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

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
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.

"DEVIL'S POISON!" (Or: Glad I Looked For Reviews First)

I got a sample of John Frieda Go Blonder Lightening Spray with a recent ULTA order, and thought I'd give it a quick google before trying it. Check out these scary ass reviews on Makeup Alley. Holy shit! I think I'll put this one directly in the garbage.

(On other sites there are some good reviews alongside the terrible ones, but that's enough to warn me off. Even a small chance that my hair will shrivel up and fall out is enough.)

CoverGirl Brow and Eye Makers Brow Shaper and Eyeliner Swatches and Review (for blondes and redheads)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
First things first: These are not fucking eyeliners. Ignore the name. If you try to use these pencils as eyeliners, you will be sorely disappointed (literally, ouch). The blonde one was the first eyebrow pencil I ever owned, back when I was 15, but I bought it to use as eyeliner. It was so hard that I would hold the tip a millimeter away from the lightbulb of my desk lamp in order to soften it up. These pencils are still exactly the same as they were then, approximately 1 million years ago. So I repeat: DO NOT TRY TO USE THESE AS EYELINERS. There are so many much better, affordable eyeliners out there, that there is no reason you should be reduced to scratching your eyelid off with these things.

That said, they are pretty decent eyebrow pencils, and they are fucking cheap. For $3 (or less), you get two pencils and a sharpener. And they come in 5 color options. I recently picked up three different shades, because I couldn't find any good swatches online to help me decide which one would work best. So I also decided I should post some swatches for that reason.