Eyebrows – Focus on Tom Ford, Suqqu, Shu Uemura

Although I am not doing much on my eyebrows on a daily basis, it does make a difference when I do and with a smokey eye look it’s just simply mandatory. I really truly deeply prefer not to overdo my eyebrows, I always try to keep it to a minimum and as natural as possible, I find that the more I do on them the older it makes me look and we don’t need that 🙂

If you were thinking of enhancing the shape of your eyebrows, you may want to watch a few tutorials or videos first if you are not sure what to do, there are hundreds of them out there ! Have a look at this one by Wayne on eyebrow shapes,  it’s funny and interesting and he made another even funnier here. Jen is also absolutely amazing, I love how clear her tutorials are and how helpful, she summarizes every single step here. Pixiwoo also share their experience in a video and if you watch all these videos you will know everything you need to know about eyebrows.  For those who lost their eyebrows or have over-plucked them, I love this video, I think Carly has simply great ideas and I could listen to her for hours. I did over-plucked them two years ago, not much but I did and I have been told off by my an esthetician, she told me they would not grow back again, but luckily they did. Actually, I prefer to wax around the eyebrows, top, underneath the arch and in the middle of both, I love how soft it feels afterwards and to tell you the truth, I hate plucking them, every hair out equals a sneeze and apart from my boyfriend who laughs like a drain, I don’t really find it very enjoyable so I only pluck them when necessary in between each wax appointment.

Once you have the shape that matches the best your eyes and your face, the product you’ll use to fill them in depends on what you need to add to the shape and the density. Mine don’t really behave but at least they are not high maintenance, I don’t even fill them in on a daily basis and if I do,  just roughly. If I do a stronger look then I’ll need to balance and frame my eyes a bit better and therefore I will pay a bit more attention to them.

Since I have a few high-end and rare products, I will share my thoughts on them with you. If you have tried them already or have favorites, please also share for whoever is interested in perfecting their eyebrows 🙂
These are the products I most enjoy using :

• Mac powder eyeshadows (or any other eyeshadow). It can be cheap, fast, nice and easy when you don’t need much precision.
• The Tom Ford Brow Sculptor, expensive like no other, fast, great when you want a bit more precision and with a great long-lasting result.
• The Suqqu eyebrow liquid pen, not cheap, not easy to find either, when you want precision and long-lasting results.
• The Shu Uemura Hard Formula eyebrow pencil, not cheap, not easy to find, when you don’t need much precision and when you have some brows !
• A long-lasting matte pencil liner (like Mac Duck or any other waterproof pencil) and an eyebrow brush, not that cheap but reasonable, when you want long-lasting results with adjustable precision since it will depend on the brush.
• A special palette for eyebrows containing powder, wax and tools. Easy but maybe a bit too bulky if you don’t need to use everything.

Powder eyeshadows

There are so many options. I use the Hakuhodo eyebrow palette just because I have it but any other eyeshadow does the job.

My eyebrows are quite full therefore using just some eyeshadow is enough, I prefer to use a light shade otherwise  my eyes look threatening and scary and I prefer a much softer look. Once I have applied the powder, if my eyebrows are having a bad day I apply some wax onto a brush and comb.

What I like about this option is that it’s fast and easy but unfortunately it doesn’t really last.

Swatches are at the bottom of the post.

The Tom Ford Brow Sculptor

I have the Tom Ford brow sculptor in Chestnut. It’s quite a hard texture, can draw thin-ish lines since it’s flat, it feels like a waxy texture, that’s a pro for me. It doesn’t hurt but you have to put quite a lot of pressure to fill or draw hairs but the result is natural and precise enough for me. It lasts all day long.

Here is a short tutorial and if you want to see swatches of all the shades available, there are some nice ones by Karlasugar. Unfortunately when I bought mine my hair was much darker so it was a better match. Today I would need taupe instead.

This is how it looks when you remove the caps and you twist it ALL out = there is not a lot of product inside ! You will get at most 2.5cm of product…  for 42$ it’s completely crazy ! It’s actually 10x more expensive than the Shu Uemura (and I didn’t even count all the length of the Shu since you need somewhere to grab it, I just counted the length you can actually use).

