Last week I made my first visit to the first Tony Moly store in the United States. I was lured to Tony Moly by the rumors of hand creams in containers shaped like apples and lipsticks in cases shaped like cats and all sorts of glitter and twinkle and cuteness. I was not disappointed. (Well, they don’t have the cat lipsticks, yet… but I live in hope.)

Being me, I managed to seek out a more practical item or two amidst all the fun. I picked up a pencil called Crystal Lovely Eyes (or, as the product itself reads, Crystal Lovley Eyes) for $8.

Crystal Lovely (Lovley?) Eyes is a shadow-liner duo with a shimmer-pearl finish. I chose shade #5, translated as “Brown Beam.” (For the record, I have dark brown eyes and hair and light, cool-to-neutral skin.)

Here is the pencil at home, unwrapped and ready to go. Both caps are colored to match the product shade inside.

And here is the pencil with both caps removed. (I made a bit of a mess with my fingers; sorry!) The pencil twists up. The sponge-tip shadow applicator picks up product from inside its lid. The liner and the shadow are both a medium coppery-brown. The liner feels creamy, but it stays solid upon application and gives a fairly defined line. The shadow is a cream-to-powder formula with very fine sparkle.

Here are some very amateurish swatches on my wrist, just so that you can see the color:

The “T” is the pencil and the “M” is the shadow. I’ve been wearing the pencil right along the lashline, unsmudged; it adds definition and a bit of brightness but it’s still very office-appropriate. I’m finding that the shadow works better for me if I dab it onto my fingertip, then apply and blend to my lid with my that way. It spreads into a much sheerer wash of color with very delicate shimmer; again, very easy to pull off in the daytime and most offices.

This is a handy item, and one that I’ve already used several times since purchasing. I’m glad to find that not everything in the Tony Moly line is aimed strictly at teens, despite the packaging. I mean, I enjoy smiling over cosmetics shaped like bugs and cherries, but I really need items that also work for low-key everyday use.

Images: first and second images via Tony Moly, third through fifth images by Tinsel Creation.