Benefit Gimme Brow
I'm lucky enough that I have fairly thick eyebrows. Over the years they've been waxed and plucked into a much less caterpillar-y design, but they're still prominent and don't need much filling in to look presentable. I like to wear a bold eyebrow look, like the one Lily Collins rocks. PS: Lily Collins is my eyebrow idol. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was a garbage book-to-movie adaptation, but when it got particularly bad I just focused on Lily's brows and was immediately soothed.
So my brows are well shaped and relatively full, but I want what I like to call Kapow Brows. I want to take my brow game to the next level. I used to use a pencil to fill them in, even though I knew that wasn't proper brow etiquette. You're supposed to use a pencil to shape your brows, and powder to fill them in, you see. But I like a super streamlined routine - I don't want to take the time to deal with brow powder each and every day, hence, the non-Kosher pencil method. But then. BUT THEN! Benefit came up with Gimme Brow, a fantastic brow mascara of sorts that beefs up my brows with a flick of the wrist. Fast, easy, AND a product I could use correctly? HALLELUJAH.
Gimme Brow is a tiny little tube that comes in two shades, light/medium and medium/deep. I opt for light/medium to match my dark ashy blonde hair (and eyebrow) color. The product is a "fiber-gel" that you apply with a teensy spoolie brush. The gel attaches to your brows and thickens them, adding a natural looking tint. The formula is very buildable, so you can add a little or a lot, depending on your brow style.
Overall, this is a great product, but I have one tiny, but easily remedied, complaint: The brush can get a little goopy. See how the base of the brush has a thick layer of brow gel on it? Try and comb that through your brows and you'll end up with a big glob of product on your eyebrow, which is overkill, and a waste of perfectly good brow-in-a-tube. I like to take the brush and lay it on its side with just the base of the brush renting on the open tube of gel. Then I twist the brush so that the excess is wiped off the brush and into the tube. The excess gel will kind of sit on the top of the tube, like so:
Now the brush is all clean and ready to use without any gloppiness. Plus, when you put the spoolie back into the tube, that excess product will be pushed back from whence it came, so you won't waste any product.
I love to use Gimme Brow on days when I'm just wearing concealer and mascara and I want the polish that comes from groomed eyebrows. I've noticed that I now feel undone without at least a little brow grooming, even on minimal makeup days. On days when I'm doing a full face of makeup, I like to first use my favorite Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil in Hazel, then use Gimme Brow afterward to groom my brows and set the pencil.
Just to show you what a difference a little brow grooming can make, even on someone like me with reasonably hefty brows to begin with, here's me before any eyebrow products (pencil or gel):
And here's me after doing some light penciling in and adding Gimme Brow:
