BROWS have been very big in the past three or four years. “Kilay [eyebrow] is life” is what a lot of women live by. Hardly anyone I know goes out with eyebrows that are messy and ungroomed, myself included.
I am lucky to have my brows done monthly by Benefit Cosmetics Philippines’s National Brow
Artist Celina Fernandez. Otherwise, my brows would be a big mess. I am scared of anything semi-permanent so Benefit’s grooming technique works for me. Celina and I go on a “brow date” each month, meaning we meet up at a Benefit boutique where I get my brows done.
Without this, my brows would probably be a mess. It is so easy to make mistakes that could ruin your brows in the long term.
Here are the most common ones:
• Overplucking or too much shaving. Yes, it’s just hair and it will always grow back. It doesn’t do that all the time. I have younger friends whose brows have been overplucked and the hair never grew back, leaving them with a thin line that needs to be filled in every single day. Have your brows done by a professional, if you can afford it. It is not that expensive (around P700+ at Benefit) and what you are paying for is the training that these people have been through before they were allowed to do anyone’s brows.
• The wrong shade of brow products. To be honest, I only use brow products from brands that I use over and over (like Benefit, MAC Cosmetics and Anastasia) because of the colors. The thing with inexpensive brow products is that they are usually reddish or grayish. So I stick with products that already work for me like Benefit Ka-brow (a gel) and MAC Great Brows (a powder kit) in Lingering. My pet peeve is when the brows are too dark and don’t match the person’s hair color.
• Not removing brow makeup properly. I was guilty of this in the past until I started getting small pimples. Remove all your makeup and that includes your brows. Sometimes actually, brow products are more difficult to remove than other products.
• Having brows microbladed or tattooed without asking the right questions. Microblading and tattooing are semi-permanent procedures. In the case of microblading, the results last for about a year so you need to make the right decisions. Make sure the aesthetician doing your brows is properly trained for it. You would be surprised at how receptive they are to being asked about the procedures and even their qualifications. They much rather prefer that than leaving you unhappy about the results. Discuss the procedure thoroughly and do your own research.
• Doing Instagram brows all the time in real life. Instagram brows always look good on Instagram. For real life, however, it can be too harsh sometimes. Do your brows according to your look for the day. For example, if your look is casual, maybe you can just use a setting gel or mascara on your brows. This is assuming that they are shaped properly already.