Fancy Seeing You Here, Eyebrows! My 5 Brow Essentials: Tweezerman, Bobbi Brown Eye Brow Brush, Sable, Bone & Brow Shaper in Mahogany

I wouldn’t be the first or the only person to acknowledge the importance of eyebrows. They frame your face and make your features stand out. Unfortunately, my eyebrows are really invisible because the hair is very sparse. After having overplucked my eyebrows and used products that are way too dark for my coloring, I have finally come up with a brow routine that works for me. Today I’m sharing my 5 brow essentials that give me the eyebrows I should have been born with!

I prefer to pluck the wayward hairs off, but mostly just below my brows. I was a little skeptical about Tweezerman tweezers. I mean, how different can tweezers be, right? Why would I pay several times the price for a pair of tweezers? After reading so many raving reviews about these though, my curiosity got the better of me, and I purchased a pair. Guess what? I don’t regret a single bit! As you can probably see from the lettering that has worn off a bit, I have owned this pair for quite a while (at least a year and a half), and they still work really well! They can grab even the hair that is still partially hiding under the skin with amazing precision, which I really appreciate! My major gripe with cheaper tweezers I had in the past is that they became looser, and I had to constantly opening them up a bit to make them work again. This is something I haven’t had to do all this time with this pair! I also like the fact that they come in a variety of colors. It’s irrelevant really, but I think it adds a fun element to my bathroom cabinet.

Ever since I got Bobbi Brown Sable and Eye Brow Brush from the US last November, I have been using them on a daily basis. I have reviewed them separately in the past (here and here. Those are my earlier posts though, so please don’t be too hard on me), and I still think the Eye Brow Brush is the most amazing brush I have tried for my brows (believe me, I have tried my fair share of them). I dab the brush in Sable and fill my eyebrows with light feathery strokes, and voila I’ve got eyebrows! Sable is perfect for my coloring; it doesn’t make my eyebrows look too dark or harsh.

The lesson I learnt from being matched to Sable is that your ideal brow-filler shade might be different from what you expect. I would have expected a much darker shade just because my hair is dark, while in fact anything darker would be an overkill. When it is possible, try it on or get help from a sales assistant. That will prevent you from sporting eyebrows that are way too dark and make you look mean. Ladies who have very light hair color, on the other hand, would benefit from going two shades darker.

While we’re at it, I have also used Sable as a contour shade and it rocks harder than a rockstar! Now that’s what I call versatility!

Bobbi Brown launched the Natural Brow Shaper & Hair Touch Up recently. I got to try it out in Mahogany. In retrospect I might only need it in Rich Brown, but it is a PR sample and I didn’t really get to try it on before taking it home. Mahogany does work for me though, as you will see in the picture later. I just need to use a very light hand!

As you can see, the brow shaper comes with a brush that is very similar to that of mascara. In my experience, the tip usually comes with more product, and if you go right at it with the tip you might end up with too much on your brows. What I do is I lay the brush down horizontally and use very light and short strokes to go through my brows. This formula does keep hair in place. You don’t have to brush the hair up and down before you use this, as it has that part covered too.

The brow shaper hangs on better than an eyeshadow, which might really come in handy if you’re exerting yourself a little physically. Unless you really rub, it doesn’t go away with water. However, my Bioderma and definitely a regular makeup remover can remove it very easily. I wouldn’t promise this will hold on to a whole trip to the beach, but you definitely won’t have to touch up as often as you would if you were using an eyeshadow to fill your brows. Let’s just say this will for sure be in my beach bag this summer!

Now we have got our eyebrows filled, what should we do to make the brow bones pop a little more? Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Bobbi Brown Bone? This unassuming pot of off-white eyeshadow is my go-to brow bone highlighter shade, whether or not I’m wearing other eye makeup on a given day.

It is matte, but it is not a flat, dull matte. It gives the skin under my brows a nice sheen that doesn’t deteriorate to looking greasy at the end of the day. The difference is subtle, but the second I dab it on with my MAC 217 I can see the arch of my eyebrows has been lifted. You really have to try it for yourself to experience the magic! I don’t think I have used anything else to highlight my brow bones after I got this pot. It is not shimmery, so with or without other eye makeup it is not going to look weird (say goodbye to weird reflection in pictures)!

Here is a swatch photo of Bobbi Brown Brow Shaper in Mahogany, Bobbi Brown Sable, Bobbi Brown Bone, and Bobbi Brown Bone sheered out. If you look very closely you can see the slight sheen Bone gives when it is sheered out. Please note the effect will be even more natural if you use an eyeshadow brush.

This is me with my brows filled. The right side (your left) is filled with Sable, and left with Mahogany.

What do you think? Could I have been born with them? What do you use to fill your eyebrows? I would LOVE to hear about it!

Sunny, your beauty culture translator xx

Disclosure: This post contains one PR sample, and I purchased everything else with my own money. This has no influence on my integrity and commitment to my readers.

