, cruelty-free and Leaping Bunny certified according to the listing.
It comes in six shades: Blonde, Taupe, Neutral Brown, Auburn, Deep Brown and Grey. That last one matters more than it sounds. Grey brow pencils are scarce on the high street, and five of the hundred recent reviewers chose this pencil specifically because it comes in grey, with one writing that it is "nearly impossible to find a grey shade" in other brands.
The back of the pack, visible in the listing photos, fills in details the product blurb skips. The directions say to shape and fill with short, hair-like strokes before brushing through with the spoolie, and e.l.f. recommends removing it with its own Holy Hydration! Off Makeup Remover rather than assuming a splash of water will do, which becomes relevant later in this review. The pack also carries a 6M symbol, meaning the formula is good for six months once opened. At the price it sells for, and you can check today's price on Amazon, it undercuts most branded brow pencils by a wide margin, which is exactly why the quality-control complaints below sting the way they do.
Featured15% OFF*Limited offer
One Sunday. A week of food, sorted.
23 high-protein recipes, cycle-synced for women who lift.
23 recipes · 60-page PDF · Instant download
£19.20 £16.32
See it on Etsy*Seller's discount on Etsy - may end at any time.
Why 56 of the Hundred Still Give It Five Stars
The five-star majority describes a pencil that goes on easily, looks natural and refuses to move. All-day wear is the most repeated compliment among them: buyers report it surviving full work days, gym sessions and overnight wear without smudging or transferring. One reviewer in their 70s summed up the appeal for thinning brows: "I'm in my 70s and have about 6 eyebrow hairs !!! I draw my brows on and it stays in place for ages."
That sparse-brow crowd is well represented. Several buyers bought it for thin or fading eyebrows and praised how forgiving the soft tip is at filling gaps without a harsh drawn-on look, and a self-described brow newbie found the spoolie blended everything convincingly on the first attempt. Colour matching gets repeated praise too, with one repeat buyer noting the shade "actually matches my hair", something they had not managed with other pencils.
The loyalty is measurable. Seven of the hundred reviews mention buying it again at least once, from a second purchase up to "countless" repurchases, and one five-star reviewer rated it against decades of experience: "I've brought dozens of different brow pencils over the years and this is my favourite." Others rank it above Rimmel and above e.l.f.'s own newer slim pencil. For the majority, this is a budget product performing like a mid-range one: quick to apply, natural-looking through the spoolie, and firmly in place until it is deliberately removed. The question is why 29 of the same hundred scored it one or two stars, and the answer starts with the tip.
e.l.f. Instant Lift Waterproof Brow Pencil
Budge-proof, natural-looking colour for sparse and greying brows, as long as you apply it with a light touch.
Thirteen Snapped, Crumbled or Broken Tips
Thirteen of the 100 recent reviews describe the tip snapping, crumbling or breaking off during use. That is the largest single failure cluster in the set, and it is a brutal one: twelve of the thirteen scored the pencil one or two stars. One buyer's tube "broke off each use..went in less than a week", with the product ending up "mostly down the plug hole as it broke". Another reviewer, who still rated it three stars for the colour and staying power, reported that it "crumbles easily whilst using, so you loose half of your product".
The pattern in the thirteen is consistent: the exposed lead is soft, and pressing at normal wooden-pencil pressure shears it. A four-star reviewer added a useful detail, noting the formula sets almost on contact and the tip blunts down quickly, which makes crisp corners tricky even when nothing breaks. One one-star buyer whose pencil arrived dried up and snapping suspected old or badly stored stock, having had no such trouble with tubes bought elsewhere, so batch variance may be part of the story alongside the fragile formula.
The happy majority has effectively worked out the operating manual the pack never states. A five-star reviewer who initially pressed too hard "realised it is better to apply lightly", building colour in light feathery strokes, and another advises winding the lead back down after every use because it is so soft. Treat it like a crayon made of lip balm rather than a pencil and it behaves. Press like you are filling in a form and you will be picking the tip out of the sink.
