I see bad eyebrows everywhere; they're on the street as well as on YouTube tutorials. I don't mean the overplucked razor thin brows. There's something just as bad: people walk around with rust colored eyebrows that do nothing for them (unless they really are redheads). It's the result of very warm toned brown pencils or powders and/or color oxidization.
The answer is taupe and gray-based browns, even straight up gray is usually better (I have an $8 brow powder by Natural Born Cosmetics in Smoke that looks better than most brown colors I ever tried). Fabulous Japanese brand Suqqu took this even further with their liquid eyebrow pen in Moss Green (01). Sounds scary. A liquid pen makes one think about eyebrows that look like they were drawn with a sharpie. And green?
Yes, green. Sort of. What Suqqu calls green is a brown/khaki color with absolutely no red undertones. It doesn't register as a definite color, and thanks to the super thin tip of the pen it allows you to create the illusion of very fine hairs to fill in the brows. Against all odds, Suqqu Eyebrow Liquid Pen is the most natural looking brow product I know. The caveat is that the pen is not meant to fill in large gaps. That's better done with a powder and a good brow brush (Suqqu has a powder version of Moss Green). This pen is best for quick fixes and minor tweaks, and to intensify the existing eyebrow without making it look obvious.
Bottom Line: Genius.
Suqqu Eyebrow Liquid Pen- Moss Green 01 is not readily available in the US. You can get it for ¥4000 JPY on Ichibankao.com, or £20.00 at Selfridges (they take phone orders and charge an arm and a leg for international shipping).
Photo of Lady Gaga via instyle.com.
I have the Moss Green powder and literally create my eyebrows with that! My HG is still the Shu Uemura retractable brow pencil though. Quick and easy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for highlighting that brow pencils shouldn't be brown. That idea is comparable to why Chanel Notorious is actually a perfect contour color vs bronzers/aggresively brown blushes.
Gaia, this is truly an incomparable eyebrow product for those with dark cool hair. I used to wonder why my brows always looked off, but once I understood the need to go cooler, I looked much better. Moss Green brow pen draws on a spectularly natural brow.
ReplyDeleteIt always annoys me when people with dark black, cool hair go with brown brow pencils. Whilst the advice to go a couple of shades lighter seems to be true in many cases, brown is not a couple of shades lighter than a cool black, it's dark grey.
ReplyDeleteI actually had the best success using an eyeliner pencil (one of those blacks that are more grey than black, suited to blondes, but that's another discussion) to fill my brows. Just a couple of strokes and it actually worked in a pinch, used with a very light hand. I was travelling which is why I used it, hence no regular product with me.
Like xiao said above me, I think this is why Chanel Notorious is successful as a contour product. Some very cool toned people just can't carry off browns, no matter how light. I hope it starts a small trend for variety in contour shades although the potential to go wrong is a little scary. (Well, can it get any worse than the current orange look?)
Leila
Moss is natural and is good for people with any color hair. Our skin tones are not brown or black, so moss is the one that fools people into thinking they are your own brows. I am a painter so when I mix colors for skin tones, it containts GREEN.
ReplyDeleteWas in the U.K. last week and bought this at Selfridges. Best brow pen ever. The color is awesome but the brush is the genius thing. Makes for perfect application tiny little strokes at a time. But how long will this last? Will it dry out? Will the color run dry in three weeks? Hmmmm ... not sure I'd pay $40 for shipping, which is what Selfridges charges. We shall see... In the meantime, any other comparable you'd recommend?
ReplyDelete