I have ignored eyebrows for decades. “Face-framing,” I’d say, “What the heck, what do we need to frame, per se?” Made it through the 90s without plucking a thing. But here Flo suggested that we could use more brow gossip. So I’m taking one for the team.
Eyebrows-A-Go-Go.
I mean, it depends on your goal, and your eyebrows. My goal, as always, is to address general fading into the universe. That which used to be dark is light; those aspects of my physical presence which used to clearly differentiate itself from the others now blur, become one (waistline I’m talking to you too, yes you).
But never mind metaphysics. Flo, here you go.<3
Having never plucked, I have lots of brow, and they insist on their right to creative expression. As I age I get those long, what, tendrils? Eyebrow wires? Sproingers? Are they trying to reunite with my hair? Create a telecommunications network? I don’t know! And they’re graying. So, to convince my eyebrows to be satisfied with their fate as brows, I now have to pluck them, discerningly, and darken what remains.
Here are the best pair of tweezers I’ve ever found. (I’ve had them for 15 years. Made in Germany. The brand is here, I think the slanted tip is the closest to what I’ve got but they’re all metal now.) (Need I say that my High WASP inner voice of embarrassment has been hiding in my eyebrows? I can’t believe I’m writing this post? For you all, anything.)
Here are my native eyebrows. Also a close-up of my 67-year old skin. (My god I must love you.) Sorry this is blurry, but I hope you can make out the effect of the graying.
To prepare for this post, I tried out two products new to me. I struggle to use a pencil, because I am enthusiastic and erratic but can’t adjust any over-darkening because the pencil has colored my skin too. I need something that comes off without having to scrub at my face.
Powder is easier to move around than cream/gels. I’d been using, and cursing, this Givenchy pencil, which they say is powder but sure didn’t act like it. So, from Merle Norman. This odd old brand is the only place I could find another powder pencil. Better than Givenchy, good if you need the look of more brow than you’ve got, but did not fully solve the problem of coloring my skin. This is the Soft Brown. I’d get the Soft Blonde if I ordered again. Lesson #1: If your goal is simply not to fade away then use an eyebrow pencil in the color of your hair at 19. Lessons #2: Smile lines are good lines.
Second, the Glossier Boy Brow. Essentially mascara for the brow. Unclear what boys have to do with it. This worked! And was kind of fun to use! Sproingers you may lie down! If I am careful to apply without touching my skin, it goes on really easily and, when dried, can be edited with a damp Q-tip. Hooray!
Finally, you’ll see that even after the Boy Brow I’m left with a little empty spot. Were I to be scrupulous, dedicated, and didn’t already now own three eyebrow approaches, I might buy the Boy Brow Duo, which adds the Brow Flick to fill in those gaps. For now, I’ve got options.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, what whatever-A-G0-Go strikes your fancy.
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25 Responses
Better to have eyebrows than not. Yes, greying happens, but I’ve found Charlotte Tilbury’s Legendary Brows (they come in several different colors) to be very good. They’re half tint, half stay-put gel, so it always looks natural, and both your brows and stragglers stay in place. Teensy weensy wand for perfect, precise application. Never clogs up or flakes. Also liked Benefit’s Give Me Brow, but it has a larger wand. There are also some clear gels (no color at all) which I liked when I was younger and needed no color additives:) They made the brows look healthy and glossy (not wet). Revlon and Laura Geller had great clear gels.
I think it’s important to have good brow definition to avoid having the eyes fade into the background, so I wear this stuff every day.
Yes, smile lines rock, so do lines of experience (wisdom). Keep smiling and laughing, Lisa!
If nothing else, I’ll laugh at myself:). Thanks for the recommendation. The Glossier Boy Brow also has a little bitty wand, and also helps keep the brow sprouts in line. I’m clearly very late to the party…
Disappearing eyebrows are making me look like my mother when she got old and those stray pesky, wiry white hairs are especially annoying. They sneak up on me and seem to be mocking me. I haven’t figured out a way to fill in the brows so they look natural. I agree that the brows are essential to framing the eyes. Sigh…
Oh, Jane, when I was taking these photos I saw both my mother and my father in these closeups of my face, in ways I don’t when I see myself whole. Have you tried something like Glossier? With a tiny wand? It certainly works on the gray strands..
GLORY!
And I knew you’d hit my problem right on the nose [or nose-adjacent, for accuracy]: the patch closest to the nose which, with birthdays, has disappeared. Gone.
