Beauty Lessons No. 1

Beauty Lessons No. 1

 

QUESTION: 

I have a question. Its about my eyebrows! How would you suggest cleaning up, filling-in (eyebrow liner or cake?), grooming and just generally make them look good, especially since they’re not as thick and lush as they used to be. I don’t want them to look penciled in obviously, so your expertise it needed!

Thank you, 

Michelle 

 

ANSWER:

This is a question I get all of the time. When you’re a baby, your eyebrows are very subtle, adding to the lovely open faces that babies have. Just all eyes. As you get older your brows fill out, providing structure for your face. And as you age, they get thinner, either due to a history of overenthusiastic tweezing, gently greying hair or just the general hair thinning that happens with age (something that people don’t really talk about in regards to women and aging - and a topic I think should be discussed openly and with great frequency). When you’re older and your brows become less full, it adds to the general feeling of gravity to the face. The fat pads under your skin begin to travel south, creating hollows under the eyes and jowls along the jaw line and the lack of a structured brow adds to that downward effect.

So what to do…

My first recommendation is a surprising one. Cheap and very effective. Just For Men Beard Dye. You heard me right, the Just For Men you see at the drugstore. It’s inexpensive, has the right neutral undertones and fades gradually so it’s hard to mess up. (My one very strong suggestion is to only leave the dye on for :30-:60 seconds the first time you do it until you find the timing that works best for you. Better to have them be too light versus way too dark.) By dying your brows a shade or two darker than your current color, the dye also grabs all of the fine little hair surrounding your brows, making them look instantly thicker. I recommend dying them once a month, so tie it into something you do monthly, like paying a bill. That makes it easier to remember. Or set a reminder on your phone. I'm all about reminders.

My other suggestion is to use a brow pencil and/or brow pen. I’m very specific about the brow pencils I’ll use. The ones from Kimiko have excellent undertones and they’re the right shape and formula for delivering fine, hair like strokes. The spoolie on the end makes brushing them into shape easy as well. The undertones on these brow pencils are on the cooler side so they don’t read too warm. Warm brows are a personal pet peeve of mine as all but redheads look better with cooler toned eyebrows. I use the Coffee shade from Kimiko on a range of brows from medium blonde to brunette and it always looks fantastic. When it comes to setting brows I love the Surratt Brow Pomade for a fluffy, full looking brow, but if you like to set your brows with a stiff gel, I reach for the Got 2 Be Edge Control gel. 

 

Kimiko Super Fine Eyebrow
Pencil Automatique

 

Surratt Expressioniste
Brow Pomade

 

 

For brow pens, I prefer the ones from SUQQU, a brand from Japan. What’s unique about them is the sheerness of the pen and the brilliant colors they offer. The color for blondes is more of a khaki with true green undertones - you’d be shocked at how much better it looks than a taupe. There’s a warmish brown that works for redheads and the one for dark hair is actually grey, not black, so it never looks severe. While I don’t really want to send you away to another makeup site to go shopping, I do want this page to be about what products really work and which ones are my hands down fave. I don’t carry SUQQU on Reed Clarke as they only retail a few places outside of Asia, so you’ll have to do some googling. There are brow pens made by US and European brands, but I don’t think they’re as good. Just my two cents.

Lastly, even if your brows are thinner than you’d like, you do still need to groom them. The hair texture changes, becoming more wiry, and inexplicably some grow longer than others. Insult to injury. Having an excellent pair of tweezers is mandatory - please don’t use drugstore tweezers, they simply don’t work as well - and having a good pair of brow scissors on hand will help you keep your brows, or what’s left of them, in line.

 

Rubis Tweezers

 

 

Brow Gal Scissors

 

 

The bottom line is, things change as we age. But when armed with the right tools, information, and a little bit of time, makeup can make a world of difference. And in my opinion, good brows make a big difference in your appearance, so investing your time into getting your brows ship shape is time well spent. 

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of Beauty Lessons. Don’t forget to send a note to tellmemore@shopreedclarke.com to have your burning beauty questions answered.

 

Until next month,

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