I have tried to take pictures wearing it but that did not work very well I am afraid. You may still be able to see that between the left picture were I am not wearing any brow product and the right picture were I am wearing the Tom Ford there is a little difference and that the pencil works but other than that, since I have quite full brows, you don’t see much difference.

The Suqqu eyebrow liquid pen

The precision you get with this is absolutely amazing, you can draw little hair, thin or slightly wider if you put more pressure (swatches at the bottom of the post), if you want more control you can hold it slightly sideways and instead of applying it with strokes, just briefly press it sideways and you get linear dots. It’s just a matter of preference and dexterity, think of it like a liquid eyeliner with a thin and soft point.

The tip is 8mm long and has some flexibility, it doesn’t hurt at all and you don’t need to put a lot of pressure to get the ink out. I have had it for maybe two years now and it hasn’t dried out.

The application will last a very long time, I can even go to the gym and sweat and it will not budge.

It costs 20£ on the Selfridges UK website and I could only see one color available : brown.

The Shu Uemura Hard Formula 9 pencil

This pencil will only work if you have some eyebrows because it will only interact with the oil on your own eyebrows, if you swatch it on the back of your hand, unless you have hairs there 😛 it won’t swatch. There is a nice review here if you want to know a little bit more about it, it has to be sharpened like a sword and Shu counters will do that for you for free.  The result is not very precise, not easy to draw hair by hair but it will look very natural and it’s the one I reach for the most, it lasts all day and doesn’t budge.  I don’t know why I bought it in Stone Grey 05 but it looks allright for me.

It costs 23$ and you will get 17,5cm of product, which is not bad at all.

I have tried to wear it here to show you that it works on the eyebrows but I will definitely need to find a way to take clear pictures in the future !

And by the way, excuse my foundation (or lack of it), I am trying new products since I am at home and apparently the foundation I am wearing really doesn’t do anything for me at all.

An eyebrow palette

I have the Hakuhodo Christmas one but it’s Limited Edition, I even prefer the Benefit because it has a wax pan in it, this one is the Brows a-go-go but there are so many other great palettes out there. Using a palette is quick and handy but it can be a bit bulky for travelling. As you see in mine, I have depoted the wax pan and sometimes I take it with me on my trips but then I put it back when I return. When I am travelling I use any powder shadow in combination with this wax or an eyebrow pencil. The wax pan in this palette delivers also some color but then I set it with whatever brown shadow I have, since I always have a neutral crease eyeshadow with me I’ll use that same one.

A waterproof pencil or any other long-lasting liner pencil

If you don’t have an eyebrow product but you have an eyebrow brush or an angled eyeliner brush, there is another option that I actually like a lot. You take any waterproof or long lasting eye pencil (even if it’s creamy or thick) and instead of applying it straight from the pencil (that would be too thick and fake), you can rub it on the top of the eyebrow brush and then you use the brush to apply it, as long as the pencil is the right color for you and matte the brush application will apply it more precisely and the result is very natural.

I also use some lipliners on my eyebrows if they are too brown for my lips and long-lasting, maybe I shouldn’t but I don’t see why, I don’t like to waste so as long as they are matte and the right brown color they will do the trick.

Additional tips and tricks

Always have cotton buds near you, it’s extremely helpful to remove excess powder if you made a mistake, I couldn’t do without them, also excellent to soften the edges. If you are using a more long-lasting product, damp the cotton bud very very lightly with makeup remover, since I have the Paula Dorf sweep away I rub the cotton bud with it, it just helps erasing bigger mistakes although it still requires some work !

If you have oily eyebrows or a heavy moisturizer that hasn’t absorved well, set your eyebrows with powder before you start applying any brow product.

Swatches

Here are some swatches of the products I have mentioned.

The first swatch is for the RMK Ingenious waterproof pencil, a bit too dark for me though. When you apply a pencil with a brush, it will sheer it out a lot and make it more wearable.

Bottom line : The best option for me is the Shu Uemura pencil, it’s an interesting formula, great lasting power and it’s not that expensive for the amount you get !