Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade (Blonde)

 Me and my brows have been on a bit of a journey this year and I've really been on the hunt for that holy grail brow product. There have been many hits and misses, some of which have made their way on to the blog: I'll leave a link to all my other brow product reviews here incase you're interested. However I have finally found the perfect product for me and that is all thanks to the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade. I first saw this product mentioned by one of the Pixiwoo beauty gurus and since then it has popped up quite a bit on the beauty blogging scene. I was intriguied and definitely willing to try something a little different to the normal since all the other brow products I had tried had left me a little underwhelmed to say the least.

The Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade is somewhere in between a gel / mousse formula and as you can see comes in quite a generously sized glass container. Best applied with a fine angled brush like this one from Real Techniques, this unique mousse formula effortlessly fills in your brows in the most natural looking way. Although gel like the product is still workable meaning its creamy enough to set it in the right place without any fuss. With this its easy to achieve realistic hair-like strokes to make your brows look naturally full and beautiful. You can create really defined brows without looking like your eyebrows have been drawn straight onto your face. Waterproof and bugdgeproof this product is going to last you all day, although I do recommend setting with a clear brow gel over the top for that finished look.

The colour blonde is absolutely perfect for me and mimicks the colours of my actual brow hair. I don't think I've found a brow product that has matched me so well and what is great about the dipbrow pomades is that they come in so many different shades, its not just light, medium dark kinda jazz I think there are about 5 or 6 colour options so there will be something to suit everyone I imagine.

Overall I'm so, so impressed with the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade as its finally given me brows that I can be happy with. Plus I think its actually amazing value for money, this costs £15 (I got mine from Beauty Bay with free delivery) and the jar will last you ages as the amount of product you have to use for great results is minimal. I would 100% recommend this product for all the brow product lovers out there and especially those on the hunt for that holy grail product as this could very well make the mark.

QOTD: Have you tried Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade?

Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil (Blonde)

Today I'm finally doing a review on the Hourglass Arch Pencil which you may have seen that I picked up well over a month ago as I popped it in a haul. However there were a few reasons that I took my time writing this post as I wanted to make sure I gave it a completely fair and honest trial, and so just as a warning now you may want to grab a cup of tea and get comfortable as this is going to be a long one.

As I'm sure you already know The Hourglass Arch pencil is one of those brow products that always gets compared to as being one of the best on the market, alongside the Anastasia Brow Wiz pencil, but it comes at a price. I put off buying it in hope that I would find a cheaper alternative that I enjoyed and this quest was met with little luck, Mac and Sleek to name just a few that I've reviewed on the blog and I've tried plenty more that I haven't bothered talking about on here for similar reason. Last month an Hourglass counter opened at my local John Lewis department store and I finally gave in to temptation and picked up the arch brow sculpting pencil in blonde.

Spoken about by so many as 'the best' and a 'holy grail' product. I had high hopes to say the least. With its undeniably dreamy packaging that both looks and feels exquisite, at one end comes a lovely firm spoolie brush and a retractable pencil at the other, on the outside it certainly looks like it fits the bill. I couldn't wait to get home and use it, I was barely through the door before I had a bottle of makeup remover in hand ready to take off my existing eyebrow product so I could play with the Hourglass pencil. Yep - this is it, I thought, I've finally found an eyebrow product I'm going to love. It was like the first few days of a new relationship - exciting and full of hope that something special will become.

The colour choice was perfect for me. The texture of the pencil was a dream to work with. The packaging was totally luxurious. I was besotted.

However, on about the third or fourth day after buying this disaster struck. Half way through doing my eyebrows the retractable end completely stopped working. The entire pencil section plopped out of the packaging and thankfully I do my makeup standing over my worktop and so I managed to catch it in time. This was so completely unexpected, like what the heck!? I've never heard of anything like this happening even with a drugstore product let alone a high end brow product. I managed to carefully distribute the fragile looking pencil back in its casing but the retractable bit had completely given up the ghost and wasn't going up and down at all. I was not impressed to say the least and was straight back to my Hourglass counter within the week where they did let me change it for a new one.

