A whole fucking dissertation on eyebrow products for blondes and redheads, plus a mini review of L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly mascara (photo-heavy post)

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So this is the latest installation of a quasi-series in which I pull out all the products I have in from single category and try to decide what I should keep and what I should get rid of. Spoiler: I decided that I'm going to keep all of my eyebrow shit, because it's practical and really won't ever expire, so I'll use it up eventually. I did come to the radical conclusion that I should stop buying more, though. Duh.

All my eyebrow products (top to bottom): NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red; e.l.f. Studio Eyebrow Kit in Light; Milani Brow Tint Pen in Natural Taupe; CoverGirl Brow and Eye Makers in Soft Blond; Avon Ultra Luxury Eyebrow Pencil in Blonde; and Benefit Gimme Brow in Light/Medium. 

My hair color over the last few years has run the gamut from blonde-blonde to strawberry-blonde to dark-blonde to red to really-fucking-red. Some of the products below have served me well no matter my hair color, such as the e.l.f. kit and the Avon pencil. Others, like the NYX kit and the CoverGirl pencil really only well with certain hair colors - but then they work very well.

You can tell from the photo above that almost every brow product I have has been well used, so I know them intimately. Look at those stubby pencils! The one exception is Benefit's Gimme Brow, which I got as a graduation present in May. It actually came from the Benefit vending machine in the Minneapolis airport. That's a thing that exists.

In the past, when I thought about my minimum makeup - like what I'd wear if I was running out the door and only had time for a couple of things - it was always just mascara and blush. Maybe under-eye concealer. Lately, though, I feel like I can really take or leave those things so long as I've filled in my eyebrows a little. They're fairly invisible on their own, and as I've pointed out before, they really do make a difference.

I used to use the sort of technique where you define the bottom edge of the brow completely and then fill the rest in, but recently I've much preferred Lisa Eldridge's method of focusing on the peak of the arch and working lightly out from there. (If you have never watched a Lisa Eldridge video, do it some day when you're in a bad mood or stressed - trust me, she's so soothing.) This method really does create a more natural-looking effect. I do fill in the part closest to my nose more than she does, however, because that's where the hair on my brows is the lightest and thinnest. If I don't add a little extra there, my eyebrows look too far apart - I think they still do sometimes, honestly, but I'm not (yet) totally comfortable filling in where there's no real hair at all. Anyway, as you can see in the photos below, this isn't the super-defined and polished look that you tend to see in closeups of dramatic eye makeup. It doesn't look flawless. Super-defined is pretty, but it's just not what I'm going for. My brows might look a little less than perfect in a super closeup, but no one is looking as closely as my camera is getting in these photos - and the lack of perfection is what makes them look natural, I think. Here's what they usually look like at a normal distance (scroll down).

I hope you have a couple of weeks to read the rest of this post, because as usual I am long-fucking-winded.
Swatches of eyebrow products tend not to be super useful, because their texture isn't really conducive to swatching: if they went on really opaque and creamy, they could would be harder to control on your brows without getting clowny. But the swatches below can at least give you a sense of how the colors of each of these things compare to one another.

Swatches of (top left to bottom right): e.l.f. Studio Eyebrow Kit in Light (wax and powder); NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red (two powders); Benefit Gimme Brow in Light/Medium; Avon Ultra Luxury Eyebrow Pencil in Blonde; CoverGirl Brow and Eye Makers in Soft Blond; and Milani Brow Tint Pen in Natural Taupe

Several of these I have reviewed or posted about before, so I'll link to fuller reviews below. In this post, however, I'll give you a sense of how they compare to each other. First check out how non-existent my eyebrows are without any product:

Nothing! Browless!

