At the risk of sounding approximately 105 years old, you don't get much for a pound these days, do you?
This is especially true of beauty shopping. A sub-quid expenditure might stretch to a box of cotton buds or whatever lurid-hued shower gel is on special offer, but not anything particularly desirable or aspirational.
So imagine my surprise and delight on encountering one of the best eyebrow pencils for hair that's blond, light brunette, grey (or a mixture of all the above, like mine), ringing in at precisely £1.
Why this £1 eyebrow pencil is my beauty buy of the week
The first thing you might think when you see this pencil (if you're a child of the '80s or thereabouts) is, wow, Natural Collection, they're still going!
This brand makes me fizz with nostalgia in the same way as The Body Shop or C&A. One glance and I'm back cruising the aisles of Boots Princes Street, crumpled fiver in my pocket, determined to squeeze maximum glamour out of my paper round pittance.
In those days, my shopping list was dewberry body spray and redcurrant lip salve-centric, but my overplucked tadpole brow shape could really have benefited from this 2024-launched eyebrow definer.
The reason I love this - and why I've been using it every day - is its uniquely soft texture. It's incredibly malleable and waxy. This means you can swipe it on without applying much pressure to create a blurred sort of definition behind your brow hairs, which looks very natural and particularly nice if you're fair-haired.
There are four shades available, and I like soft brown for an ever-so-slightly warmer tone, but if you prefer things cooler, taupe or brunette will suit. It's also vegan, 97% natural, not tested on animals, and the packaging is partly recycled, if that ticks any of your boxes.
One caveat: the reason I say this is good for fair hair is that it lacks the firmness to create anything resembling a sharply defined 'power brow'. So if you have naturally dark, full eyebrows and that's the look you go for, I think this would actually be too soft.
I'll also flag that, as expected for a quid, Natural Collection will not furnish you with any added extras here - like a twist-up nib that never needs sharpening or a spoolie on the end. This is an eyebrow pencil, plain and simple.
But honestly, for the price, you really can't knock makeup as good as this. It's the best thing £1 can buy since a bag of chips went up to £2.50 - plus, you get a cute nostalgia trip thrown in for free. Sounds good? Great! Let's chat next Sunday.
