There’s a bit of something for everyone…
*This post features an advertorial from YSL Beauty
My eyebrows and I, we’ve been on quite the journey. From hacking them completely off in junior school and having to make the excuse that the ‘face glitter I was using made them dissolve‘ when I had in fact cut them off the night before with nail scissors, to the single-row tadpoles that I wore on my forehead for most of my teenage period – it’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve given them the TLC that they truly deserve and for once I don’t look permanently shocked. This is mainly due to finally letting the professionals tend to my brows, who know exactly how to shape them and tame them into a style that suits my face shape. Once every other month or so I traipse off to see Jamie who tints, threads and waxes them to transform them from their Wolverine appearance to something a little less beast-like.
However, with me being here, there and everywhere, I haven’t been as diligent on my visits and instead of leaning on my tweezers, over-plucking and ruining all of Jamie’s hard work, I’ve been experimenting with a wardrobe of products to define where needed and shape my brows into place – that’s where the eyebrow line-up from YSL comes in. They have four products to suit all needs; whether they’re out of control like mine, or if you need some serious beefing up. Let me introduce you…
If your eyebrows are on the sparser side of things, then you’ll want to equip yourself with the Dessin de Sourcils, which is a classic eyebrow pencil available in 4 shades. It’s waxy, but soft and so blends in beautifully without ever looking harsh. The Couture Brow Marker is almost like a watercolour-filled brush for your brows and let me tell you – this stuff doesn’t budge once it’s dried down. I find it best for adding shape to the top of the brows and use the paler colour of the two shades. For soft definition there’s the Couture Brow Palette which comes in two colours. I tend to the use the darker of the two, but also love it for eyeshadow and I’m wearing the lightest colour from the compact all over my lids in the photos above. The fact that it also comes with a mini brush and a set of tweezers and it can be used as eyeshadow makes it a great travel companion. If your brows just need a bit of stabilisation, then you can’t go wrong with the Couture Brow, which again comes in two shades (I use the lightest). It’s a tinted gel that’s delivered on the tiniest brush ever and really allows you get some texture into your brows whilst also pinning them down.
Out of the four, I find myself reaching for the Couture Brow and the Couture Brow Marker the most and by using these two I’ve devised myself a little weekday brow routine and then one I crack out at the weekends too when I just want to be in and out of my makeup chair. If I have a bit of time on the clock and my brows are feeling in real need of some definition then I’ll crack out the Couture Brow Marker to firstly fill in any areas that look a bit patchy and to add some darkness to the top line of my eyebrows and then I use some Touche Éclat in 1.5 above and below my brows to finish them off. After I’ll slick them into place and put right any stray hairs with the Couture Brow which basically works like hairspray for your brows, but without the crunch. If I’m feeling lazier, or if it’s the weekend and I want to channel some minimal makeup vibes, then I’ll skip the Couture Brow Marker and instead stick to just the Couture Brow as my one-and-done brow product.
Although these pictures make me laugh hysterically because I look like I’m posing for a school photo – ‘Anna Gardner, Class of ’17!’ – I was surprised by how different the before (on the left) and after (on the right) is. Look at those brows! Pow! It really does help to give my face structure and because I’m a naturally big browed bird anyway, it just suits me to have something more defined going on up there. I will mentally conjure up these two images whenever I think that I can’t be bothered to do my eyebrows, because as much as I might feel like it some days (PAH!), I ain’t no Cara Delevingne…
Photos by Lauren Shipley
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