Maychiri's Thoughts: Express Brow

Maybelline Express Brow Satin Duo [02 - Medium Brown] Review

July 20, 2025

Enough about brushes, let’s check out one briefly product now! This is the Maybelline Express Brow Satin Duo, in the shade 02/Medium Brown!

Ah, finally, I get to try this out! I’ve been waiting with bated breath! This was a hot-off-the-press new product when I first bought it, and I couldn’t resist buying it because it’s not just an eyebrow pencil. It’s not even an eyebrow powder – it's both! Yup! 2-in-1! And since I am a fan of both eyebrow pencils and eyebrow powders, this was made for me to try it out. I waited for BIPA to have 30% off makeup as part of their weekend promo and, after a lot of patient waiting, my patience was rewarded: I managed to get one of these odd and interesting new brow products into my hands! ‘Medium Brown’ seemed like a safe bet for my hair colour, not too dark nor too light. Having used a LOT of brow pencils and some brow powders, will Maybelline’s take on both impress me or leave me with a sour feeling in my mouth? Please, please, please let it be the former! But there is only one way to find out and I am itching to see it in action – so let’s go!

As is typical for Maybelline products, the pencil is sleek and modern-looking. It is black (like so many Maybelline products), with coloured caps on both ends that do a fine job of showing what the colour actually looks like. It’s not a perfect match though. I love the lavender text on the pencil; it stands out on the black background. Although, it clashes with the medium brown of this particular shade. Oh well.

However, the printing on this lavender text is not too high quality as it doesn’t take long for it to wipe off. By the time I reached the end of the pencil, it was already destroyed, making it unreadable. Good thing I took photos at the start ;) ! The two caps close in different ways; the pencil’s cap closes by just pulling it out (like a normal sharpie cap, for example), while the powder’s cap closes by screwing it on.

It’s a bit confusing sometimes; I have had times where I tried to open them the opposite way by accident because it’s easy to forget which side is the powder and which is the pencil.

Luckily, they made sure to make each side a different shape: the pencil has a flat-top cap, while the powder has a rounded cap. It doesn’t state anywhere which side is which, which would have helped a lot. Overall, I am happy with the build quality. It feels robust yet lightweight, and it seems to be built well. Both of the caps close very tightly, as well.

Ingredients: vitamin E and glycerine for nourishment in both the pencil and the powder, though at the very end of the lists. Hey – still better than nothing! Both sides have a very faint scent; the pencil smells a bit waxy and a tiny bit plasticy. The powder itself doesn’t have any scent to it but the sponge smells a bit weird. Like, it kind of stinks a little but sponges are known to have that kind of smell anyways. The expiration date is 24 months after opening; I assume this goes for both the pencil and the powder.

As you might have gathered by now, with this being a duo brow product, it has two applicators that are each quite different from one another.

Let’s start with the pencil side because that one is simpler to describe. This is pretty much the same mechanism most eyebrow pencils have; you rotate the base and the lead slowly comes out at the top. The retracting mechanism sometimes feels wobbly and not too secure, but I haven’t had the lead fall out during the testing period, so obviously, it is secure enough.

I do wish it was more robust, though. Idk, I always feel like the lead is going to fall out any minute. Another not-too-great thing is that the lead doesn’t really stay in the same position, it keeps going back into the base so you have to retract it again and again. This gets annoying fast. Anyways, enough about the mechanism – onto the lead itself! This is a teardrop-shaped lead, which... I never fully understood why this is superior to just “normal” shaped leads. If anything, this is actually LESS precise as the wide end prevents you from drawing fine lines?? I would absolutely prefer to have a typical lead shape, but this one isn’t that horrible; it is just a tad more finicky to use. You have to angle it precisely to draw a sharp tail, although the wide end does help with drawing a good inner corner of the brows. So, eh, could be worse, I guess.

The powder side has a pointed domed sponge as the applicator. Of course, it makes sense to use a sponge to apply the powder, and the pointy shape helps it be more precise. That said, since this side is supposed to be used to fill in brows instead of outlining them, precision is less important here.

