My Honest Review of the Jones Road The Neutralizer Pencil (2024)

Before you buy the Jones Road Beauty The Neutralizer Pencil ($25, 9 shades currently available, I have shade Light Peach), check out this honest review.

Fun fact: the Neutralizer Pencil is basically the Face Pencil (this shade’s equivalent looks like the Face Pencil #11), just with a different name. Yay, marketing!

Do you need both? Nope. Does this pencil actually correct and brighten? Let’s find out.

In this Scorecard I cover five key questions you may have, along with my final verdict so by the end of this post, you’ll have a better idea of whether to buy or go with another option:

1. INGREDIENTS SCAN

2. HOW IS APPLICATION?

3. DOES IT CORRECT/NEUTRALIZE?

4. HOW DOES FINISH LOOK?

5. DOES IT LAST?

   + MY FINAL VERDICT

Why trust me?

I’ve tested and honestly reviewed thousands of products over the past seven years. You can learn more about my method here and check out my skin/hair profile here for context.

This product was gifted to me under no obligation to review. The opinions below are my own. You will always receive my honest, in-depth review over here.

This post contains affiliate links that support TheStyleshaker.com, an independently owned company.💜

1. INGREDIENTS*

• This ingredients list is almost identical to the Jones Road Face Pencils because well, as you’ve just learned, it IS the Face Pencil

• Castor seed oil and waxes up front with titanium dioxide

• There's also mica inside along with syntheic mica called fluorphlogopite which is composed of sheets of magnesium aluminum silicate plus potassium

• Shea butter is also at the very bottom of the list

• I’m seeing full transparency from the brand which I love

2. APPLICATION: 5/5

• CLAIM- "creamy yet dense concealer"

• Brand recommendation: "Start by applying a touch of eye cream to hydrate and prep your under eyes. Allow it to fully absorb before applying The Neutralizer Pencil under your eyes, inner eye corner, and wherever else you are experiencing darkness"

• If you have oilier skin under your eyes, you are good to go I’d guess. My dry skin needed an eye cream to get this working the way I liked. I used the Kjaer Weis The Beautiful Eye Balm to get the job done (still testing others, but a richer balm seemed to match well with the denser pencil)

• I tried applying this pencil directly to my skin and then by pressing it in with my finger. The latter worked better for me and left less texture

3. COVERAGE: 5/5

• CLAIM: "brightens and color corrects darkness around the eyes"

• CLAIM: "cancel(s) darkness under the eyes and anywhere on the face"

• This little pencil corrects, for sure. It brought life back to the area around my eyes in a significant and impressive way

• I didn't see intense 'brightening,’ but it depends on the shade being used. Layering the Face Pencil (shade 2) on top helped a bit, mind you, you're now talking about $50 worth of product

4. FINISH: 3/5

• CLAIM: “formulated with a clear base for no chalky undertones”

• I had the same experience here as I did with the Face Pencil which makes sense

• While coverage and correcting were great, the finish suffered a bit on my skin. It wasn't chalky necessarily, but it showed texture and didn't melt into skin as well as say a liquid concealer would

• Tip: (as mentioned above) When I used a very sheer setting powder with a flat triangle puff to press it into the skin, the finish improved. This also helped prevent some, not all, creasing

• Some may want to avoid powder altogether which I understand. Also, consider you may want to brighten, so you'd be pressing another shade on top which could show even more texture

5. WEAR TEST: 3/5

• It's similar to my experience with the Face Pencils, but maybe a bit better

• The lightweight coverage stuck around all day on my face

• It wore off a bit under the eye where I used this pencil to correct darker circles

TOTAL SCORE - 16/20

PROS:

• cruelty-free formula in a pencil form which is more eco-friendly for sure

• application was super simple here

• a little bit goes a long way and it's surprisingly lightweight so it blended in nicely

• this little pencil canceled out dark circles well!

• on the go, oily skin types may also find touch-ups throughout the day to be easy

CONS:

• finish wasn't the best and there was minimal creasing so setting powder helped a bit

• I also didn't see a ton of brightening by the end of the day - not a wonderful wear test

• most of these pencils are meant to be used in pairs so you can highlight, correct, or conceal different points of the face - it adds up since these are $25 a piece

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO LOOK AT:

• Fitglow Correct + Natural Color Corrector in Peach

• Ere Perez Lychee Crème Corrector in Dos

• EXA High Fidelity Balancing Color Corrector

FINAL VERDICT:

WHEN I FINISH, WILL I BUY MORE?

Coverage and correction were strong, but the finish wasn't my favorite, nor was the wear test.
I'm not putting it on the Britt's Picks yet, but that could change.

If you’re curious about what else I’m loving right now, you can check out:

💜 MY FAVORITES 💜

Out of the hundreds of products I’ve tried, these are the winners I would buy again and again:

BRITT’S PICKS

DISCLAIMER: *Why I don’t assign a score to ingredients: percentage matters and what works for one may not work for another. I’m in no way a cosmetic chemist (probably obvious at this point). This is not medical advice or meant to treat and diagnose. Please seek advice from a medical expert if you have additional questions.