Bonus behind-the-scene photo. I thought it’d be a good idea to snap some pics with Muffin now that I have a tripod. The only thing she could think of was apparently getting the heck out of there!

25 responses

  1. lol lol your cat’s face is precious! >,.<
    your eyebrows look great and very natural, Sunny!
    i agree with you on how important eyebrows in makeup looks. i myself follow a simple two-step routine using a pencil type wax topped with my trustee ebony drawing pencil.
    (my ebony pencil is 15 years old, btw. hehe)

  2. I love Tweezerman tweezers too! I didn’t know why it would be so much more expensive, but it’s quality is amazing compared to drugstore tweezers.
    I have never filled my eyebrows before actually XD they’re thick enough…like a man 😦 Wish I was given the ability to fill them!

    I really like your earrings!

    • Aww at least you only have to trim them, not fill them in every day! My eyebrows are the only thing on my face that I actively feel insecure about. I can go out without any makeup (including BB cream/foundation), but those eyebrows have to be filled! I’m so jealous that you never have to fill them!

    • Oh Jacqueline, you have no idea how jealous I am of your messy brow hair! Mine can’t be messy just because I have SO little! You should check the Brow Shaper out when you have the chance. I have tried it on someone with much more brow hair, and it nicely smooths the hair out while putting it in place. The result was very neat!

  3. Oh lol Muffin looks so annoyed, lol! I have seen your brows and they look very polished and nice, so the routine you are doing is definitely working for you! I personally love browproducts, I’m a huge fan of the full brow myself, haha :). Great pictures again Sunny!

    • Haha yeah, she looks horrified! I prefer natural eyebrows, which is why I only pluck wayward hairs off now. I think people are more or less born with the eyebrows they are supposed to have. If I fill them in too much it’s definitely going to look VERY weird!

    • Yeah that’s what I meant! I would really never have thought Sable is my shade, but it really is! If I had gone with my gut feeling I would have got something way too dark.

  4. I usually use MAC Espresso eyeshadow to fill in my eyebrows and the color matches me well, but the color looks a little too warm and slightly reddish brown in natural lighting. So, now I’ve been using MAC Copperplate eyeshadow and it works perfectly, under indoor and outdoor lighting. =)

    By the way, one of my friends over waxed and over plucked her eyebrows in her teens and now her eyebrows are super thin and won’t grow back. =( There are so many products in the market now to grow your lashes. Hopefully, there will be a product out soon that can grow your eyebrows too!

    • Hey Joyce, I have heard of the infamous Espresso and Copperplate, but since I was checking out the Bobbi Brown Eye Brow Brush (and liked it) I thought I’d just ask the lady to match me to my shade!

      I didn’t systematically overpluck when I was younger. In fact, I started trimming my eyebrows VERY late (say when I was around 20? I was such a wimp and it hurt too much in the beginning, so I never did it regularly till that point). It’s really more or less genetic in my case too. Besides my head I have VERY little hair. The good thing is I don’t have to shave/wax my arms/legs, but the bad thing is, well, I have to fake myself some eyebrows and eyelashes! But yeah, something that helps me grow some eyebrows would be really neat!

      • When I said “your eyebrows,” I meant people in general. Sorry for the confusion! Your eyebrows definitely don’t look too thin. They look fine to me and very natural. =)

      • LOL it’s OK Joyce, I know my eyebrows are really sparse, and people sometimes think it’s the result of overplucking but it really isn’t 🙂 Thanks for saying my eyebrows look natural too. That’s what I should have been born with!

    • Thanks hon! Yeah I know Tweezerman comes with a bigger price tag, but in my experience the tweezers are very durable and outperform most tweezers I’ve tried!

  5. Nice post! 🙂 I always like to put some kind of a primer (eyeprimer, lipprimer, or even a regular moisturizer) through my brows when I’m using a brow powder, I find that it makes it stick way better and it gives me great control over the shape!

  6. You have AMAZING brows, Sunny! I feel your pain though. I, too, was born with sparse brows–and an unfortunate tweezing period in my youth left me with areas that refuse to grow. 😦 I’ve experimented with SO many brow products because I hate brows that look obviously filled-in. That’s my greatest fear. lol! I am currently using Anastasia’s Beauty Express for Brows and Eyes–don’t know why I got the whole kit and not just the eyebrow duo because I literally don’t use anything else but the brow powder (specifically, the shade on the left). I have it in brunette and I think the shade on the left has the perfect amount of ashiness to it. I like it more than anything else I’ve tried in the past, but I’m still looking for my “HG” shade

  7. I can’t work slanted tweezers – I need my pointy ones! Also, I tend not to like brow products because they’re all brown and I have black hair >=[ I have brow powder from Clinique because they actually have an ashy-greyish shade that is perfect for black hair. Now I just need to learn how to use it!

    • I’ve never tried any pointy tweezers. They look a little too intimidating for me haha

      Try the Bobbi Brown Brow Shaper in Mahogany then. It’s also less brown and more gray, so it might work for you!

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