This time when I arrived home with my 'new' (and by that I mean the second) Hourglass Arch Brow pencil I didn't get the same excitement that I felt as the first time. The whole experience of having the pencil section fall out the end really put a bit of a damper on the thrill of what is supposed to be such a high quality product. And every time I used the new replaced pencil for the first little while it felt like I was on tender hooks and I was going about it very carefully in case history repeated itself.

A few weeks passed and it seemed as though the disaster of the first pencil was all just a nasty dream. I took the Hourglass Arch Pencil away with me on my holiday without any problems, got home everything was fine then a few days later came September favourites time. I concluced that because generally speaking I really enjoy this as brow product as a whole despite the first little mishap that it would be a monthly favourite.

 On the morning I wrote my September favourites I gathered all my products together took the picutres, put the camera away to one side and went about my normal morning routine, jumped in the shower, dried my hair, went to put my makeup on - go to use the Hourglass pencil and I heard the retractable end make a bit of a funny clicky noise. And to my absolute horror I realised that the pencil part had become loose in the packaging again, and so if you were to tip the pencil all the way downwards it would completely fall out of the packaging again as it did before. Weridly the retractable part still goes up and down unlike the first time where it just seemed to stop working altogether. But it still leaves me with the problem that the pencil part of mine seems to be loose and could fling out at any minute if I'm not careful with it.

I'm completely at a loss with this product and don't really know what I should do about it. I don't think I even have the receipt to take it back for the second time plus I wouldn't even want a replacement now I think I'd rather just have my money back as in my opinion this is utterly unacceptable for a £25+ product to happen not once but twice! Plus I just feel a bit fed up keep having to faff about returning stuff that should have just worked properly in the first place for the price it is.

This has to be the most frustrating thing ever because in principal I love the product but at the same time I absolutely hate it because of what has happened with mine (twice I tell you people!) I don't know if there was a bad batch in production or if this has ever happened to anyone else's but it certainly won't be a product I can ever recommend to anyone unless they want to throw away money like I feel I have. Biggest, biggest regret ever buying this product. How did this happen and how have I had such terrible luck with such a loved beauty item? I'm bitterly disappointed.

 

QOTD: Have you tried the Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil? How did you find it?

MAC Fling Eyebrow Pencil Review

Swatch taken in natural day light

 After feeling quite let down by Sleek's eyebrow stylist last month (review here) I decided it was time to head back to the higher end brands for my brow product problems. That sentence was a bit of a tongue twister there, but basically I ended up in Mac a few weeks ago in the hunt for my holy grail eyebrow product. I had researched my options and had decide on Fling but just for a second opinion asked one of the MUA working that day what brow pencil what she recommend me and she pointed me in the direction of Fling too.

 

What I liked about Fling is that the colour is much, much more appropriate for me compared to the Sleek pencil. There is none of that funny coppery colour going on with Fling and it goes really well with the natural colours of my eyebrow hairs.  If the colour isn't right I find that I just can't bear to even use the product anymore as it makes me so self conscious. I also quite like that the nib is very fine so you can be really precise with this if you want to be. The price of this is not so shocking compared to some higher end products, currently retailing at £13.50 which I would say is right in between a drugstore price and a high end price.

 

What I don't like on the other hand is the way that this product is designed: you have to twist it up rather precariously and it feels really stiff and like its about to break at any second, and then you can't twist the product back down once you're finished. This really annoys me because this also means you have no way of telling when this is going to finish so you could be mid-brow and this could run out on you. Also after not even a week of using this I noticed that all the writing had begun to wear off the pencil which I think is a bit poor quality for something that is over £13 to be honest, it just looks a bit tacky and like it could be a year old not a month old. Plus there is no spooile brush which is again not really ideal considering the Sleek one has a spooile and a better design for half the price.

 

My overall conclusion? Not worth the money at all. I would rather spend out a bit more and invest in a better product because although the colour works for me, everything else about this I think is a bit disappointing to be perfectly honest. I've never been let down with a Mac product so far, but this wasn't really the standard I would have expected for the price you pay and for that reason I couldn't recommend this product.

 

QOTD: Have you tried any Mac Eyebrow pencils? What did you think?

