High brow? More wild brow...

Aren't eyebrows fascinating? They frame your face and depending on the shape and color, your whole appearance changes. As a blonde, I am cursed with VERY blonde eyebrows all year around, but in the spring and summer they turn virtually invisible from the sun and all you see are golden shimmers - might sound cute, but really it's not a good look. To avoid looking like Mona Lisa I desperately need some color added to my brows and my preferred way of doing this is using a brow pencil - it's a method I've used for years, that I'm very familiar with and I get exactly the right amount of color and shape. But this year I have made a promise to myself that I'm going to try other types of products to emphasize my brows and my first exploration of this unknown brow territory has been to try the Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Mascara (£4.99).  

One of my biggest brow challenges is to find a color that works well with my natural colouring and there are usually only three or four color options for brow products, and it's the same with this one; Dark Blond (taupe), Medium Brown (chestnut) and Dark Brown (ebony). I've been trying Dark Blonde, and although it is a bit darker than what I am most comfortable with wearing, the shade works well and it looks natural. The brow mascara is a very straight forward product that does what it says on the packaging - well almost...

It's a mascara format, i.e. you apply it using a wand which has a brush with a slightly strange looking ball shape, that has quite long combs to separate the hairs and it's stiff enough to shape the brows as you want them. I have virgin brows - they have never been plucked or shaped or threaded or anything like that and they naturally have a pretty decent shape, but I still find it quite difficult to get the shape that I want using the mascara, and I definitely need the help of a separate thicker brush to get a decent arch. The formula is quite dry, which is good in a way since you won't have to worry that you'll drown your brows in liquid, but the downside of that is that I often have to dig around a bit to get enough product on the brush to get an even coverage of the brow and this is by far the trickiest part for me. More often than not, I end up with an uneven amount of color that clumps ever so slightly in places (which you can also see in the photo below) and which I then have to try and spread out across the brow and also adjust using q-tips. On the plus side, the formula is completely smudge proof which is great once you have the brow shape that you want in place, and it's long lasting so you can be 100% confident that what you applied in the morning will still there when you take your makeup off in the evening.

 Dark Blonde

For me it takes much longer to use this brow mascara to define my eyebrows than when I use a pencil, and the result isn't always what I'm looking for. I usually have a fairly groomed and slightly arched brow, and the brush is more of a blunt instrument than a precision tool so it's best used for a more bushy, full brow look. I'm so used to working with an eyebrow pencil and it's surprisingly difficult to get used to another format and another technique. I'm not sure that brow mascaras are the way to go for me since it's difficult to get the arched look that I enjoy but it's been an interesting experience and I'm already looking forward to next adventure in the eyebrow world, trying out a powder and wax kit. But since it's Valentine's I'm not taking any chances today - out with the brow pencil and let's put those eyebrows on! How do you define your eyebrows and are there any products that you would recommend me to try?