6/2/14

Favorite Brow Products: High End and Drugstore

Good morning!  Hope you guys are having a great start to the week.  Today I thought I would discuss browssssss.  I don't know about all of you, but mine can be very difficult to define and fill in.  The whole 'brows aren't twins, they're sisters' thing doesn't really apply to me.  Mine are more like, I don't know, distant cousins?  lol.  Seriously though, mine are quite different if you compare them.  Throughout the years I have had numerous different eyebrow looks (some were quite scary), but overtime I have finally kind of settled in on a brow routine that I am happy with.  What I aim for is something very manicured and defined without being too harsh or scary looking.  I should probably first talk about the type of brows that I have so I can then explain what type of products I need and why I use them.  All of the hair that I grow pretty much on my entire body is black.  Head, brows, lashes, upper lip, arms, legs, you get the idea.  And while the hair on my head is very thick, eyelashes too I guess, all the rest of what I have is sparse.  My skin is oily and more slick, even down my arms and legs, and just doesn't produce much hair.  I am more of an olive complexion, and just don't produce much hair like that.  I barelyyyy have peach fuzz on my upper lip in a couple of spots, but what is there is black (not pretty).  My brows are naturally very arched (left one more than right), with black hairs that are sparse.  One single hair really shows up because it is so dark, but I don't have that many actual/individual hairs in my brows.  Does that make sense?  On top of that I have bald areas that will NOT grow any hairs due to years and years of over-plucking.  So when it comes to choosing products for the perfect looking brow, I want something that will cover my skin so the area doesn't look so sparse underneath the hairs, but I still want my actual hairs to show up as well.  Sounds kinda hard, huh?  Well, it kind of is.  Here is what I have found over the past several years that really seems to work for me.  We will start out with my top two Holy Grail products:  Anastasia Brow Wiz and Anastasia Clear Brow Gel.




The Anastasia Brow Wiz pencils are the BEST eyebrow pencils in the world.  What makes them so special?  They are double ended - one end has a spoolie brush to shape your brows, and the other end has an ultra fine, mechanical, retractable pencil that gives you such precision for defining your brows.    The little bitty tip is not only great for filling in any gaps or sparseness, but it is also small enough you can draw and mimic actual hairs to also fill in your brows.  The product itself really stays put and doesn't smudge throughout the day, and it's paraben/sulfate free and all that jazz.  Comes in several colors, and well, this product is just great.  I use 2 shades, Soft Brown for the middle to outer brow and Caramel on the inner part of my brow (gives me a gradient of darker to more lighter, more natural look).




This is THE brow gel of all brow gels.  It sets, defines and holds your brows in place like no other.  It has chamomile in it, so it doesn't dry to a really stiff/hard plastic-y feel like some brow gels do.  But what I like most about it is how it makes your actual brow hairs pop and show up.  When you apply pencils or powders, your hairs kind of get packed down.  When you sweep this over them as like a final step, it just makes your hairs so much more visible which gives an overall more natural look.  Love.





This works just like the clear brow gel, only it is tinted (obviously, lol).  The color makes this a little harder to work with, as you really have to watch where you place the product with the spoolie.  With the clear gel you can just run it through and you're done.  With this, if you accidentally get a little out of the lines, it shows.  I hands-down prefer the clear one to this, but this is a really great product as well.



Another great brow pencil, only this one is from the drugstore and is a lot cheaper!  I will admit, it isn't as nice as the Anastasia, but they are still a great product.  They do a great job at filling in any gaps you have and for defining your brows, but you do notice this one wearing off and smudging sometimes throughout the day.  It just doesn't have the same staying power as the one I mentioned before.  I still really, really love this product, and if I'm just gonna be around the house or running to the grocery store or something, this is what I wear.  It's cheap and you can find it at most of your drugstores and it gets it done.   Great cheaper alternative to the Anastasia pencil.


I use the shade Medium Brown



This is what I consider a powerhouse of a drugstore product.  By far one of the best brow waxes and powders out there.  Very comparable to similar high-end products, you can get a very pretty brow using just this product alone.  Use the wax to shape your brows (the brush provided works really well for this), then top with the powder to fill in any gaps and you're done.  Or, use the either product alone, or whatever.  If you haven't tried this and you are on the market for a really good product without breaking the bank, these are definitely worth checking out.  I've used these for years and my shade is Medium Brown.  Sometimes I use a brow pencil and just the powder, sometimes I use just the powder with a pencil brush, sometimes I just use the wax.  It really just depends, but this gives you a really great brow and the product lasts a really long time as well.



Maybelline Ultra-Brow Brow Powder, from K-Mart

I always get these brow powders from K-Mart, but I didn't find them on their website.  I don't have a Target/Walgreens/CVS near me to know if they carry them or not, but these are pretty easy to find.  Again, another great drugstore brow powder to shape and define your brows.  Always use a pencil brush to apply any brow powder, I find that it goes on lighter and more evenly as opposed to an angled brush.  I'm pretty sure this runs for less than $10.  Great product, lasts forever.  My shade is Dark Brown.


This is a great drugstore product to use to set your eyebrows.  Again, this is not as good as the Anastasia brow gels, but for the price it really is a good alternative.  It doesn't define your brows quite  as good, but it does give you decent definition.  You're definitely better off using this than using nothing at all.  With the clear tube this tends to get a little gunky looking after a while, but it really does help if you are prone to having crazy/wild brow hairs sticking up here and there.  

I recently took a picture of my bare-skinned face as a before shot to review a moisturizer, and I thought I would put that on here to show you my brows. This is without any product in them whatsoever. As you can see, kind of sparse and some wild hairs.  No filter, no editing here.  I get several questions about my permanent makeup that I had tattooed on several years ago, perhaps I will discuss that in another blog post.  You can see the eyeliner in this shot.  It's very light and minimal.

And, lastly, a shot of my brows after I fill them in!

Alright guys, hope that helped some of you!  If you've got brows anything like mine, then hopefully this gave you some ideas of what to do to enhance them.  Leave any questions below and, as always, thanks for stopping by and please come again soon!  xoxo
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