The sponge is super soft; even when pressing down with it, it never feels hard or sharp or uncomfortable. However, what puzzles me is its mechanism: it has a pumping mechanism that does... something??? I am not entirely sure whether this pumps the powder into the sponge or what, but I instinctively pump it while I am applying the powder. Should I be doing this??? Actually, there seems to be a sponge loaded with powder inside the cap so perhaps the pumping is to saturate the main sponge with the pigment from the smaller one? This is all so confusing to me. The sponge is pretty good at its job; it is the formula of the powder that causes problems, and the sponge can only help so much. The sponge is surprisingly durable as well; from the start all the way to the end of the testing (which ended prematurely, you’ll see why soon), the sponge stayed in literally perfect condition. And it doesn’t feel wobbly. Seems like this half is the better built one.

Not the most beginner-friendly applicators, either one of these, I must say. But once you get the hang of using them, applying the brow product well becomes easier.

In order to describe the formula, it really ought to be broken down into the pencil and powder side individually.

So, the pencil, what kind of formula has it got? Quite a soft one, actually! Not greasy, just smooth and super soft. And so creamy! It practically melts into the skin while still applying an extremely sharp line. However, sometimes, it does feel a bit waxy, especially if you apply a thicker layer or more layers. It always applies evenly and richly because it is just so luxuriously soft and just wonderful to use. I love it! And it’s a very lightweight formula as well! It just feels comfy!

I feel like the pencil is almost the ideal amount of creamy while still having that bit of waxiness that helps it grip the skin and brow hairs.

The powder, on the other hand... well, it’s... powdery. Big surprise, I know. It is far, far more lightweight compared to the pencil, simply due to being so powdery. It is also more comfortable because I legit cannot feel it on my skin. However, it applies patchily and cannot be used to line the brows. I’ve used much better brow powders in the past. That’s not to say that this one is bad per se, I just vastly prefer the pencil side. But I do love how supple this powder is!

Well, this seems to set pretty quickly? I think? It can still be smudged hours later, but it feels like it has set after about a minute or two. This isn’t a pomade, so no point expecting it to be so set that it won’t budge; that said, it is set enough for my tastes. It stays locked in place the whole day, and brows don’t become unruly by the end of the day. That’s if you can even see brow hairs haha!

Oh man, this is so extremely pigmented – wooow! Especially the pencil side, that thing is pure pigment! Let’s focus on the powder first. The powder, at first, seems to be poorly pigmented, but pump it a few times and it will show that it actually means business – not nearly as much as the pencil, but still, it is pretty nicely pigmented. I always apply a couple of layers just to be sure because, remember, the colour of the powder is lighter than the pencil, so you need more layers to try and blend the two together.

The pigment is softly diffused on the powder side, which should help fill in the brows naturally. Again, I’ve used better brow powders in terms of pigmentation (hellooo Rev Pro!), but this is decent enough, especially when used in conjunction with the pencil, like it should be used. Now, the pencil side! Hoo boy! This side is so extremely pigmented that you really have to be careful how you use it because even the slightest touch will give you intense colour payoff, which, coupled with how nicely soft the formula is, means there is little room for error.

Thankfully, it can be removed easily so it’s as much of a big deal if you do mess it up. But damn! It’s so pigmented that even with just one layer it looks almost comically intense! Unlike with brow powders (including the one included here), which can be built up, with this pencil, it is either 0 or 100% intensity – no middle ground. You either have no brow product or so much that it is giving 2016 Instagram glam! And you know what? I actually love this! Yes, it may be trickier to use due to being so hella pigmented, but there is something so fierce about how intense it is!

And with how it frames my face once I am done. And I mean it is either 0 or a 100; not even a spoolie can comb through it and blend it out or soften it. Full beat – everytime! And I love it! Especially in the colder months... mmm, it is just so fricking awesome how pigmented my brows are with this on! Just, again, be very, very careful how you use it!

'Medium brown’ isn’t the worst description of this colour, but there is so much more to it. I would agree that it is medium brown, but it is a very intense, saturated, vibrant kind of medium brown. I prefer having more ashy colours because my hair isn’t vivid brown, but this colour is still a surprisingly great match! The colour itself is a warm-toned brown with a good amount of cooler tones mixed in so that isn’t, well, orange. It’s a wonderfully natural colour for anyone with medium brown to even slightly darker brown hair colour.

Although I do prefer cooler-toned browns for my brows, I actually really like this colour and how it looks on my pale skin. It would look more naturally if my brows weren’t so absurdly precisely lined and blocky, but ah well. You win some, you lose some. Still, a fantastic colour for any kind of medium-dark brown hair! I find that this colour matches my roots quite wonderfully, even though it is a bit too vivid and intense at times. So, if your hair is warmer-toned than mine, this pencil will be an even better match.

