Having had my fair share of good and bad brow days, I know full well the importance of a good brow, whether your face is natural or done up. In an effort to save money for travel, I haven’t gotten my naturally thick eyebrows threaded (my personal preference for facial hair removal) in months, so I’ve forced myself to learn how to trim, shape, and pencil them in on my own in an eyebrow routine that fits my grad student lifestyle. Brow products can be tricky for those of us with thick brows, because we can easily end up looking painted on like a male character from CLUE.
My Thoughts on Anastasia Brow Wiz
I know every Jane, Jennifer, and Janiqua who has ever blogged about eyebrows or beauty has worshipped Anastasia Brow Wiz because of it’s magical powers. Honestly, it might be a good product but I can’t tell because I always give up after 5 minutes of trying to fill in my brows. The pencil is so thin and light that it is difficult to draw sharp outlines that I need to frame my face. it would literally take at minimum 50 strokes to get some semblance of definition on my brows, and my friends, I simply don’t have the time.
On the other hand, the NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil is golden – 1/4 of the price of Brow Wiz and twice as thick so you can actually fill your brows in time to get to school/work/wherever you gots ta go! This is definitely my go-to product for my brows. My only complaint is the brush on the end is completely worthless, and I wish they would replace it with a spoolie.
My Everyday Routine for Thick Eyebrows
Most eyebrow tutorials on YouTube advise you to do the following: draw a line outlining the bottom, draw a line outlining the top, fill in lightly, and brush product through to fill in gaps. If you’ve never watched an eyebrow tutorial, you should thank me because I just saved you 60 minutes of your life because they’re addictive despite all saying the same thing. Now this method is great for people who are about to contour their whole face, or people with skimpy brows (people really need to stop shaving off all their brows just to draw them in again!), but if you already have thick brows, this only results in poorly overdramatic and unnatural brows.
After months of trying to get it together, I’ve settled into this daily routine that is the secret to my excellent thick brows that don’t look clownish!
- Outline the lower outline of your eyebrows.
- Start your upper outline in the middle of your brow.
- Fill in the tail end of your brow, moving in toward the nose with light strokes.
- Brush brows up with sweeping motion, and then across to lay flat.
Now I’m no makeup artist, or even a makeup junkie, but since I keep my everyday routine as simple as tinted moisturizer/light foundation, powder, bronzer, and brows, it’s especially important that I get the brow part right. I’m now addicted to clean brows and won’t go somewhere where someone might recognize me without getting them together – If I can do it, so can you!
How about I died when you said that male character from clue! lol! Great review. I love anything NYX. Haven’t tried the brow pencil so I will give it a try. Thanks #blmgirls
Ahhhh! This, you say, after I went and got the ABW pomade…I just tell myself I’m painter for the next 10-25m, depending on how my eyebrows decide to act. LOL Nice routine, though.
Now the pomade is alright! It’s the pencil that I hate. I can’t use pomades for everyday because it takes too much time. Good luck!
It’s nice to read an honest review! Thanks for the fair critique and pics – the NYX side really does look best. #blmgirl
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for this post!! I always hear about Anastasia brow products, but never wanted to fork over that kind of $$. I will try your method. Your brows are always on fleek!! 🙂
Thanks hon!
I’ll def have to check this out! As I get older my brows get thinner on the ends #SoulCry And I LOVE me some NYX so this will be the first thing I hit up when I go to Ulta.
It’s also at Target!
Thanks you for posting this, you are so right mostly a lot of youtubers swear by this product. It doesn’t have to take a lots of money to achieve a good brow look. Like they say the cheaper products can yields high results as high end product. I thought about purchasing this product and I’m glad I didn’t. I bought the NYX a couple of weeks ago buy 1 get half off another product.