Benefit Wow Brows

Good day, kittens. Today I’ve got a pretty exciting blog post for y’all – well, I find it exciting anyway. In fact, it is the beauty topic that gets me more excited than any other type of make-up, skincare of haircare… Yep, you guessed it! Eyebrows!

Now kitty cats, if you remember from my latest Harvey Nichols event post (if you need a quick memory jog, you can find it here) I was asked by the lovely babes at Benefit whether I would let them tame my eyebrows for me. Well, it was a big ask – I might be in the minority, but I’ve never, ever had my brows touched by another human being. I’ve plucked them, prodded them and preened them all on my own for my full 21 years of life and I’ve gotta admit, I was a little scared to let that go.

Eyebrows have always been a big thing for me. As a gal with super pale skin and super dark hair, my eyebrows have always been a strong feature on my face and when big brows started to come back into fashion a couple of years ago, I was almost jumping for joy! Hooray, my time had come! For about four years now I’ve tried out every eyebrow shape, tool and product under the sun, all precisely executed on my own terms and crucially, only having myself to blame if they went wrong.

So, when I was invited to the Benefit bar at Debenhams, Market Street (the largest Benefit concession in the UK) to have my “brows wow’d” by the Benebabes, I was pretty nervous. However, after being greeted by the five or so girls on duty, I was instantly reassured. Not only did I feel comforted by their friendly nature, but by their big brows. Each one had amazingly thick, dark and perfectly arched brows. Phew! I could relax!

After having a complimentary makeover, where I was shown the looks used on the Matthew Williamson catwalk at London Fashion Week 2013, I was ready for business. I had been madeover to look a glowy goddess, with Benefit’s Watts Up being used all over my face before foundation (unusual, I know), then a thin base of the new Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow foundation and a neutral eye look using the brand new Core Colour collection, which only launched this month. A mixture of matte eyeshadows and cream base colours were used – I would have never thought to mix two types of shadows together but I actually loved the look!

It was time for the brows… Having never had my eyebrows waxed before, I was expecting pain, so whilst I sat down at the Benefit Brow Bar I was bracing myself! Cassie (who I was reassured was the best brow babe in the North West) talked me through the eyebrow mapping process to find the perfect shape for my face. I was super smug to realise that I had very nearly the perfect shape brows, but they needed two or three hairs out of the arch to make the ideal Benefit Brow. I agreed and Cassie whipped them off – the pain was over so quickly I couldn’t believe what I’d been worried about!

After I had my brows waxed, not so much to change their shape dramatically but to tidy them all around, Cassie gave me a patch test for the tinting dye. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get them tinted as I thought it best to wait out the patch test (maybe next time!) but the girls used Brow Zings (in shade Medium) to define my brows a little more.

And? Did I like them? Spoiler alert – I love them! It’s now been two weeks and my brows are still super tidy and sit much better in place. I can’t wait to go back and have them tinted next time, too. I would thoroughly recommend the service and I can understand why the brow bar was fully booked the whole day of my visit. I truly had my “brows wow’d”! Thank you again, Benefit.

Now, as much as my brows can be plucked, waxed and tinted, I have the curse of pale skin and dark hair and any unruly stray whisps of hair are instantly noticeable. In the past, I’ve experimented with numerous brow gels, clear mascaras and waxes to try and set my (sometimes unruly) eyebrows yet I find that no matter how much money I spend, it can be hard to find a product that keeps them in place…

However, after recently stumbling across the Shavata Brow Tamer, all of that has changed! I thought this product was worth a mention as I had never heard of it before finding it in Harvey Nics (for more articles on Harvey Nichols, check out my blog posts here, here and here) to my knowledge it has not really been review on beauty blogs before, yet is really does seem to do the trick for me.

I find the little prongs on the wand’s head the perfect shape for running over my eyebrows without smudging my eyebrow pencil or wax I’ve already used on them. It also keeps the product suprising clean, as unlike a mascara type wand (which the countless products I’ve used before have all been), you don’t have to dip the brush back into the product every day. Instead, you just twist out a little into the tip and you don’t have to contaminate the clear gel with your dark eyebrow pencil. It also seems to keep my brows in tact all day without every looking chalky or waxy – if I wanted to, I could reshape and reset throughout the day.

So kittens, do you love my new brows? Do you wax, pluck or thread your own? Leave me a comment below and let me know! And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, like my Facebook page and subscribe to my Youtube channel to keep up to date with all things fashion!