All About Brows

Hi my name is Sarah and I am an eyebrow addict!  I started tweezing in my early teens and I was slightly, okay - who am I kidding, majorly ocd.  There was not a stray hair in sight and you better believe that if I misplaced my tweezers all hell would break loose.  Mid teens there was an incident where (for some stupid reason) I put a huge sticker across my forehead which upon removal left me with half a left eyebrow.  My late teens saw my first ‘grow out’ (based on a dare challenge by my flatmate at the time) it was pure hell, my tweezers were so lonely without me and let’s just say that during my twenties I more than made up for lost time. 
 

You name it my brows have been through it, uneven, pencil thin, bushy thick, too far apart, too close, too straight, too arched… the list goes on.  Now having turned 30 I am on the tail end of a grow out period and I couldn’t be happier with the results, after 16 years I think I may have finally cracked the eyebrow code and there is nothing I enjoy more than searching out products to enhance and define my brows.  

I am a huge fan of DIY beauty and apart from having by brows waxed and tinted ONCE in my life I do it all at myself at home. Today  I am rounding up my top tips and must haves for DIY beautiful brows for any price point.

Grooming – To tweeze or not to tweeze?

Personally I find a combination of tweezing and waxing is a great combo.  I like to tweeze my eyebrow shape (close to my brows) and use wax to remove the finer hairs below, above and in between my brows.

 

I use Manicare Gunmetal Slanted tweezers, these are amazing quality and are available from most department stores and pharmacies for under $15.  The pair I currently have had been in use for around 3 years and still work like a dream.  I much prefer using slanted tweezers as they allow you to get in close to the root of the hair which ensures that you are pulling out the entire hair not just ripping it off at the base.

My wax of choice is the Nads Facial Wand Eyebrow Shaper, I have found this to be an easy and fast way for removal of the fine hairs that you miss when tweezing. The application tip is great and if I need to disperse the wax further I use a clean orange stick (the ones for your nail cuticles). I love that the wax does not need to be heated as there is no risk of burning.

The formulation is pleasantly scented and easy to spread out.  I strongly recommend when using this product that you follow the instructions carefully to get the best results, do not rub the wax on the cotton sheet too much before removal or the wax will become too warm and will not adhere to your hair properly and will pull and rip the hair rather than removing it from the root.  This product also comes with some wax removal wipes which are wonderful to use to remove any wax residue left behind after waxing.

Filling in your brows

This is a must do and in my opinion makes a huge difference to your look whether you are going for a natural make up look or a dramatic full face.  I switch between using a pencil and a gel, I am not a big fan of powders as I don’t like the finish.  When filling in I always start from the centre of my brow and do the tail ends first using short strokes, I line the top and bottom of my brows and fill in the middle, I then move on to the inner brow with a lighter hand for a more natural finish.

 

 

SAVE

 

e.l.f Studio Eyebrow Kit
Purchase from Beauty Bliss NZ$10.00

 

Chi Chi High Definition Eye Brow Pencil
Purchase from Chi Chi Cosmetics AU$9.95

 

SPLURGE

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade
Purchase from Anastasia Beverly Hills US$18.00

Bobbi Brown Brow Pencil
Purchase from Bobbi Brown Cosmetics $US22.00

 

Setting your brows

Nobody likes stray hairs popping out of your perfectly groomed brows so I like to set mine with a gel formulation, I apply in small brush strokes from the inner to the outer brow ensuring that the product is worked into the brow and you can’t see any clumpy bits.  Once the product has been applied I lightly tap over my brows to again ensure an even application.

SAVE

e.l.f. Essential Lash & Brow Clear Mascara
Purchase from Beauty Bliss $8.00
 

SPLURGE

Benefit Gimme Brow
Purchase from Smith & Caugheys $41.00

 

Eyebrow Tinting

1000 Hour Lash & Brow Tint

Tinting your brows at home… Can it be done, in short YES!  I have done this for years and it is so simple and inexpensive that you simply must give it a go if you have medium brown to black brows, if you have very light brows I would leave it up to the professionals as the over the counter tinting dyes do not have the best range of colours.  DO NOT USE HAIR DYE – I cannot stress this enough!  Trust me you will regret it big time, hair dye is not for facial hair – do not even entertain the thought of going there!

I use the 1000 Hour Lash and Brow tint in dark brown.  As my brows are a little lighter than dark brown I don’t leave the solution on for the recommended time, I leave for 5 minutes and find this works well.  If you are trying this product for the first time I strongly recommend you do a series of trial and errors, first leaving the solution on for 2 minutes, removing and judging the results, you will then be able to determine how long you need to leave the product on next time as it is much easier to apply more colour than it is to remove!

The 1000 Hour Lash and Brown tint is available from most pharmacies for around $25.  I dye my brows every 6 weeks and one container lasts me well over a year.  I do my lashes at the same time using the recommended amount for one application and there is always plenty of solution to do both your lashes and your brows – total bargain.

Not into DIY?

If you are not confident with brow maintenance our top tip is to visit a beautician for a shape and tint, once they have your shape sorted it can make home maintenance much easier as you have a guide to work to, pluck any strays, wax the fine hairs and don’t leave it too long without any maintenance at all.  Tweezing a few strays each day when you are doing your make up is much easier than sitting down to an extreme tweezing session and you are less like to over tweeze!