My Brow Routine

Brows are an incredibly hot topic right now, so much so that just about every day I see an eyebrow meme on social media. I'm definitely not immune to the brow hype - I want my brows to look amazing at all times, with or without makeup. I'm fairly lucky that mine are naturally a good shape and managed to survive the Brow Disaster of 2003-2004, when I plucked them within an inch of their life into pencil thin lines. Yes, it was as bad as it sounds. Eleven years later I can say that, for the most part, I've got good brow game. Usually I just pluck the strays and get a proper job done by a professional every so often. Once they're tidy, I go over them with some brow products on makeup days. I don't like wearing makeup without having at least a little bit on my brows, because I find it finishes the look off nicely, even with very minimal makeup looks. You can see below how my brows look without any product on them.

When I want to use product on them, I start off by brushing them in upward strokes using a spooly. Then, depending on the type of look I'm going for, I use either a powder or a tinted brow gel. For a softer look, I use MAC eyeshadow in Coquette and I apply this with an angled eyeliner brush. I start in the arch and brush the powder out toward the ends, then using what's left on the brush I fill in the front part with upward strokes. Sometimes I need a bit more product, but I always go light and build up. Sometimes I go over the powder very lightly with my Benefit Gimme Brow in medium/dark, but usually I just pop on a bit of ELF clear mascara to hold the hairs in place. You can see what this looks like below.

For a heavier look, I used my Benefit Gimme Brow instead of the powder, which you can see below. Because the colour is quite dark I tend to apply it lightly unless I'm going for very dramatic brows in the evening. I don't need to use a clear brow gel over this because it holds my brow hairs enough, but some people might find a clear gel on top useful for stubborn hairs.

I rarely use my Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil in 001 Dark Brown anymore, because I find it has a reddish tone to it which I'm not a big fan of. That being said, sometimes I get obvious gaps in the hairs and I find the pencil is needed to fill those in. Then I go over the whole brow with powder or tinted gel, and this minimises the reddish tone.

So that's it for my brows at the moment. Pretty straight-forward, really. I'd love to try the Anastasia Brow Wizz but they are hard to get in New Zealand so I shall have to wait. Mega sad-face!