If the eyes are the window to the soul, then our eyebrows are definitely the frame to our personal portrait. I cannot stress highly enough how important your eyebrows are to your overall look. Brow fashions come and go, from the ultra thin, penciled in brows of the 1930's, through to the Instagrammed drama of Kylie Jenner's, or the full and feathery set belonging to Cara Delevingne. Personally, I like to take the middle ground, keeping them reasonably full, with a defined but not exaggerated arch.
There are basically only two steps in my brow routine - shape and tint, followed by gel or pencil. Every month or so, I get my brows professionally shaped and tinted, maintaining in between with very careful tweezing. Most of the time, I make the drive into the city so I can go to the Benefit Brow Bar to have them done. I have tried and tried plenty of other places, but for me, the girls at Benefit always do the better job.
Scary with no makeup whatsoever! But you can see that because of the shaping and tinting, even with no products, the brows still frame the face nicely.
There are plenty of tutorials on line if you prefer to shape them yourself - Into The Gloss also offers some insight on how to fill in brows. My only tip is to be ultra conservative when shaping by your self. It is easy to pluck hair out; from personal experience, it is a much more painful process to grow them back in! So, once my brows are in tip top shape, I use two different products depending on the look I am after.
For everyday wear, I prefer a natural, feathery look, but still with some definition. To achieve this, I love the Eyeko Brow Gel. The gel is lightly tinted, and while it goes on glossy, it dries down to a perfectly natural (but better!) finish with good hold and absolutely no flakiness over the course of the day. It has a wonderful brush that makes it really easy to get in to all the hairs, and is small enough to be able to go right through the tail of the eyebrow. I brush through starting at the nose end, brushing upwards in small, light strokes, before gliding through to the ends. Make sure to remove excess product on the brush before starting!
These are my eyebrows with the Eyeko Brow Gel brushed through. As you can see, there is slightly more definition and fullness compared to my naked brows, but it is still natural looking and not at all over the top.
For a more polished look, I always reach for a pencil, and in my opinion, you just can't go past Hourglass' Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil. Available in an eye-boggling 9 shades, you will have absolutely no issue finding the right shade for you! I use Soft Brunette, a cooler toned dark brown which while defining my brows beautifully does not come across as fake or over the top. The reason I love this pencil so much (apart from the perfect colour) is that it is so ridiculously easy to use. Basically combining pencil, powder and wax in one product, the triangular shape of the pencil tip makes filling in and defining my eyebrows a job completed in just seconds. I use the pencil tip horizontally to line across the top and bottom of the brow (defining the shape), followed by the side of the pencil tip to fill in the bulk of the brow. Go easier on the inner third of the brow, and heavier towards the tail end. I also don't line the inner centimeter or so on top. I then use the "point" of the triangle to shape the tail and finally, brush through with the attached spoolie to blend and soften.
Defined and polished with the Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil. Not sure why the lighting looks *completely* different now; this pic was taken less that 10 minutes after the last one! This is obviously a more made-up look, which I would tend to wear if I'm going out, or with more polished outfits. I tend to wear my brows like this to balance a heavier eye, or a dark lip.
So there you have my two step eye brow routine. I would love to know what products you use to keep your brows in shape.
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Labels: beauty, product reviews
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