I have a confession to make – my brows are not 100% natural. You guys know how middle school goes – it’s a time of awkwardness and some beauty/fashion hits and misses. For most kids at least, including myself.
You see, when I was in middle school, skinny brows were all the rage. That was horrible news for this Italian girl, seemingly cursed with big, bold brows. My mother tried to convince me that I would grow up to love my strong brows and warned me not to maim them. Did I listen? Of course not, I was in middle school. Instead of heeding my mother’s advice, my tweezers and I went on a rampage. I plucked the living daylights out of my brows, tweezing them so far apart from one another that they probably had separation anxiety and creating what I thought were stellar arches. I forced my brows into this look for quite some time, until one day I saw a picture of myself and was like “Nooooooo! Who did that to my brows?! Oh…I did. Dagnabit!”
People, trust me when I say that your brows are important. They highlight your eyes and help to give your face its structure. They help you show emotion and give you a more polished look when done right. Embrace your natural brows, and then tame (tame, not maim) them or make them a little better if need be. You don’t want to be a Frida Kahlo, but you also don’t want people wondering where your eyebrows went. Although I eventually embraced my Italian brows, letting them grow back and then trusting them to a trained professional, they have never gotten over the trauma I put them through. 😦 The outer halves are fine, those parts forgave me; the inner halves tried to come back but are patchy at best. Sigh.
Luckily for people like me, there are all sorts of products in the beauty world designed to help your brows look their best. First of all, unless you are a trained technician, go to a brow professional. They know where your arch should be and the thickness that will work best for your face. Trust them. Secondly, if you were once an overzealous plucker now faced with patchy brows or have naturally thin brows that need some bulking up, there are waxes, powders, and gels designed to fill in your brows.
With all these brow-specific products on the market, what do I use? An eyeshadow. Go figure.
L’Oreal Wear Infinite Eye Shadow in Antique Brown (826)
L’Oreal Wear Infinite Eye Shadow in Antique Brown (826), looking well-loved
I actually came across this as a brow powder by accident. I was using a brow pencil to fill in my brows, but it didn’t look natural and I was having trouble finding a color that blended seamlessly with my dark brows. I bought this product to use as an eye shadow but wasn’t entirely please with it. Why? Check out this swatch –
One pass on the left, several on the right
Can you see it? Barely? Yeah, that’s why. It’s nice for a subtle wash of color, but I bought a dark brown eye shadow because I wanted it to be…well…dark. And then inspiration struck and saved this little shadow. I realized the shade looked similar to my hair color and might actually work on my brows when nothing else was matching them. And it did – huzzah!
My technique? I bought a flat eyeliner brush with semi-stiff bristles. I get the brush a little wet, then pick up a little product on it. I sweep the brush across my brows, first in the areas where they’re in need of some lovin’, then in other areas that just need a little attention. I start softly and build up the product – you can always add more on, but it’s harder to go back and take product off. If my brows are being totally unruly, I’ll go back over them after with some gel to keep them in line.
Check out that filled-in brow. Oh yeahhh.
You can apply brow powder dry, I just prefer a wet brush for this particular product. Do I think you should run out and buy eye shadow instead of a designated brow product? Not necessarily. There are a lot of brow product options out there, so you have plenty to choose from and test. However, if you’re having trouble finding a great color match? – head to the shadow section of your beauty store.
Do you have any beauty products that you use for double-duty beauty?
Wayfaring Beauty 
quite interesting, still stick around