Brow Products (Makeup)

Filling gaps and holding hair in place is the whole job. These products stand apart because a brow has to read as hair rather than as a block of color. Formulas run drier and ashier than eye makeup for exactly that reason, since real brow hair is cooler and less saturated than most people expect.

Pencils with a fine tip, roughly a millimeter and a half across, draw individual strokes that imitate hair, which suits sparse patches. Powder pressed on with an angled brush leaves a soft, diffuse fill that reads as density from a distance and is nearly impossible to overdo. Pomade in a pot is thick pigment plus film formers that set waterproof, giving the strongest definition and the least forgiveness. Tinted gel does no drawing at all, depositing a light wash of color on the hairs themselves and stiffening them into place. This is plenty on a brow that already has hair.

Eyeliner pencils look identical but are built softer, waxier and warmer. Using one on brows leaves a shiny orange-brown line that reads as makeup from across a room. Eyeshadow can stand in for brow powder when the shade is really ashy, though most palette neutrals lean too warm. Clear mascara and clear brow gel are the same formula in different packaging, which is the one overlap with lash products.

Full brows with a couple of gaps need tinted gel and nothing more, since pencil on top makes them heavy. Over-plucked brows need a pencil or pomade for individual strokes, because powder has no edges to imitate hair with. Coarse, straight hair that refuses to lie flat, common on men's brows and on many Asian and Middle Eastern hair types, gains most from a strong-hold clear gel. Pick a shade one step lighter and cooler than your hair, as brow color matched exactly to head hair always lands too dark on a face.

Hold the pencil at the angle the hair grows and work in short strokes, then brush through with a spoolie, the small clear mascara wand, to break up any solid line. The tail of the brow is where over-drawing shows first, so judge your work from there rather than from the front. Wash a spoolie weekly, and check a pomade at three months, since they set into a solid once air reaches the pot.