THE PENCILS
Zuzu Luxe Cream Brow Pencil in Russet
The best part of Zuzu Luxe's Cream Brow Pencil is its consistency. It's not so creamy that it slides around, but also not so firm that you feel like you're scratching your face to deposit any color. It lasts all day and the spoolie on the back end also comes in handy. Russet is a light taupe shade and a pretty good match, though I feel like it could be slightly ashier.
Bare Minerals Frame & Define Brow Styler in Universal Light
This is the only retractable brow pencil I've found with good ingredients and I love it! With a spoolie on one end, plus a small tip and no sharpening required, it's very quick to use and Universal Light is a surprisingly perfect color for me. It's a soft taupe that looks the most natural out of everything I've tried. A lot of the reviews on the Bare Minerals website mention the lead breaking easily, but I twist up just enough product so I can apply it, and I haven't had any problems.
Beauty Without Cruelty Eye Defining Pencil in Soft Brown
This is a terrible eyeliner with a hard, waxy consistency, but it delivers enough color to work surprisingly well as an eyebrow pencil. It has great staying power and I love how cool-toned of a brown it is, although it's a little too dark of a shade for me. I passed this on to my mom, who has slightly darker hair and she seems to like it.
THE CREAMS, POWDERS & WAXES
Cheeky Cosmetics Brow Powder in Blonde and Light Brunette
These powders were my very first foray into filling in my eyebrows a couple years back and, to put it bluntly, it didn't go very well. They're very pigmented, to the point where it's difficult to sheer the colors out enough to appear natural, and I find a loose powder challenging to work with in this capacity. I also didn't find a color match. Blonde is too light for me and Light Brunette has some odd, greenish undertones that didn't work either.
Lily Lolo Eyebrow Duo in Medium
By far my favorite of the non-pencil options, Lily Lolo's Eyebrow Duo includes both a pressed powder and a wax. The powder gives a very soft, buildable color and the wax is creamy, goes on clear, and does a good job holding stray hairs in place without feeling crunchy. Medium is a mid-toned brown. It's not overly warm, but I wouldn't complain if it was a little more ashy. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)
I also have the Lily Lolo Angled Brow Spoolie Brush*, which I've used in conjunction with the duo. Because I don't have a lot to fill in, I wish the angled side was a little thinner for more precision, but it's still a very functional brush.
Silk Naturals Brow Cream in Medium Brown
Silk Naturals' Brow Creams provide color and hold, plus offer some conditioning benefits for your brows. The texture is that of a solid cream, almost like a lipstick, and once it's in your brows, the cream sets and does a good job keeping both the color and your brow hairs in place. These are popular in the green beauty community and I can see why, as the cream is an easy product to work with and the color is nicely buildable. I don't, however, love how it feels in my brows: heavy and a little stiff. Medium Brown leans pretty warm, so I imagine Medium Ash, its cooler counterpart, might also have been a better color choice for me.
The All Natural Face Vegan Eye Brow Wax
A clear wax, this has a much drier texture than the Lily Lolo wax and feels very comparable to an extra waxy lip balm. It's a light hold product and while fine to hold a few stray hairs in place, I'm not sure it would do the trick for really wild, all over the map brows. I also don't find the hold lasts all day, though it's easy enough to reapply, if you're so inclined.
The Bottom Line
I haven't filled in my eyebrows for very long, but I feel like I've tried a good number of products in a short time! On an everyday basis, my favorite is the Bare Minerals Frame & Define, as I find a pencil is the quickest and easiest method and the Bare Minerals is the most natural looking color I've found. The Zuzu Luxe is a pretty close second and when I have a little more time, I also really like the way my brows look with the Lily Lolo duo. The rest are products I would be unlikely to buy again, either for color reasons or just because I wasn't overly wowed.
What are your favorite eyebrow products?
*Press Sample
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Silk Naturals Brow Cream in Auburn is my HG product! The color is amazing for people with red hair, it looks really natural and it's a dupe of the Anastasia shade. I get what you mean about it feeling a bit heavy, but it's amazing how well it stays in place, even in really intense humidity. I've tried the matching powder and I like that too, but the cream is a little more easy to apply.
ReplyDeleteIt's great it works so well for you! I only ended up wearing it a few times since the color wasn't great for me, but I may pick up a sample of Medium Ash in my next SN order and give it another go :)
DeleteOh, I love the Lily Lolo Eyebrow Duo :-)
ReplyDeleteRight now, I am loving Ecobrow, Benecos eyebrow pencil and the Jane Iredale brow kit. I have been eyeing the Lily Lolo brow duo so may need to try that one out! :-)
ReplyDeleteSo many people are talking about Ecobrow recently, I'll have to give it a look :) The Lily Lolo is great - I think it's probably pretty comparable to the Jane Iredale brow kit, so if you like that one, I bet you'd like the Lily Lolo too :)
DeleteI picked up the tarte brow mousse and I'm in love with the look of a stronger brow! Until recently, I also never bothered with my brows. I felt they looked fine and shaped naturally but filling in my brows has made such a difference! I'm dying to try the ecobrow mousse as well as that Zuzu luxe pencil!
ReplyDeleteSo true! It's funny, as I never noticed what a difference it made, but now that I've started filling them in, it just looks odd to wear makeup and not fill in my brows!
DeleteI like the Pure Anada loose mineral brow colour. Best colour match for me & easy to sheer out or make darker if you want a more dramatic look for night time.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of nervous about loose powders after the Cheeky Cosmetics ones, but I'll have to check it out next time I'm at The Big Carrot :) Thanks for the suggestion!
DeleteOh I definitely want to try out the Bare Minerals pencil! I've also been eyeing the brow duo from Lily Lolo so I was happy to read your thoughts on it. I currently use the Benecos Eyebrow-Designer pencil because it's easy to use (has a spoolie too) and looks good with my brows. I think it's pretty similar in formula to the one from ZuZu Luxe. Great post!
ReplyDelete-Kasey
Thanks Kasey! The only downfall of the Bare Minerals, as far as I can tell, is the limited shade range. They've only got 2 colors currently, but other than that, it really is fantastic :)
DeleteAnother vote for Ecobrow. That BM retractable pencil sounds a lot like Anastasia's Brow Wiz, which is what I swore by before going green! I may have to try it out now. :)
ReplyDeleteSo curious about Ecobrow after all the suggestions - I think I checked it out at one point and wasn't crazy about some of the ingredients, but I'm going to have to give it another look now! I haven't used the Anastasia, but I'd guess the Bare Minerals is fairly comparable. They don't have as many shades to choose from (only 2!), but if one of them works for you, I'd definitely recommend giving it a try :)
DeleteI haven't tried any of these but I love my Sante eyebrow pencil. It lasts pretty much all day and comes with a decent spooly on the end too. I'm almost out of mine & my spooly end broke though booo! Need to stock up!
ReplyDeleteI've heard good things about the Sante pencil! May have to check it out next :)
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