Prior to these solutions [thank you!], I’d been using an ancient Lancome Definicils mascara wand by exposing it to another tube of mascara, blotting most of it off, then running it lightly across the brow. But still, that empty patch. Like you, I don’t want color on my skin, so I won’t be penciling in color. I will try your solution!
Those misfits – the spears, the wires, the boomerangs, the defiant ones that grow opposite the established direction – “insisting on their right to creative expression” – did they originally cluster nose-adjacent? are they how I tweezed the patch to emptiness?
Thank you for indulging me, and for giving us so much to research, Lisa!
Thank you for the question, making me relinquish vanity in support of a friend. Good for the soul in so many ways.These new little wands, and the formula of the color to apply, so much better than reusing mascara!
Off topic. I’m hiding this little ThankYou present here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/18/opinion/radical-empathy-fiction.html
On your usual day I don’t do much about make-up except for my brows. I look a lot better with more brow definition. I think the mascara type brow stuff, like Boy Brow, is good for the hairs near your nose. I haven’t tweezed for 20 years, but sometimes I comb those hairs straight up and trim them with little scissors. The tail end of my brows has gotten sparce and I like to do what I can to improve the hairs that are there with a pencil. I have a gray one from Benefit that I like. The thing with color on the skin doesn’t concern me. I wear glasses so my brows aren’t out there naked to the world.
The thing about hair is that you don’t appreciate what you had when you were younger until you don’t have it anymore. I read that Kim Kardashian had her hairline lasered, she was too hairy. I’m busy treating my hairline at my temple with medicated shampoo to help it not thin out. I predict Kim will come to regret that lasering.
Let’s tell her right darn now. Kim! No more lasering! I sometimes just snip, but in truth the hairs that get long are often in the middle of the brow so nothing to do but tweeze:). So interesting that brows are the one thing you do focus on. I guess for me it would be evening out skin tone, for reasons evident in the photos.
Lovely and brave of you to offer closeups and products. Thank you. I had beautiful brows when I was young. In a manner unlike me, after a person close to me said something disparaging about my brows in the 1990s—too thick? unruly? I don’t remember, they were neither, this person was being unkind—I plucked them. Because my brows were dark, and because I never plucked them again, they were fine, but not as hearty as they would have remained in preparation for the loss of brow fullness that comes with age if I’d left them alone. Makeup, for me is usually clear lip balm. When I wear more, its blush, lipstick, and sometimes a neutral eye shadow. Despite it being impolite, I’m always messing about with my hair as well as rubbing my hands up my face to my hairline in a sort of a thought-reset motion. So, I’d smear anything on my eyes or brows. Presently, I allow my fringe to be enough to hide my graying brows. When I was in San Francisco, or the Bay Area, and could drop in and see my former colorist, also a close friend, she would tint my brows while we had a chat, which was a pleasure for us both. She chose a more ashy shade to go with my hair. Before you wrote this, I’d already decided that I’m going to talk to my Seattle stylist about getting my brows tinted. It’s easy, quick, and suddenly your brows are fuller because all the gray hairs show, and there’s no daily applying and removing of any powder or other substance. It’s an alternative. It just fades away, so you can redo or not at will. As to brows framing the face. I do agree, though when I first get my brows tinted, I think the contrast with my pale skin and now white/silver/platinum/black hair is strong, but I suspect only to me. Absolute agreement that smile lines are good lines. I don’t use Botox or anything for the lines I have, and I find that so far I like them, with the smile lines the sweetest of the bunch. (I’ve tried Botox, and it does smooth lines, but has to be redone and just seems too expensive and too much bother.) Happy Saturday. P.S. I have a friend who swears by the double-headed pencil and brush brow pencil by Plume. I haven’t used it, but the ingredients seem good. plumescience.com/products/nourish-define-refillable-brow-pencil
Happy Saturday! Don’t you love how many of us no longer do the parts of this whole “beauty” business if they’re a bother. Go us! And also how we have come to know what matters to us, and what our limits are. I am getting lowlights in my hair these days, at the crown, because I’ve gone so white that in photos I look like a cotton swab, maybe the next time I go I’ll see if she can do my eyebrows too. Not full-on, just lowlights. Eyebrow lowlights LOL. BTW, my father always had his hands in his hair, so, let’s say it’s wholly polite:)
Wonderful post, and you did a great job with your brows! I recommend splurging on having someone else do your brows (and lashes if you want). I have had my brows shaped and tinted for the last 10 years or so, and it makes such a difference. They are naturally blond, so they fade to nothing. I hate mascara, or rather it hates me, so I have been having my lashes tinted recently as well.. In addition to using Revitalash, these treatments have made me feel so much more confident going out without eye makeup.
