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!
OK, fine, one last post before I leave my warm sofa (and snuggie) and get ready for bed, promise!
Since I’ve already sung Sable praises, I feel I’ve got to introduce it’s best friend, the Bobbi Brown Eye Brow Brush. I’d been looking for something like this for a long time. All the brushes I had used for my eyebrows in the past are stupid little things that came with the products themselves. But anyone who wants to do makeup a bit more decently knows (or should know) that the plastic things that come free are usually no better than toys. They are too tiny for any sort of control, and too flimsy to last. I looked into MAC (because Bobbi Brown isn’t available in Belgium. Not for long though! Rumor has it that the first shop will open in Brussels in mid-December. Anyone getting super excited???), but found nothing that would cut it. Some suggest 263, which I had in the past. While it might be good for lining one’s eyes (though I quickly abandoned it when I discovered Bobbi Brown Ultra Fine Liner Brush), the hair is definitely too fine and the brush too thin to do one’s brows properly. I checked makeupalley, but strangely enough this brush has received neither enough reviews nor positive ones there.
I instantly fell in love with it, however, at the Bobbi Brown counter at Macy’s on Herald Square.
The SA who was helping me was in my imagination a typical New Yorker. She was very antsy, and she kept going in all the wrong directions with the brush when she was trying to do my brows. At some point I had to ask if I could take over and try it for myself, to which she agreed. The brush hair looks long, but it’s definitely stiff enough for precise control. With this brush, you can brush your eyebrow hair in the right places AND fill your eyebrows in at the same time. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have a lot of eyebrows to being with, but the result I achieve with this brush is so natural that I don’t even need to blend it out with a spoolie. It gets the job done FAST, too! Comparing with all the stupid little brushes I’ve used and have had to waste MINUTES doing my eyebrows in the past, this one saves me SO much time, sweat, and blood!
So again, if you’re unhappy with your eyebrows or your eyebrow brush, check this one out. Of course I understand that not everyone fills theirs in with an eyeshadow and a brush, but if you’re going for a natural, not drawn-in look, the Bobbi Brown Eye Brow Brush and a shadow matching your hair color would be a pretty good bet!
Now I’m officially going to turn my computer off for the day. I’m the only one who is still awake in the house!
PS: According to StyleLab, a Belgian fashion/beauty blog, Bobbi Brown is opening on December 16th at 11A, Rue A. Orts, 1000 Brussels. It’s very close to the stock exchange, right next to Cosmeticary where you can find brands such as OPI, By Terry, Bumble and Bumble in Belgium. I’ve walked past by the location in early November, and I can confirm the window is covered with black plastic staying Bobbi Brown Coming Soon!
I’m always, always looking for new ways to do my eyebrows. Besides my head, the hair on my body is scarce. Before you get too jealous however, do note that this statement also means I have no eyebrow. I have very very sparse hair in the eyebrow area, and a lot of it is wayward and has to be plucked off anyways. I started plucking my eyebrows regularly only when I was halfway through university, and filling them only after I got out of university (seriously, don’t even ask how I looked before that). I started out with a drugstore brow powder and the flimsy little brush it came with. After that, I moved on to Benefit Brows a-go-go and Brow Zings, only to have my mother tell me during my trip back home this summer that it was way too unnaturally dark. I knew that ideally for a dark-haired person, the eyebrow color of choice should be 2-3 shades lighter. I made that mistake just because for the first time in my life, I had “visible” eyebrows. I got a pot of KATE brow gel from the drugstore back home, which I’m still pretty happy with (I’m debating whether to do a review of this one. I don’t know if it’s easily available outside of Asia, or even Japan and Taiwan. If not then there’s really no point), but when I visited the Bobbi Brown counter at Macy’s on Herald’s Square, I couldn’t resist asking the SA how she would fill my eyebrows.
She took out the eyebrow brush (which I will do a separate review for), dipped it in an unknown eyeshadow (I wasn’t even looking since she was busy with my eyebrows and I couldn’t move my head), and started filling them in. The result was so full, defined, yet very natural that I didn’t even bother asking her which shadow it was before adding both the brush and the shadow in the pile of purchase. Once I opened the package, I saw Sable. It’s a matte, medium brown shade with a pretty neutral undertone. I was instantly reminded of Buck in the Naked palette. In fact they are very much comparable (you can see Buck on the right of the swatch pictures), but Sable is a tad darker. Also, I don’t want to go to the end of Buck too quickly because I’m using it day-in and day-out to fill my eyebrows, so Sable still turned out to be a pretty sensible purchase.
I will try to snap a picture of my eyebrows filled in with Sable soon, but I can already tell you I’ve got compliments on my eyebrows. S, the bride of the wedding I went to, said that:” you see the difference, but not the makeup.” For the past year I’ve been trying to grow my eyebrows back (everybody overplucks a bit in their young and reckless days, even the ones with not enough hair to begin with lol), but the hair remains sparse (don’t think that will ever change) and I still have some “chips”. I like how it’s possible to really fill my eyebrows to their would-be color, would-be perfect shape, and fullness with this eyeshadow. Also, just like Buck, I’m sure it makes a fantastic, natural, low-key crease shade.
All in all this is again highly recommended. Since Bobbi Brown eyeshadows come in 0.1 oz (2.83 grams), it’ll probably last me forever and ever!
MOSTLY SUNNY 