If there's one beauty buzz I loved this year, it's Kylie Jenner's Bratz-like lips. Everyone went gaga over it to the point where both my Bloglovin and Youtube feeds were full of tutorials on how to get larger-than-life lips. While other people find it ridiculous, I, on the other hand, love it. I don't care if Kylie uses a lip liner, had a lip augmentation, or did some voodoo magic; all I know is that she rocks full lips like no one's business.

I rummaged through my makeup stuff one day and for some reason, I gravitated towards my lip pencils. I don't usually use them though I quite like playing with them by swatching a couple every now and then. So I picked one up and one look at it made me go "Oh look, a good lip pencil for creating a Kylie Jenner lip."

Said pencil was Elizabeth Arden's Lip Pencil in Taupe. It was included in the EA Stack Your Colour Box set which was given to me by my sister years ago. When I received that set, I wasn't into lip pencils so I didn't bother using them but now- now's a different story. So lemme just gush about it, yeah?

Taupe is exactly what it is: brown with a gray undertone plus a tiny hint of pink, enough to make it a wearable lip color. I like that it's darker than usual nude pencils; it gives the lips an edgier vibe, you know? My lips are also quite pigmented so it deepens the color more. Color-wise, I love it. It's perfect for someone who likes a deep nude color or someone who isn't into pink-based nudes.

So what don't I like about it? It's freaking drying. Right after application, my lips felt like Sahara desert. I tried to get used to the feel of it but the longer I wore it, I felt my lips begging for a lip balm. After a little test run, I figured you can't use it on its own and not wear lip balm or you'll have to apologize to your lips a week or two. That said, I think I'll use this again but only for a few minutes, a few hours if I have lip balm. One more issue I have is that it can be quite patchy. There are areas where it's so pigmented and some areas where it doesn't seem to stay put, so all I can do is apply more. Problem is, it made my lip lines more pronounced and it's not a really good look, to be honest.

I'm glad I rediscovered this pencil. It gave me a chance to do a Kylie Jenner lip. I might reach for it again in the future but for now I'm taking it back to my lip pencil stash. Also, I'm out to scour the beauty market for a dupe, something that's more forgiving and less drying than this one.