The shades available (there may or may not be one more that isn't pictured)
Source: www.maybelline.com

I am super happy with how it looks on me, though, don’t get me wrong; I just think that ‘Soft Brown’ might have been a bit better but alas, it wasn’t available at BIPA. Speaking of the shade range, it is decent. There seems to have been a revamp of the shade range at some point because I am seeing two distinct ones, one with 5 shades and another with 6. In either case, the colours range from blonde to extremely dark brown. Light blondes are not as well represented, and there’s nothing for ginger/auburn-haired folk. I do appreciate the inclusion of both cooler and warmer browns! So brunettes like me will have plenty of choice here!

Honestly, applying this brow... pencil? Powder? Both?? Whatever it is, it is not too hard to draw a good brow shape and fill it in. However, it is far from being the easiest. See, while the pencil is extremely precise and pigmented, and it sure applies evenly, there’s a weird discrepancy in colour between it and the powder. So you draw an outline with the pencil side and it looks super sharp and intense, and then when you go fill it in with the powder, it becomes hard to make both of them blend well together.

No matter how much I try, I can still see where I applied the powder at least a little bit. So that’s not ideal. Also, the pencil is so extremely pigmented that you really need to be careful how you line the brows as it is easy to make a mistake that will be hard to fix. The triangular shape of the pencil is the problem, really. I get the idea, that a triangle shape would make it easier to line the inner corner of the brows, but it isn’t precise enough to line the rest of the brows with that same amount of ease.

I have to be really careful how I line the tails if I want them to be sharp. Maybe my brows are too small for this product, maybe, but I feel like having a “normal” lead would make things easier. That said, it does glide magnificently easily across the brow hairs and skin, so there is no tugging or pulling, which does make it simpler to use. The powder side, though... now, that is, well, tricky. All throughout this testing period, I have still not figured out how you should use the powder exactly.

I don’t know whether you should swipe across the skin with it or tap with it, and whether you should pump the sponge or not. It’s all very confusing, so there is a possibility I have been doing it wrong this entire time and that’s why it isn’t blending properly. I hope this isn’t the case, though. They do say that step 2 is “fill with the sponge”, but HOW??? The sponge applicator feels really weird to use. It seems that it dispenses pigment by pumping it but it applies the pigment very messily.

The only way to make the sponge work is to use it with the pencil, as step 2. No way that you could use it all by itself. Idk, it’s just needlessly complicated tbh. And sometimes, it just smudges the super sharp lines that the pencil applied so well, so, like, it’s more harm than good. Though, when it does manage to apply the pigment properly, it looks really, really good! I would honestly still prefer to have either just the pencil (so that there is more of it!), or to have 2 pencils on each side with slightly different colours so that you can get that gradient down.

The powder sponge is not entirely beginner-friendly, though the pencil is easy enough to use.

This duo brow pencil/powder has a really nice texture; it is completely matte but it doesn’t look crusty or cakey. It looks soft matte, like velvet, which is awesome! This means that the brows are extremely sharply defined and also look powdery soft, not like they’ve been drawn on using a sharpie. The pencil side has a slightly more waxy texture, but it is still fully matte. The powder is completely powdery matte, which complements the waxy matte texture of the pencil perfectly. The overall texture is very pleasant to look at imo! I really like it!

How do I explain how it makes the brows look, hmm... well, sometimes, brows are comically sharply outlined and filled. It doesn’t really look fake or bad per se, but it is definitely an intense effect that takes some time to get used to if you are used to more natural-looking brows. Although the official pictures present it as looking soft and almost fluffy, this does not happen in practice. What actually happens is that the outline is much more intense than the filling, simply because the pencil is more pigmented than the powder. And don’t think that I just left them as-is; I brushed through them with a spoolie as I usually do, but they still look extremely intense.

I don’t even connect the ends on the inner corner but it still often ends up looking blocky, which isn’t the end of the world, but it isn’t that natural of a result. It is easy to get this result every time though, so at least you don’t end up with vastly different brows every time you use this pencil/powder. I am not sure I am the biggest fan of this effect, but I don’t exactly dislike it, either. There is a time and place for this kind of intense brow look; I have found it to be perfect for when I have a very dark and/or intense smokey eye look going on. It balances out the eye area very nicely, which might sound counter-intuitive when the effect is so intense and blocky, but it is what it is.

