Anastasia Beauty Express for Brows and Eyes

Eyebrows have always been a tricky thing for me. I'm not really a big "brow girl" and so I never do anything to my eyebrows besides pluck them and go for an occasional eyebrow threading. The brow products I have tried make me look strange and almost boyish, painting a momentarily intense look on my face. So, I have pretty much stayed clear of any brow products, which to me, just add another step in the routine. 

When I was contacted by the Confluence group to review an Anastasia of Beverly Hills product, I thought I would give brow products another go, especially because of all the hype around Anastasia products. So here is my opinion, as someone who is somewhat of a "newbie" with brows. 

This is the Anastasia Beauty Express for Brows and Eyes in brunette (it also comes in blonde). It comes with a wax, two shades of brow powder, two shades of highlight/lid eyeshadows, the signature brow stencils, an angled brush, and instructions on how to use everything. On first sight, the packaging is compact, but is not very exciting and even feels a little cheap. 

Moving past the packaging, the set comes with a detailed step-by-step outline of how to use the products, which is easy to follow and straightforward. For people who do their brows all the time, this is probably a no brainer for you, but for beginners, this is pretty helpful. 

The set of stencils that it comes with covers a whole range of brow shapes from which you are supposed to choose the one that fits your natural brow shape most closely. I was surprised to find that the petite arch fit my eyebrows almost perfectly and helped me pluck away stray hairs that didn't belong.

The brush also feels like nice quality brush - it has just the right amount of stiffness you would want when you are doing your brows. However, because it is a slightly large brush you don't get as much control as you would with a smaller brush. 

On to the product itself. Eyebrow wax is so good to have and I'm glad that it comes in this set. Not only can you use it underneath the brow powder to help it stick, but you can use it on its own just to smooth over your brows and keep them neat and in place. 

The shades of brow powder that come in this palette work really well for my almost black eyebrows, which is a hard thing to come by. Usually, shades for darker hair either come too dark, or too reddy brown. I use mostly the light taupe-y brown shade with a little bit of the dark brown to deepen it. This mixture blends in with my natural hairs and does the job of filling in the sparse parts in my brows without overpowering my face. 

Although I don't normally use eye shadows to highlight my brow bone, I tried it today with the highlight shade in this palette and really liked it. The shade looks kind of like MAC's all that glitters, but with a little more sheen. The other light brown matte shade is one of my favorite types of eye shadow colors - kind of like a lighter wedge by MAC or naked by Urban Decay - so I will most likely be using it a lot. 

To me, the whole idea of using stencils to fill in your brows seems a little complicated and not very practical if you're out and about. But in practice, it does give you an easy guideline to filling in your brows and is actually pretty quick. Also, the combination of the wax and powder stays on for the entire day so you don't have to worry about them after you've got it on. 

Having all these products in one convenient place will probably entice me to do my eyebrows more often, as it does really make a nice difference in your makeup =). 

Hope you enjoyed this and check out this video for more tips on how to use these products!

~Vida