Aw, thanks:). You are now the second person recommending tinting, and now that I’m doing my hair I just might try it!
I’ve never had very many eyebrows. We call ourselves the hairless family! I never plucked them and even now only pluck an occasional stray one. I prefer a set of tweezers that have scissor handles. These days I am using a Bobbie Brown eyebrow pencil in the color blond.
Hahahaha! A family pennant! I need the direct contact with the thing that’s tweezing, but scissor handles might work well for some people. From now on, blonde products only…
Here’s a third vote for tinting. My brows sound a lot like yours, but the outer half fades into nothingness, so I have them tinted every now and then to be more uniform. The Glossier product sounds good for those times when my brows are fading and I don’t have an upcoming hair appointment. Back when I used to wear mascara I liked the Glossier product, and I’m starting to try to spruce myself up once in a while.
On a related topic, I’ve been using the Jones Road (Bobbi Brown’s new brand) Miracle Balm occasionally; I’d be interested in your take on it.
Once upon a time, I had thick dark eyebrows and long dark lashes framing my light eyes. While both my lashes and brows remain reasonably thick, there has been enough color fade that my face seems to be disappearing. I now tint my brows about every 4-5 weeks, much less dark than when I was younger, but darker and more consistent than what I now have. It works well for me, because my best intentions to use makeup go the way of most resolutions. I do my own tinting, but lots of salons offer this and it is less pricey than many services and very quick.
I also get low lights for my hair and the stylist does my brows at the same time. The eyebrow pencil (and similar products), I found not to work as well as tinting. As eyebrows lighten, they disappear so adding color is a good solution. Your blog post brought forward lots humor, creativity and best of all solutions for fading brows which happens eventually to all of us.
Yet another vote for tinting ! I get my eyebrows and lashes done every 6-8 weeks and it helps considerably – particularly since I wear eyeglasses (since age 11) . I never found a mascara which didn’t end up dribbling down my face and I also swim regularly . Also with tinting I don’t have to do any plucking which I always found very painful . I don’t accept ” il faut souffrir pour être belle ” altho’ I have been scolded by opticians and beauticians for being a wimp !
I do get my eyebrows tinted because they are so pale a gray I can’t see them. Even then, they are sparse. They used to be thicker, but I never had thick eyebrows. Now the girls that tint my eyebrows assume they are so fine and narrow because I over plucked them, but I have never plucked them. I also don’t have hairs anywhere near the nose, so I don’t mind a pencil or crayon that colors my skin a bit as well. I do wear glasses and that helps. But if I don’t add anything I am always afraid it looks like my eyebrows are attempting to slide off the side of my face. Ha! Well, I am looking to try some new products; I now have new ideas. One. interesting thing, the little gap in the middle of my eyebrows that I had before I had cancer, grew back in after chemotherapy. Not that I would recommend that to anyone.
I haven’t read the othe comments so maybe this has been discussed.
I got tired of trying to get eyebrows with pencil, powder, tinting, etc and had micro blading done! I used an esthetician with 30 yrs experience and am well pleased with the results. It’s not cheap and lasts about 3-5 yrs. It doesn’t hurt ( a cream anesthetic is applied).
I also have derma blading done every 6 weeks and my face along with my brows are cleaned up especially those wild brow hairs that stick straight out.
I am very fair and still have eyebrows at 68 but they are invisible ! I dye them easily with Just for Men facial hair dye. It lasts 3 to 4 weeks. Lots of shades. I get about 6 months or more from a package. Cheap, quick, easy. Use a bit of Vaseline around to prevent dyeing adjacent skin.
Lol @ “odd” Merle Norman.
I saw a stand alone MN store in Maryland.
I was floored to see the name and then an entire store. Reminded me older sister going in eatky 80s.
Brows until recently were not appreciated for what they can do to a face. Permanent brows by a real artist can look amazing.
My eyebrows have stayed brown and full (for the most part) but the “tails” are gone. I’m lazy about it, but it does look better if I draw them in with tiny strokes in a very light color. That diagonal line from the outside corner of your eye to the end of your eyebrows is gone for most of us, but it’s a really important part of the frame I think.
You did a great job Lisa! Me, strong opinions with no follow through. Ordering a light pencil now……
you are very of the moment: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/03/style/eyebrow-tweezing-growth.html
btw, as someone who is also in search of fuller brows, i then searched sania on youtube + found a very helpful video. (it’s qvc but plenty of info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7wpQLqPSyA&t=1s )
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