In case you didn’t know, eyebrows are having “a moment.” Forget everything you heard in the early 2000s about tweezing, waxing, and threading your brows into wispy arched lines; today, those ocular accessories should be thick, dark, straight, even “boyish.”
My eyebrows actually happen to be naturally thick-ish, although I did deliberately narrow them somewhat back in the late 90s through repeated plucking. However, this spring, my seasonal pollen allergies gave me itchy eyes, and I ended up rubbing the affected area until I wore a small bald spot in one eyebrow. Now my brows were asymmetrical and potentially off-trend. What to do?
At least I had plenty of brow beautifiers to choose, from right? (I’d love to see some industry statistics on the increase in eyebrow products launched over the past several years.) But I didn’t want a five-step program of waxes, pencils, and powders—I wanted something simple.
TouchBack BrowMarker ($19.95) is a dual brow-filler and eyeliner with a fine, flexible brush tip. I apply it in short, careful strokes and then I blend it a tiny bit with a spoolie brush. The BrowMarker formula is like an ink that dries quickly and stays in place (yet is easily melted away with makeup remover).
TouchBack’s BrowMarker is available in five shades, and I’ve been using Medium Brown. Next time I might try Dark Brown, since Medium seems a touch too warm for me. Still, it has worked to fill and soften the thin patch in my eyebrow subtly and effectively, so it’s been a success for me.
More recently, a quick visit to The Face Shop in Manhattan’s “Koreatown” resulted in an impulse purchase of Color My Eyebrow in Natural Grey ($6). Color My Eyebrow is a tinted brow gel that looks and applies like a mascara, with a bristle-brush dispenser. (And no, I have no idea why a mustache is the logo for this brand’s collection of brow products!)
Natural Grey is actually a cool medium-to-dark brown, so it’s perfect for my regrown eyebrows. I apply one firm stroke along each brow and then brush the product through with short, light strokes. The color defines and slightly thickens all my little eyebrow hairs without looking messy or obvious, and it stays in place until I wash it away in the evening.
If (when) my allergies return, I’ll be more careful about forceful touching of my brows. In the meantime, I’ll continue to use these two products on days when I want my makeup to look a little more polished and, yes, “on fleek.”
Product source: TouchBack Duo BrowMarker was a press sample. I purchased Color My Eyebrow at The Face Shop.
Image: Frida Kahlo photographed by Guillermo Kahlo (1932), detail.
TINSEL CREATION 
Brow products are often so difficult to find a good match in! Glad you found a couple that suit you.
My best match at the moment is Blinc Eyebrow Mousse in Light Brunette, though I have to keep a clean, dry old mascara wand at the ready to brush out any excess.
I worry about looking like Joan Crawford when I pencil in my brows. I’ve never had much to begin with so a mascara bristle always seems too thick, though the Color my Eyebrow in Gray Brown looks like a good color match for me. My daughter suggested eye shadow but it doesn’t seem to stay. You’ll tell me if I start to look like a 1930s starlet, right?
Seriously, I think of Joan Crawford every time I apply anything to my brows. I really struggle with ordinary brow pencils, but that Face Shop thingy is really easy to use and does *not* look Crawfordy! I’m really starting to think that brow mascaras and brow mousses are the way to go, for me, at least. Eyeshadows are probably formulated differently than eyebrow powders — the ones for brow might have more “stick” to them, via waxes and so on.