 

Sleek Eyebrow Stylist Review (Light)

 

 

 

Swatch taken in natural day light

 

I deliberated when it came to writing this post on Sleek's eyebrow pencil as its been one of those products that when it comes down to it, I have mixed feelings about. I picked this up a few weeks ago and have been testing it out ever since in my search to find a holy grail eyebrow product. I've heard that this is a dupe for the Hourglass eyebrow pencil, however I havent tried that one so obviously I can't make any comments about that.

 

I thought I would start off with the things I do like and think are good about this product. Of course one of the biggest things in this product's favour is its price tag, sitting neatly under the £10 mark (I believe it currently retails for £6.99 in Boots) this is a hugely affordable high street brow pencil. A lot of high street or drugstore branded brow products are pretty bog standard but this does come with a spoolie at one end and at the other end you twist up the pencil. For a product that is under £10 I think that the packaging is pretty neat to be honest. Another thing that I like is that this doesn't feel at all waxy which can often be another tell-tale sign of a drugstore brow pencil, it has a firmness to it which enables for a precise application.

 

 

However, its downfall? For me? The colour looks awful. Now this is the shade light, and for someone with fair hair I find that this has quite a coppery/ginger undertone to it, I'm not sure if this comes across in the swatches but it definitely does in person on me and it looks too dark. I really don't like the colour when its applied to my brows and it sort of makes them stand out in an odd way as the colour just doesn't match my skin tone or hair at all! Its a shame because if the colour was a little bit better I think I could really like this product a lot as it does have some things going for it. I would like to see Sleek come out with a shade tailored more towards blonde haired girls as I just don't think this one cuts it. As with everything though, this could be ideal on someone else but personally for me it just doesn't work. And with that, I conclude that I am still on the hunt for that holy grail brow product.

 

 

QOTD - Have you tried Sleek's Eyebrow Stylist?

Brow Bravery: Baby Steps Towards Better Brows?

 

 

Hello, I'm here chatting brows today on the blog as everyone seems to love a good old brow discussion don't they? Last week I stepped outside my comfort zone and got something done about my eyebrows for the very first time. It wasn't until last autumn that I even begun paying them any attention at all... I know right, but don't panic as luckily for me my natural brows aren't too bad - I got away for 22 years without receiving any funny looks lets put it that way. My eyebrows are not exactly sparse but certainly not thick enough to be deemed bushy, although all those years of neglect had begun to make them a little unruly. Sure I would pick up the tweezers every now and then for the odd stray hair but I honestly had no idea how to make them look better or dare I say it good.

 

So as you can expect it got to a point very recently and I decided that I wanted to invest in a decent brow product to end my brows unruly ways once and for all. Cue Vivianna Does Makeup's Brow 101 video and I finally decided that yes, eyebrow threading is the way for me to go first of all - her brows look incredible and plus I'd heard lots of other people talk positively about their experience of threading. I definitely recommend giving the video a watch, if purely to see such an amazing brow journey. Now I wouldn't go as far as to call my experience with eyebrows a journey ... more like baby steps perhaps?

 

Anyway obviously I was too much of a baby to get it done alone so dragged persuaded my friend along with me so we could lose our eyebrow threading virginity together. Thank goodness we left the brows until the end of our shop around Bluewater on Friday - shout out to the lovely red strips along our foreheads! We went to a place called Malika which is like a mini beauty salon type thing - I did not fancy going to one of those open brow bars and being a source of entertainment to all the shoppers passing by! Right before the lady begun I had a mini panic to myself, I was wondering what I'd let myself in for or that I wouldn't like what she was about to do all the while trying to tell myself to be brave.

 

The treatment itself was pretty quick and harmless in my opinion, my friend said her eyes watered the entire time she had hers done but I thought that the feeling was more one of discomfort as apposed to feeling painful. It felt abit like taking a bit of string across your arm and tugging it against the direction of the hairs. Even through the initial redness of the skin around my eyebrows I could appreciate how effective the threading had been. For the first time I had defined eyebrows with a clear shape to them without all the untidy unruly hairs getting in the way of things.

 

I was so happy with the result and it honestly feels like I have a brand new set of brows on my face (once the redness disappeared after a few hours that is!) I will definitely be getting this done again! As for now in my baby steps towards better brows I am on the lookout for that holy grail brow product. Do I stay high street or dive straight in to high end beauty brands?

 

QOTD: Have you ever had your eyebrows threaded?