Must Have Beauty Tool: Darn Good Pencil Sharpener

If you have a stash of eye pencils, both slim and jumbo, then you obviously must also possess a pencil sharpener. And we're not talking about the sharpener that fine-tunes your writing skills.

Every gal NEEDS a darn good pencil sharpener. And you DON'T have to spend $50 for one, even though some brands can cost that much.

We like a dual pencil sharpener----one side for your slim eye pencils, and the other for your jumbo eye pencils.

And our advice: Don't keep the same pencil sharpener around forever. Buy a new sharpener at least once a year. These sharpeners dull over time with daily use.

Not every single eye pencil you buy is going to fit into your sharpener, but you can always buy more than one type of sharpener. And just because you purchase a certain brand of sharpener, doesn't mean you have to stick with that same brand of eye pencil. We have found, that MOST eye pencils fit into MOST pencil sharpeners.

Having said all that, we have 2 excellent, inexpensive pencil sharpeners for you to try. We own both:

1. N.Y.C. Dual Pencil Sharpener($.99, at Walmart stores). A sturdy, little sharpener, this beauty tool does deliver precision. Can't beat the price!

2. Milani Duo Sharpener($3.99). This one promises to give your pencils a very sharp point. It has a plastic cover to catch the falling pencil shavings, and even comes with a little cleaning tool. We found one at Cherry Culture.

We suppose there's just so much one can say about something as simple as an eye pencil sharpener. But many of us tend to ignore the beauty tools required to help our makeup do what it's supposed to do. And we think that a darn good pencil sharpener is a must-have in every cosmetics bag.

An eye pencil sharpener makes for a cute stocking stuffer, too. Hint-Hint.