This New Makeup Line Satisfies Your Inner Middle Schooler

There are two things you should know about my beauty life: I love multi-use makeup, and I hate makeup brushes. I mean, I use them, but it drives me crazy how many different tools exist for so many different uses. I can never find the one tool that I'm looking for — and, especially while traveling, I inevitably forget a smudger or a spoolie, leaving me totally frustrated (with wonky eyebrows to match). So, when I was introduced to NUDESTIX, a new makeup line created by cosmetics chemical engineer Jenny Frankel, I loved that every product was designed to be blended with your fingers. The set of sleek, black makeup pencils has a youthful, slapdash appeal — but its pared-down, minimalist concept is totally grown-up. Needless to say, I was smitten.

The entire collection is made up of five core products: the Lip/Cheek Pencil, the Eye Pencil, the Magnetic Eye Color, the Concealer, and the Mascara. The array of colors is limited, which could potentially bore a makeup junkie, but it's utterly appealing to me. Sure, I love trying a violet lipstick here and there, but being the non-morning person that I am, the idea of having a curated palette of earthy tones that work perfectly together sounds better than a self-starting French press. (Please, someone invent this.) Seriously: Dab on the concealer; add a smudge of dusty-rose Mystic pencil onto lips, cheeks, and lids; and add a bit of Bronze pencil at the lashlines and a touch of mascara — voilà. You're done. Pretty, sophisticated, and simple.

Finally, the part of the collection that got me hook, line, and sinker is the ingenious, eco-friendly packaging. As a beauty editor, I open a lot of products and am therefore appalled by the amount of plastic and paper that's wasted in every mailing I get. The chic, reusable black tin that houses these pencils — bonus: the inside of the lid is mirrored — is the grown-up version of the purple-plastic box that housed my jelly pens in eighth grade; it's the antithesis of the pounds of confetti and cardboard that I end up tossing every week. Just another way that NUDESTIX has managed to appeal to my inner child and my outer woman, simultaneously. It's amazing how things come full circle, right?

NUDESTIX Lip/Cheek Pencil, $24, available at Space NK.