Hello hello!
So a couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting a VIB (very influential brow!) , .. the lovely Jared Bailey, international spokesperson for Benefit Cosmetics services. He is the final say when it comes to perfectly groomed brows!
Jared is just so jovial and full of life, and made me feel completely at ease discussing you know, normal tea time conversation topics… like brows!
Now if you’ve been paying close attention to my Instagram, you’d know I am a complete brow freak!
And I was thrilled at the opportunity to pick up some great brow advice from him to share with you!
So here’s Jareds words of advice!
*Thou shall only pluck one hair at a time – no ‘speed plucking’! (Believe me, I wish I had listened; now I have a random bald spot at the beginning of my brow! which i’m soooo annoyed about it)
*Respect thy mirrors personal space – stand at a reasonable distance, as you need to view your brows as a pair… concentrating on just one, is a recipe for an over plucked disaster. Every so often step back and look at your progress and check symmetry.
*When in doubt, put your tweezers down and get thyself to a brow bar. There are professionals who can sort them out! Head to your nearest Benefit Boutique!
So that was the short version of the story… Let’s dive deeper into some brow shaping tips, also called brow mapping! This basically is a guide to shape your brows (by plucking them) into a perfect arch that suits your face. Following this simple guideline will give you fab brows without much effort! All thanks to Jared!
First things first. You need to find the ideal starting point for your brows.
If you take a quick glance at the pictorial guide below, I used a brow spooly brush to align the point. Just rest the spooly on the dimple of your nose running vertically till it reaches your brow line. Your brow should ideally start here. According to Jared, if you start your brows closer, you can slightly sharpen your look, and on the flipside, starting a bit further off the center would soften your appearance. It’s all an illusion ;-)
Next, we locate the highest point of the arch. This can easily be done by placing the spooly again from the dimple of your nose running straight past your iris to the point where it intersects your brow. Keep in mind that the higher you draw your arch, the sharper and more youthful it looks, of course overdoing it is not ideal… Just slight exaggeration is advised.
Now onto the most important part! The final point that brings your brows balance. The end of your brows.
Simply take that spooly, place it at the side of your nose, and align it to run past the corner of your eye to the point where is meets the end of your brow. If your brow falls short, just use a pencil to lightly extend it to that point when you do your makeup.
So there you go! A perfect arch to suit your face!
Next, I’ll show you how I take my freshly groomed brows and fill them out for a simple day look. It’s basically my favourite part of my makeup routine, and I am excited to share it with you.
*Normally I’d fill in my brows after I have done my eye makeup and foundation. But to make sure you see my brow routine clearly without getting distracted by heavily made up eyes, this is me filling them up after just applying my base.
Firstly, I draw a rather precise line to outline the edge of my brow. All filling has to be done above this margin. I used my trusty Kate brow pencil to do this.
Next, I fill in any bald spots and sparse areas, to make them look uniform.
Usually brow powders don’t stick to bare skin well, so this helps with the brow powder filling that usually follows. In this tutorial though, I skipped filling the entire brow with brow powder and only used my brow pencil to fill my brows and brushed it out with the spooly for a very natural but groomed brow look. See?
However I did go over it using my Benefit Gimme Brow that helped comb all my brow hairs into place and keep them neat, the gimme brow also thickens the lashes by coating the finer hair, giving a more plush look.
Lastly I used a tiny bit of brow powder just at the start of my brows for a softened look and I did this last after doing all my makeup. (Hence the strange little unfilled part at the beginning of my brow! haha) Just scroll down to the closeups to see the finished brow!
So groomed brows like these would be wasted without some pretty eye makeup right? so I used some Benefit products to create a soft eye makeup look to go with them!
As you can see, the start of my brows are now softly filled in and the Benefit Gimme brow has thickened my brow hairs and brushed them into place.
P.S- I kinda went for a tousled hair look to go with the flirty makeup and summery cotton halter top ;-)
Products used
Eyeshadow- Benefit World Famous Neutrals eye kit. Was pleasantly surprised how perfectly curated the eyeshadows were.. And the silver is great for glamourizing the neutrals for a night time look! I used the eyeshadows over the two cream bases that came with the kit.. it helps the eyeshadow stay put and gives depth to the makeup.
Mascara- They’re Real Mascara.
Brows- Benefit Gimme Brow, Guerlain universal eyebrow kit and Kate cosmetics eyebrow pencil
Cheeks- Benefit Lollitint
Lips- Benefit Kiss You lipgloss (a very pretty lilac shade which is going right into my makeup bag after this;-) Wish I’d used it more before!)
Complexion products- Chantecaille Future skin foundation, Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer, Cle de Peau concealer stick.
Eyeliner- Eyeko
False lashes- Star Lash
*from the above list of products, the Benefit Gimme brow, World Famous Neutrals eyeshadow kit and They’re Real mascara were sent to me by Benefit Cosmetics, everything else were purchased by me :-)
A Special thanks to Benefit Cosmetics Singapore for the opportunity to meet Jared and for the collaboration!
GIVEAWAY!!!
So for those who are residents of Singapore, Benefit SG has very generously put together a gift or gifts rather to three lucky readers! There’s a grand prize and two other consolation prizes up for grabs!
The winner of the grand prize receives a goodie bag over $300, which includes
A complimentary wax and brow tint, a complete set of They’re Real franchise which includes mascara, Push up liner and remover, Posie balm, High Brow, cream and powder eyeshadow and much more!
The consolation prizes include a wax and tint session to groom your brows, They’re Real franchise in deluxe size and a powder eyeshadow. All which totals up to $100 each
So leave a comment over here along with your e-mail address if you want to win!
P.S- To double your chances of winning, post a selfie of your daily eye makeup or a complete #fotd pic (your choice) on Instagram and tag #BMxBENEFIT and #reallinersg (Don’t forget to make your account public so I see your entries!)
I’ll pick a winner next Sunday (20th July) So you have plenty of time to practice your #fotd selfie looks ;-)
Thank you for reading and wishing you a fabulous week ahead!
BubblyMichelle.
xx