For both of the powder products (e.l.f. and NYX), I avoided the tiny brushes that come in the kits and instead used the e.l.f. small smudge brush. Those miniature brushes are just too hard to use, especially with my glasses getting in the way. You can really use any small brush that isn't fluffy. Some people prefer angled brushes. Play around and see what you like.

e.l.f. Studio Eyebrow Kit in Light

e.l.f. Studio Eyebrow Kit in Light ($3): (Previous review.) I've had this kit for years, and it's still going strong. What's particularly nice about it is that you can use the wax to tint the hairs a little and to groom your brows into place, and the powder to fill in any patchy bits, so you have everything you need. I've also found it to be really long wearing, even in pretty sweaty conditions. My hair right now is a sort of warm golden/strawberry blonde, and I find this kit just slightly too dark and cool to be a perfect match. However, as you can see here, I've used it with bright red hair before, and I've used it with light blond hair, so I'm probably being overly picky.

It's very versatile, and this is the product I'd recommend if I had to choose just one from this list to tell you to pick up. It's great if you're thinking about trying to do something with your brows for the first time, but also for basically anyone with hair on the lighter side. And it's fucking cheap. If I had to complain about anything, it's that the mirror fell out after a year or two (but I never used it anyway), and that sometimes bits of lint (and cat hair, let's be honest) get stuck in the wax.

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red 

NYX EyeBrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red ($6): This one is really best for true redheads. It's really fucking red. Like really red. It's not golden enough for my current hair color, so it doesn't really work for me at the moment. But if you've ever wanted an actual red brow product, this is the way to go, and it looks goooooood with red hair. In the photo above, I used the lighter of the two powders for most of my brow and the darker one just at inner corners. Both colors apply darker and redder than they appear in the pan.

Again, I used the e.l.f. brush that I mentioned about to apply the powders, which are easy to use to get a nice, smooth look. I used the included mini spoolie for that wax as a second step. It's difficult to get a small amount on spoolie, because you basically have to jab the end of it in the wax. The best method I've found is to get a clump on the end and then spread it through brush with my fingers. I don't love the wax. It can be a little shiny (see how it sort of looks wet in the photo above?) and doesn't have a lot of hold. The other problem with this product is that the packaging is shit, and you know I'm not even picky about packaging. But if you look back at the photo at the top of the page, you can see that the transparent cover is really scratched up and dingy looking, and that it has broken off on both the hinges. This happened just from sitting around in a drawer, somehow. I've never traveled with this thing. The plastic that the lid is made of is obviously really soft. I'd still recommend this as a decent, affordable option for redheads. There aren't a lot of those out there.

Benefit Gimme Brow in Light/Medium

Benefit Gimme Brow in Light/Medium ($22) - You can find a shitload of reviews of this product out there, so I'm not going to go into too much detail. It's basically a moussey liquid/cream in a teeny tiny mascara tube. It's about the size of a mascara sample. It tints hairs and adds some texture, but it's not very precise and it's hard to use to fill in gaps. Because it's a mousse, it will groom the brows a little (i.e. hold the hairs in place). This is the lightest color of only two shades available, but it's still pretty dark. It's definitely cool toned, so it would be best for those with blonde or light brown hair, rather than red. The result is very natural, but I found that I can't really do much with it. Also, annoyingly, I sometimes end up with globs in my eyebrows that I have to clean out. For the price, the minuscule amount of product you get, and the mediocre performance, I really can't recommend this. If you really want to play with the Benefit vending machine, get High Beam or something instead.

Avon Ultra Luxury Eyebrow Pencil in Blonde

Avon Ultra Luxury Brow Liner in Blonde ($5): (Previous review.) This is your typical, but quality, eyebrow pencil. I won't say too much, because you can read about it in my previous review. I like because it's not sticky and doesn't drag. It's almost like a powder in a pencil form, but it also clings to the hairs a bit so that I don't have a sharp contrast between a colored-in background and whatever color yours hairs are naturally (see NYX photo above for what I mean). This is a good, fairly neutral tone. I've used it successfully with all my hair colors. It's a great product that would work for a lot of people.

