Sonia Kashuk vs. NARS

Sonia Kashuk "Velvety Matte Lip Crayon" (Top)
NARS "Matte Velvet Lip Pencil" (Bottom)

When I stumbled upon the Sonia Kashuk "Velvety Matte Lip Crayon" while browsing the makeup isle of Target, I couldn't help but buy one because surprisingly it looks almost exactly like...that's right...the NARS "Velvet Matte Lip Pencil."  But how does the SK perform? What's the texture like? How's the color payoff?

I gotta say, they're damn good and absolutely kit worthy.  The color pigmentation is pretty much the same as well as the texture.  I do find that the NARS lasts and stays put longer than the SK one's but that's nothing that can't be altered with a little makeup artist magic.  A good lip base that moisturizes and hydrates will hold it longer.  It's also what I use when applying Lip Tars to avoid bleeding. I like the FACEatelier Lip Putty.

Obviously the NARS has more of a color selection that the SK.  The SK seems to have more of every day natural colors, where as the NARS has quite the color range from Brights to Darks and everything in between.  If SK were to release more of a color range, it would be quite the competition especially in price (SK $7.59 / NARS $25.00).

I'm definitely already loving this for bridal.  Because of the pricing, I would totally put this in their touch up bag.  I would still use my NARS pencils on them (most popular color used in my kit is "Sex Machine") and then give them an SK one.  Though nothing will ever compare to "Sex Machine" (let's face it, that color is gorgeous - and if you don't own it, you totally should!), the closest color I found that kind of matches is "Pinky Nude".

All in all the SK is a really good buy and really nice for bridal, commercial, catalog etc. work.