Thread: Tips for sharpening eyeliner pencils?

There must be some trick I don't know...because when I'm trying to sharpen these nice, soft pencils, they always break off. As soon as I get them sharpened to the point that the wood/plastic/whatever casing isn't in the way and scratching me, they break off in the sharpener. I never get anywhere near getting an actual point, so I always leave them very blunt and just to the point that the casing isn't quite getting in the way. I have a fat pencil made by Jane that is pretty much impossible--the casing is clear PLASTIC and it's hard to sharpen and near impossible to keep from breaking off.

I'm just using the general sharpener like you'd get at the drugstore. Is there something else special I should be using? I'm not sure I'd get results by "manually" sharpening with a knife or razor blade. Some of this casing material is pretty tough.

I've decided I'll always just use the "self sharpening" pencils in future if I use pencils, but in the meantime I have a lot of conventional pencils to use up that I don't want to just toss out...

I think I have read that you could put the pencil in the freezer for a while before sharpening but I never remember to do it so I don't know if it works.

Try putting them in the refrigerator overnight before you sharpen them.

I find it really annoying that the colors I want never come in self-sharpening, otherwise I'd totally buy those all the time.

haha da Sage, Jinx!

Great minds think alike!

I only want black and maybe brown, so I'm easy to please. :)

Gonna try the freezer thing, though. Hope I don't forget it's in there. :)

I recently bought a black eyeliner in a "twist-up" kinda pen. It's plastic and you just turn the end to make more tip come out. It is fairly thin and since I smudge it a bit anyway I get a pretty good result. It's not sharp, sharp but I enjoy not having to scrape my eyelids with the wood from a non sharpened eyeliner, to get any colour on.

^Yep, that's what I mean by "self-sharpening." Very convenient.

(My mom started pushing me to use those in high school after one day when a tiny flake of wood came off one of my regular pencils and went into my eye. We couldn't get it out ourselves so we had to go to the hospital--how embarrassing!)

The sharpener must *be sharp* for it to not have the tip break, crumble o cause wood chipping...omg Kat when I read about your eye I cringed

Most of the time I use liquid,gel or foil black shadow(I´m soon 34 and want to lessen any pull/drag of skin)but when I occasionally use pencil liners I much prefer the asian square or teardrop shaped self sharpening.I´ll link to pictures so you can get a clearer view of what I mean...
Reasons are:
1.I don´t have to waste any product.
2.They are always in a perfect edge,instead of the round western style.

This one by Cosmagic is really worth the $!
Lotus Palace: Kosé Cosmeport Cosmagic Lock On Liner


I prefer very hard and dry eyebrow pencils(they last forever!)instead of soft ones.Skin Deco: Review: Shu Uemura Brow Atelier + Hard 9 Brow Pencil

My fav staple eyeliners are in Azhia´s list here:
Products: Recommend Your Favourites!

I'm going outside the box here: I would actually use a small, angle-tip brush instead of sharpening stubborn eyeliner pencils. I dab it on the eyeliner that won't sharpen and use the the brush to apply the color around my eyes. This also opens up the option to use different eyeshadows (cream or powder) as eyeliner.

Thank you for asking this. I am in LOVE with Urban Decay's 24/7 eyeliner pencils, but I'm about to stop using them because they're not self-sharpening like my former favorite. So, freeze them overnight & have a sharp (new?) sharpener -- what else?

I was taught by a professional make up artist to use liquid eyeliner and then go over the line with eyeshadow on a brush to soften it. Works beautifully and it is easy to do.

I use pencils when I'm in a hurry- but I use the cream/gel eyeliners with a angle brush or a small detail paint brush.

I don't like how smudgy pencils can be... . but self sharpening are definitly the next best step!

So that's why the emergency pencils I leave in the car are easier to sharpen, lol!

Seriously tho- some brands just have awful quality of wood or plastic- but even the good ones, you need a very sharp pencil sharpener. I change my sharpeners out about once a year.

MAC and Make Up Forever carry sharpeners for this type of pencil. You have to use this style or else it will continue to break and be dull.

You can also continue to sharpen the point by taking a piece of toilet paper, and roll the tip of the pencil b/t your fingers. Body heat through your finger tips will soften the point and allow it to be sharpened b/t the paper held by your fingers. Hold gently and twist/roll to desired point.

Originally Posted by Benazir

I'm going outside the box here: I would actually use a small, angle-tip brush instead of sharpening stubborn eyeliner pencils. I dab it on the eyeliner that won't sharpen and use the the brush to apply the color around my eyes. This also opens up the option to use different eyeshadows (cream or powder) as eyeliner.

I've wondered if I can do this. I thought of just taking the bits that break off when I sharpen it and putting them in a container and then just using a brush. For the plastic-coated fat pencil, I thought of just sharpening til it's all broken off and then putting it in the container and using it that way.

I've definitely made my self-sharpening pencils "pointier" by rolling them between my fingers, but I can't get the casing down enough to get to enough of the pencil to do this with the regular ones. :(

[QUOTE=Kat144;841497]There must be some trick I don't know...because when I'm trying to sharpen these nice, soft pencils, they always break off.

I always sharpen mine with a razor blade. Just wrap some masking tape around one end, where you will hold it, and only take a little wood shaving off at a time. It will depend on the softness of the colour part how much of it to uncover. I can usually use them right down to about an inch long, this way. Freezing first works on really soft ones.

Hello there, does anyone have any recommendations with regards to the best practice to obtain "cat eye" appearance using eyeliner?

Originally Posted by admlang

Hello there, does anyone have any recommendations with regards to the best practice to obtain "cat eye" appearance using eyeliner?

Hi, re tips on the best way to put-on eyeliner, MAC cosmetics has some nice free pdf files, get them from this webpage CREATING THE CAT EYE WITH TIFFANY :thePDFPortal.com; Free PDF hosting Regards

Originally Posted by emma-bessa

Most of the time I use liquid,gel or foil black shadow

What is foiling?