Nine Ran the Barrel Dry Within Weeks
The second cluster is longevity of the product itself, not the wear time. Nine of the hundred reviews complain the pencil ran out too quickly. The most precise account comes from a three-star reviewer who logged the dates: "bought 15/06/26 ran out 31/07/26 went back to L'Oréal brow pencil", roughly six weeks of use. A four-star buyer with deliberately thin brows reported "it only lasted one month with one use per day", and the fastest casualty in the set was finished inside ten days. Others simply felt short-changed by how little product the applicator holds, with one describing it as mostly applicator, and this cluster overlaps with the breakage one: at least two reviewers lost more lead to snapping than to their eyebrows.
Some context is fair here. This is a slim retractable lead, not a full-length wooden pencil, so the total product volume is small to begin with, and even one four-star fan of the grey shade asked e.l.f. to make it longer while reordering anyway. A five-star buyer who uses it daily on fair brows said they would like it to last longer but still called it good value for everyday use, which is roughly where the maths lands: even replacing it every six weeks costs less over a year than two premium brow pencils.
The light-handed technique from the previous section doubles as the fix. Feather strokes use a fraction of the product that firm dragging does, and the reviewer who documented it reckoned applying lightly meant the tube "will last much longer". If you are heavy-handed on both pressure and coverage, though, the nine complaints above are your preview.
Waterproof Claims, Removal and the Shade Lottery
Waterproof is the word on the barrel, and the reviews split on it. Three buyers flatly deny it, including a one-star reviewer who wrote it is "definitely not waterproof which the only reason I bought it", and a four-star fan concedes it rubs off on very sweaty days. The supporting evidence is stronger, mind: one five-star swimmer praised it for "staying consistent without any fading after a long swim", and another buyer reported it intact after gym sessions. On balance it holds up in water for most, but it is not unanimous, and if waterproofing is your sole reason for buying, that three-review dissent is worth knowing.
The flip side of budge-proof is removal. The pack steers you to e.l.f.'s dedicated makeup remover, and one longtime Blonde-shade user found out why, complaining her usual wipes barely touched it. She is one of three veterans of the original non-waterproof pencil who say this waterproof version is a downgrade, and six reviews in total call the formula waxy, clumpy or impossible to blend, one finding it "way too thick" compared with the original. If you love correcting and softening as you go, this formula punishes that habit: several report that once it sets, it stays exactly where it landed, mistakes included.
One disclosure: Amazon pools all six shades into a single review stream, so these hundred reviews span Grey to Deep Brown even though this listing is Neutral Brown. Shade accuracy drew four complaints, including a Deep Brown buyer who found "the colour isn't deep brown it's grey" and two Taupe buyers who received something closer to off-brown or auburn. Against that, the Grey shade is this pencil's quiet superpower, chosen deliberately by five reviewers who could not find grey anywhere else.
The Verdict: A Conditional 3.5
The working, in full. The hundred most recent UK reviews, 96 of them verified purchases and every one of them from the UK, average 3.71 stars against the listing's lifetime 4.4, with 56 five-star scores facing 29 at one or two stars. The largest failure cluster is breakage at 13 in 100, followed by running out too fast at 9, texture complaints at 6 and shade mismatches at 4. Our thresholds for a flat do-not-buy are a recent average below roughly 3.7 or a single defect cluster above 20 in 100. This pencil skims past both, at 3.71 and 13, so it keeps a recommendation, but a conditional one: 3.5 out of 5.
Buy it if you have sparse, thinning or greying brows and a light touch. The soft lead, the spoolie and the rare Grey and Taupe options are a strong package for exactly the buyers who rave about it, and the wear time survives gyms and swimming pools for most. Skip it if you press hard, like to blend and correct as you go, or want a crisp architectural brow: the fragile tip and the set-on-contact formula work against all three, and the reviewers who fall into those camps are the ones filling the one-star column. Several of them went back to a firmer pencil, or to e.l.f.'s original non-waterproof version, and for heavy-handed appliers that is the sensible route.
For everyone else, this remains one of the cheapest ways to get an all-day brow that does not smudge, and the five-star majority keeps reordering it with their eyes open.
e.l.f. Instant Lift Waterproof Brow Pencil
Budge-proof, natural-looking colour for sparse and greying brows, as long as you apply it with a light touch.