CoverGirl Brow and Eye Makers in Soft Blonde

CoverGirl Brow and Eye Makers in Soft Blonde (<$4 for two pencils + sharpener = so, so cheap): (Previous review.) These super cheap pencils come in several shades that are suitable for blonde, light brown, and red hair. I decided to stick with just one here, because tl;dr already. All the details and swatches of the others are in my previous review. Right now, this pencil in Soft Blonde is what I use pretty much every day. Even if I'm a little sloppy with it, like in the photo above, the color is such a good match for my golden-dark/strawberry blonde hair, that it looks fine. It's very warm, though, so I suspect it would look weird with platinum or ash blonde hair - maybe even with more neutral hair colors.

Milani Brow Tint Pen in Natural Taupe

Milani Brow Tint Pen in Natural Taupe ($6): (Previous review.) This is a felt tip pen. It's best used if you want to tint the hairs in your brow but don't need to fill in any gaps. I think it looks quite unnatural if it's actually painted on the skin. Moreover, it can settle into pores after a while (at least on me) and creates a weird Roy Lichtenstein effect (if he drew dot matrix eyebrows . . . you get my point). The color is a very cool taupe, so not ideal for redheads but excellent for blondes. I strongly suggest storing this pen vertically, tip down, or the tip will dry out (temporarily). This pen is also pretty damned water resistant, if that's something you're looking for.

This is best combined with another product, such as a pencil or powder. Here it is used with the CoverGirl pencil. It tones down the warmth of that one slightly. This is one of my favorite effects, because it looks really realistic with the gaps filled in and the hair tinted. I do this when I am feeling fancy. TWO STEPS, OMG, SO MUCH WORK.

Milani Brow Tint Pen in Natural Taupe and CoverGirl Brow and Eye Makers in Soft Blonde

HERE'S THE BIG (NOT SO) SECRET: You don't need a dedicated eyebrow product, even if you want to fill in your brows. You don't have to have all the things, like I (apparently) do. Just use a matter brownish eyeshadow. There are lots of neutral eyeshadows out there! For example, I used the ULTA matte eyeshadow in Milk Chocolate (which is regularly $6, but wait 5 minutes and it will be on sale for half that) in the photo below, because I had it sitting right there. It's a little dark for me right now, but I'm sure I could easily find something else if I tried. Then you have a dual purpose eyebrow powder and eyeshadow. Groundbreaking, I know. If your eyebrows are "unruly," then you can use any old clear mascara (here's a cheap one from Maybelline) to keep them in place. Again, dual purpose.

ULTA Demi Eyeshadow in Milk Chocolate used on eyebrows

Personally, pencils are my favorite brow products. That seems to be an Unpopular Opinion these days, when most people are using things that are more exciting and innovative. I like the fact that pencils will do a little something for my transparent eyebrow hairs while also filling in blank spots. If you don't have transparent hairs, then I can see how you might prefer a powder or something. Also, I find it much quicker to fill in my brows with a pencil than with a brush. No dipping it in the powder and tapping it off, etc. It's all about laziness for me. I don't want to do two steps (e.g. powder + wax), when I can just do one. With a pencil, you just have to be sure to use short, light, quick strokes. Don't draw with the pencil; use it as if it were a brush.

One last note: I'm wearing L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly mascara in all of these photos, which were all taken on different days. I almost like this mascara a lot - I actually find its weird brush surprisingly effective for getting most of the little corner lashes - with one major caveat. It flakes all over the fucking place! You can actually see the chunks below my eye in several of these photos. That happened in the few minutes between putting on my makeup and getting my camera out to take the photo. After a few hours, its much messier. I've read reviews of this shit from reliable sources who love it and haven't had this problem, so I assume it's the result of some weird reaction to my personal body chemistry. The same thing tends to happen with other L'Oreal and Lancome mascaras when I wear them.

Well, okay, sick of seeing mega-closeups of my eye yet? I think it has lost all meaning, like when you say "semantic satiation" over and over and over and over . . .