Brows: Pencils, Pomades and Powders.

Remember the days when brows weren't that much of a 'big thing'? Looking back on pictures of my high school days, it looked like I just had a massive forehead and no brows. You gals with light blonde eyebrows will know exactly what I mean. LOL. When I left high school, I discovered eyebrow pencils. I was using my Rimmel brow pencil for about a year, it weren't that great and I didn't really know how to use it. I just made light strokes over my brows to give them a colour. I may as well have just tinted them, why didn't I do that anyway?

I then moved onto using an eyebrow powder alongside the pencil. I used the pencil to outline my eyebrows and fill in any patchy areas and then filled them in with the powder. This routine seemed to work quite well but when I started getting more into makeup, I wanted them darker. Using powder is such a long winded process as it's so light, you have to keep building the colour up. Plus, it also fades throughout the day if you don't use an eyebrow gel after to seal them in place. I soon realised powder weren't for me and that's when I turned to pomades.

Eyebrow pomades have always worked wonders for me. They're pigmented, you can create precise hair strokes, you can fade with it or build the product up. I've found that they're the best to use for my light eyebrows. Sometimes when I have freshly tinted brows, I stick to the pencil for a few days until the tint fades so the colour isn't too harsh.

What products do you use for your eyebrows?

Collection vs Freedom Brow Pomades

Freedom Brow Pomade

I have been using this since the start of the year and I've loved it ever since, I'll never go back to using powders or pencils. It's a very creamy product and a little goes a long way - you don't need a lot of product on your brush to fill in your brows. It's soft and easy to blend and work with (easy to fade too). I bought this in the colour 'soft brown' which is the perfect colour for me - it's the perfect shade for light blonde hair. Alongside this shade, it also comes in plenty more shades so you're guaranteed to get the perfect colour. 

It lasts all day without transferring or smudging.

This could definitely be a dupe of the famous ABH brow pomade and I'm sure that everyone else that has tried this would say the same. I can definitely say that I won't run out of this anytime soon. For just £5, I think it should be worth more.

Collection Brow Pomade

As I had been getting on so well with Freedoms brow pomade, I wanted to try out more drugstore pomades. So, I found this cheapy Collection one for just £3.99. Although it's in a much smaller pot than Freedoms, again, a little goes a long way with this product. The texture is a lot softer than Freedoms, which I prefer. But, it's harder to build up the colour as it applies softly too. I bought this in the shade 'brunette' and it's pretty much exactly the same colour as the Freedom product - only a little bit lighter as the product was too soft for me to build up. Unlike Freedom, this product doesn't have many shades to choose from, but as it's soft, you could easily get away with your preferred colour.

Again, this is also creamy and lasts all day too. I've never had any problems with it transferring but it can smudge. I use a clear brow gel on top anyway just to be safe and it doesn't seem to smudge through that. However, this brow pomade is a little harder to work with compared to Freedom. But, they're both amazing quality for their price. I'd probably pay the extra pound and a bit to buy the Freedom pomade again instead.

Have you tried either of these brow products?

NYX Sculpt & Highlight vs New Cid I-Groom Pencil

The I-groom pencil has been my go-to eyebrow product for well over a year. After running out, I realised that paying the price of £19.50, paying for delivery and then waiting for it to arrive, I might as well try a new product. I used to be able to buy it from my local trade store but they stopped selling them and I had to make orders online. So, for just £8 I bought the NYX Sculpt & Highlight Brow Contour and it was worth every penny!

I bought the NYX Sculpt & Highlight in the colour 'Vanilla/Taupe' which comes out the exact same colour as my New Cid pencil which I'm super happy about. Both of the products are highly pigmented which I would expect anyway as they're both professional products. I love the consistency of the NYX pencil. It's creamy and I find that it's easy to apply, whereas New Cid is like a hard pencil which I find hard to apply and it takes time to blend out if I make areas a little dark.

With brow contour, you get a highlighter on the other end which I was excited to try out. To be honest, it's not the best brow highlight I've used in my life but it's still pretty darn great! It's not too white or too shimmery like you can get with other brow highlighters. On the other end of the I-groom pencil, you get a spooley which I think is fantastic. It's so much easier than having a separate one.

Overall, my preferred brow product is *drum roll* NYX Brow Contour. It's just so much more affordable and does the exact same job as my previous fave brow product. Have you tried either of these?

Hi Brow or New Cid Cosmetics?

Hello lovelies!

It's a new year and a new start! I am very excited for what 2015 is going to bring. Even though 2014 was a really good year for me, I hope 2015 is going to be even better!

Today's post is going to be some sort of 'comparing' post on two different eyebrow make-up. 

I used to use a cheap eyebrow colour compact kit from Collection. It wasn't very good quality and it took me 20-30 minutes to apply in the morning. It was a complete nightmare!

My nightmare didn't last long though, because lucky me...

 I got a Hi Brow kit and a New Cid Cosmetics brow pencil from my parents for Christmas!

Which one is the best though?

Grab yourself a hot chocolate and get comfy as this is going to be a very long post! - I've warned you.

Firstly, I'm going to start with Hi Brow!

It's a compact with a mirror (always handy). I have the colour in light brown. As my hair colour is quite light, I only need to put the powder on very lightly. 

There is also a highlighter inside too! I find that the highlighter is quite shimmery. But it can't be too bad as I use it!  

It also comes with a small dual ended brush. It's a bit small, but it's usable. I use this brush for the eyebrow colour and the highlighter. The angled brush part is quite thick so if I need to fill in a smaller part of my brow, I have to use my own eyebrow brush from MAC. 

There is also 3 different eyebrow stencils tucked inside! The stencils are angled, curved and straight.

I have only used the angled stencil. Being honest, the stencil is quite long for my brows! Also, the 'high point' part on the stencil is very high up from my actual brow. 

As it's quite high up from my brow, I have to adjust the stencil. Then I've caused a problem, as the start of the brow on the stencil is quite low down. I normally do the start of the brow myself. 

The stencils are very easy to clean afterwards! Bonus!

Sometimes the colour looks too full after applying the powder. But I just use a brush to get most of the harsh parts out. It looks much better after. You can make them much darker using the light brown compact but darker brows wouldn't suit me. 

Other colour compacts:

• Hi Brow Dark Brown
• Hi Brow Dark Charcoal
• Hi Brow Soft Dove (light grey)

They all come with the same highlighter inside.

Hi Brow Compact Kit is £29.95 on their website. Or you can get them from a professional beauty trade store. 

https://www.lashperfect.co.uk/Search-Results/Hi+Brow+Retail+Products/Retail-Products

Next up is New Cid Cosmetics!

This is an eyebrow grooming pencil & brush! It only comes in 1 shade which is called 'Neutral'.

When I first looked at this, the pencil looked black! I honestly thought it would be too dark for me. 

If you're a blonde or have light hair (like me!) Go over your brows very lightly. Maybe once or twice. Whereas, if you've got quite dark hair, you can go over your brows more than twice! 

You twist the black part to put the pencil in and out. It comes out quite far, so it's long lasting! 

You won't need much of the pencil to come out while doing your brows as it goes down quite slowly. (Like I said, long lasting!) 

The brush is really good too! It brushes your brows into the right place and I also use this brush when I use my Hi Brow colour.

 

My brow looks more natural than the Hi Brow colour. 

I really recommend this product! Its £17.00 on their website or you can get it from a professional beauty trade store.

http://www.newcidcosmetics.com/i-groom-eyes-p-20.html

I honestly prefer using the New Cid Cosmetics pencil rather than the Hi Brow powder. 

If you've used both of these, which one do you prefer? Or if you've only used one of these, do you like it?

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