It is most definitely a slightly older, ‘dated’ kind of look, if that makes sense; like, this result takes me back to like 2016 Instagram brows, though far less extreme here. Every bit as polished, though! So yeah, sometimes way too intense and comically blunt and blocky, but it’s not that bad. I adore how sharp the brow outline is! Few pencils give me quite this level of sharpness. Even though I cannot see the individual hairs, which adds to this sometimes comical appearance. It looks like my brows have been AI smoothed out. But nope, that’s how they look IRL as well.

As for comfort? Oh, both sides of this pencil/powder duo are extremely comfortable to wear throughout the day! The powder is basically weightless, so, once you apply it, it is easy to forget it is even there. Let me tell you, I have had times when I accidentally wiped off a bit of the pigment because I couldn’t feel anything on my brows, haha! The pencil is a tiny bit heavier and waxier, but, it too, is practically invisible on the skin. It doesn’t feel like it is gluing the hairs together, which helps immensely with how comfortable it feels. I can sometimes feel a bit of that wax on the skin between the hairs, although, most times, I simply forget I am wearing any brow products until I see myself in the mirror. I am so glad that this is so comfortable! See, full glam doesn’t have to come at the price of comfort!

Longevity is pretty darn impressive, I gotta say! They do claim that it lasts all day, and it sure does! Well, as long as you don’t touch it often. I went to scratch an itch in my eyebrows and I smudged some of the powder off my skin. That’s... not too good. It should be able to resist this, no? That said, the powder is the less durable of the two; the pencil stays in pretty much the exact condition as at the start by the end of the day. Now, that is what I was expecting – and needing! However, as long as you don’t touch your brows, they will stay fierce even if you’ve been sweating a lot – no smudging or streaking at all! So feel free to go to the gym with this pencil on – just don’t wipe your brows with a towel afterwards or you will wipe it off. It is also fairly resistant to water as long as it’s not a shower.

Let me explain: getting caught in the rain won’t hurt the pencil or the powder but showering will likely wash it off at least partially. I hope that makes sense. It also doesn’t fade one bit during the day, with or without setting spray. There’s also no smudging or feathering, though the powder may become a bit patchy if you relied on it a bit too much to give you pigment. This is why I prefer to use the pencil as much as possible... which is a problem. Wait a little while longer, I’ll get to that – I promise! Again, the pencil is better than the powder... this is becoming a pattern. But I am pretty happy with how life-proof it is! I can just shape and fill my brows and forget about them until it’s time to remove my makeup, without worrying about whether they have smudged or faded or become streaky.

Even if it’s 35+ °C! Awesome! Just wish the powder stayed in better condition...

After a whole day of wearing this, you might want to remove it and, luckily, this is an easy task. Even just using micellar water does the trick, no excessive rubbing needed! However, just to make things easier, I would suggest using a specialised remover instead. That removes the pencil/powder in a couple of seconds and saves the brow hairs from falling out from rubbing. But, as I said, even just micellar water will remove it without causing much damage to the hairs.

I wanted to end on a high note but there is one huge problem here: the pencil is far too small for how much powder there is. See, what happens is that the pencil runs out much sooner than the powder – and I mean much sooner. Like, I think there was still half the powder left yet the pencil was reduced to a small unusable stub. I don’t get how Maybelline didn’t see this issue, because this leads to so much product waste with the powder. Is it to save costs so that they could manufacture this powder and the unique sponge and everything? Whatever the reason may be, this is a huge problem because it catches you off-guard. I was left scrambling, trying to somehow fill in my brows because, guess what? I tried to retract the lead but there wasn’t any pencil left!

I managed to somehow make my brows presentable, but it shouldn’t have come to this. Either use less powder or make the pencil lead longer. And it really sucks because the pencil is what’s best about this product... hrmph. Seriously, like wth? This would NEVER last a month if you used it everyday – and, remember, it has a much higher price point compared to, say, MUA or Essence or Catrice. So what’s the solution? Buy a new pencil every week? Not a good solution, eh? But at least it is great in quality, so I am still happy with it overall, though this pisses me off.

