Wearing face coverings regularly due to Covid, there’s a new focus on eye makeup. So, today’s topic is the best ways to define your eyebrows. Because, let’s be honest, a smudge of kajal, a bit of mascara AND defined brows is the way to go to draw attention to your eyes and give a bit of definition to your face above your mask. I’ll tell you the quickest ways to achieve effortless, easy brows.
Here’s my rather shameful secret: when brows became a THING, I watched a lot of those YouTube tutorials circa 2012, showing me how to use what looks like a calligraphy pen, some fairy dust and a magnifying glass to pencil in tiny little strokes ‘that mimic individual hairs’ for the next 30 minutes. Yeah. You know what? I’m lazy, and I’m not going to do that. *shrug* (So: I’m not covering pencils of any kind in this post.)
IF you’re as lazy as me, and WON’T do the thousand tiny strokes thingie though, there’re a lot of pitfalls if you use anything but a brow gel. And that’s because a completely filled in brow (no matter if you used a powder or pomade) will look freaking weird IF your hair colour differs from the product, because you’ll have coloured-in skin beneath individual brow hairs.
IF you wanna go for the IG brow thing, rock on and don’t worry about that a thing, because it won’t matter, because your individual brow hairs will be drenched in product anyways.
Colour
If you google eyebrow products to match you, the first hits will tell you wildly different thing: namely, to always go one or two shades DARKER than your natural hair colour, and to always go one or two shades LIGHTER than your natural colour. Um… okay?!
Here’s what I know: don’t worry about colour saturation too much. Look for the undertone: if you’re an overall cool type with ashy hair and pink-leaning skin, go for a cooler shade (and know that a darker shade will always draw more focus to your brows than a lighter one). If you’re a warm toned person, with yellow leaning skin and warm-toned hair (honey blondes, strawberry reds, chestnut-coloured brunette), chose a warm-toned brow colour. Done.
But if you’ve got colour-treated hair, a good benchmark is your natural hair colour, especially if you’re sporting some kind of rainbow or pastel coloured hair. When I’ve freshly coloured purple strands, though, I LOVE to rock a purple brow pomade – just note that it’ll never give you a particular natural look.
Products for effortless easy brows
Powder: great for filling in gaps
Technique
Instead of going to town and broadly colouring in your whole brow, concentrate on areas with obvious gaps. I always use a slim, angled brush for powder and pomade. Don’t use a single stroke to line your upper or lower brow area – that does look very graphic and is best used for dramatic makeup looks. (If you want that, go for it!) I don’t use a designated brow powder, but MAC’s eyeshadow in Brun. I like that it isn’t completely matte – your eyebrow hairs aren’t, are they? If I’m feeling super fancy, I go for a darker shade in front and a lighter shade towards the end of your eyebrow.
Pomade: if you’ve got a lot of ground to cover
Technique
Brush through your brows with a spoolie first, then use your angled brush to cover areas that need covering. Start with small amounts of products on your brush and know that a pomade will always look more intense than a powder or gel. Again, same principles as with a powder: find the happy medium between covering your whole brow area with product and those calligraphy strokes that never work for me. I find that brushing through my brows again afterwards take away some product and diffuses that really stark look. I rather like brow pomades especially in summer, because they. Will. Stay. Put. (Products I use: Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow in Ash Brown, KvD Super Brow in Aubergine, and the discontinued Armani Eye & Brow Maestro in 15 Plum.)
Gel: you just want a bit of definition and set unruly brows
Technique
Same as with mascara, a wet brow gel can lead to clumpy and spiky hairs. Not the look I’m trying to achieve. So make sure you wipe off excess product before you start. Again, brush your brows with a clean spoolie BEFORE using the brow gel – it’s nearly never a good idea to try to simultaneously shape AND colour your brows. If I want to make my brow powder look a bit more defined, I’ll definitely go for a bit of gel to give the hairs some texture. I use Essence’s Make me Brow in 02 browny brows.
Soap Brows
Now, if you were thinking ‘and when will this woman finally talk about soap brows’ – here it is. Of course, you can use soap instead of gel to set and define: simply take a spoolie and something like Dr. Bronner’s, rub your damp spoolie over the bar and gently go brush through your brows while trying not to touch your skin. The thing is: for me, though, it doesn’t have the convenience of a simple brow gel, while it also doesn’t come with extra benefits. Yup, my brows will look nice and natural and feathery: but the soap doesn’t give them extra hold and texture that a gel won’t. It’s more sustainable, though, I give you that.
Effortless easy brows?!
Here you have it: basically everything I know about brow products and routines. Did your eye look change since the start of the pandemic and all the mask wearing? What do you do differently?
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