What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.
I know…. A picture of MAC Coffee Eye Pencil ($18) with a big-@ss cup of ☕ coffee? So meta! Oh, and not just any big-@ss cup of coffee. This was my second cup of the morning…
Dude, I wake up at 5! An obnoxious level of caffeine is the only way I get through life these days.
I’ve mentioned MAC coffee a few times lately, but I’ve been hesitant to give it the “unsung heroes” treatment because, for reasons unknown, it vanished from the MAC website, which was sacrilegious craziness to me because it’s *the best* dark brown matte pencil I know of.
So specific, I know.
But it really is. I wear it more than all of my other MAC liner loves.
Yes, even more than Teddy, Costa Riche and — I can’t believe I’m about to type this — Powersurge.
Ever since I discovered the power of pencils that *aren’t* black, I’ve been all about brown liner (it’s the whole “black liner looks so harsh on me now that I’m older” thing).


This particular dark chocolate brown doesn’t have red undertones, and it does all the right things for me. It works on my water lines (both upper and lower), doesn’t irritate my eyes (and, GIRL, everything irritates my eyes these days), and it doesn’t smudge unless I want it to.
It’s not as soft as a gel or a soft kohl, so it doesn’t glide along like those formulas, but perhaps that’s why it sticks to skin so well. I can wear MAC Coffee all day long without any transferring onto my lower lash line or up into my crease.
(Don’t worry — you won’t be tugging to apply it. It’s hard, but it’s also very pigmented and not dry at all, so no skipping, if that makes sense.)
Be warned: Once you try MAC Coffee, you’ll become addicted…just like real coffee.