In conclusion, this is actually a pretty great eyebrow product ngl! A bit weird and kooky but really, really good! I love how it’s a duo brow product: you have the pencil on one side and the powder on the other so you can choose which of two – or both – to use. However, I must say that the pencil is vastly superior to the powder – that's not to say that the powder sucks, it’s just not as good as the pencil. It isn’t amazingly pigmented, it ends up looking way too smudgy way too easily and it is just a bit of a hassle to use. Frankly, I am still unsure how exactly I should use it – and I’ve used up the entire bloody product! Why I was able to use it up is another issue but I’ll come to that later. For now, just know that there is a discrepancy in the amount of product for the powder and the pencil. Put a pin in this. Anyways, the powder does a fabulous job of blending out the pencil and making it look... well... far less comically blunt. However, I still regularly notice that there are spots where you can see the lines between the pencil and the powder unblended together. And trust me, I tried to blend them together, but I couldn’t lose the awesome definition the pencil gave me. The formula of the powder is so nice and silky though! But it’s not quite as long-lasting as the pencil; also, it is very slightly lighter in colour which should make for a great gradient buuut... yeah, that’s not exactly what happens. I also don’t know how to feel about the weird domed sponge; the pointy tip is nice and allows you to be at least somewhat precise but... idk, I just feel meh about it. And that’s such a shame because this was what made this product special. The pencil, on the other hand? Oh this is one hella good pencil! Not without flaws – far from that – but it is much easier to use than the sponge and gives a better result in my opinion. No need to wreck your head trying to deduce whether you should pump the sponge or not, here, you just draw on the shape as you would with any other pencil. The trick is that the lead is teardrop-shaped, which, according to Maybelline at least, should give you more natural results. However, what I found was that the thick end of the lead makes it hard to draw very precise, sharp lines because it is simply too large and too round. After all, you need to be able to make hair-like thin strokes, and such a thick lead is simply unable to achieve that. But, with a bit of practice, you can make extremely mega defined brows from the inner corner to the very tip of the tail. The formula of the pencil is super smooth and just enough waxy so that it sticks to hairs and the skin without becoming a smudgy mess. But that waxiness comes at a cost: it’s really fricking hard – maybe even impossible? - to make your brows look natural. It’s because the pencil doesn’t blend very easily so it’s mostly “how you draw it, that’s how it’ll be”. I don’t usually mind this, but here... oh man, brows look hilariously sharp. Like comical! Not quite sharpie-level, but... man, it is getting close to that! Still, I am in LOVE with how defined my brows are! Yes! This is exactly what I am looking for in brow products, none of that “natural fluffy brows” nonsense; give me luxurious, full glam brows every day! Oh, and I’d be remiss not to mention just how awesome this colour is! It’s a warmer toned brown, but not enough that it looks super toasty. Instead, it is mostly neutral-toned, which makes it a great choice for brunettes with slightly mousey-toned hair like me. Not the perfect match for me, but close enough! And it lasts and lasts and lasts! It’s pretty much sweat-proof and mostly life-proof as well, unlike the powder. I just wish there wasn’t one glaring issue at hand here... this is where I mention how the amount of product for the pencil side is shamefully little. Because that’s truly what it is – shameful. Look, without any discounts, you are looking at ~10-ish eur for this product... so why does the powder outlast the pencil literally double the time? The pencil runs out SO QUICKLY, it is actually maddening. I was planning on making a swatch of the pencil alone and the powder alone but, the previous time I was doing my makeup, I went to do my brows and, well great, the lead was completely empty... just great. It catches you off guard so easily, especially because there is still plenty of powder to go around, so you might think: “oh, I’ve got enough pencil left”... when that is not at all the case. Ugh, I didn’t want to end on this kind of note, but this is a serious problem. I would highly advise you to try and find some decent discount for this product because there is simply not enough of it to warrant its full price. But on sale? *Chef’s kiss!* Like, this is objectively a great product, no doubt about that. If only there was a liiiitle bit more pencil, I’d be as happy as could be! But I cannot ignore this problem. What I can do, though, is give this product my recommendation – if you find it on a deep discount! It’s awesome! I’ve loved using it, despite all the trickiness with the powder and the lead being a weird shape. Just look at the brows in pictures here – that should be evidence enough that this is a great eyebrow product, small size notwithstanding! So yup, I am very happy I tried it out! I think I may even get a replacement one...

Rating: 7/10

Would buy again? YES