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Arch Those Brows

I’ve made no secret of the battle I’ve had with my brows. Naturally I look like a descendant of Wolverine with a mono-brow and a bushier than most lady-stache to show for it (but let’s save the latter for another time). In my early years I chopped them off. Yep, nail scissors in one hand, my brow hairs being grasped by the other, off they came. My poor Mum had to pencil my brows in for school, only for them to be washed away during swimming class for my peers to see my bald as a coot forehead. It’s fair to say brows are my bugbear. Despite my teenage self pruning them into a thin and spindly existence, slowly but surely they’ve sprouted back and now I’m a firm believer in the ‘bigger the brow the better’ camp. And I think I’ve found just the product to shape and shade where needed, welcome Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil.

First I’ll get you up to speed. Here’s how my brow beater CV reads so far: Rimmel Professional Brow Pencil in Dark Brown – too hard, Laura Mercier Eyebrow Pencil in Warm Brunette – too soft, MAC Espresso Eyeshadow – too warm, Anastasia Brow Powder Duo in Medium Brown – actually the best of the bunch but still required the whole faff of needing a brush to apply the product (read: I’m lazy). The Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil is formulated to be the best of all the above textures: powder, wax and pencil all stacked up  into one the hard little nib.

The pigment of a powder with the hold of a wax and the handiness of a pencil. I use it vertically to sketch in a few extra hairs at the tail of my brow and then turn it horizontally to do some shading at the arch. Simples. The waxy texture makes it difficult to go too overboard and negates the need to throw on a brow gel post-application. The colour as well, Soft Brunette – one of a range of three – is a good match, neither warm nor cool just an undetectable brow-like shade. It’s supposed to be waterproof; I have yet to test that theory but it’s bloomin’ long lasting stuff and even after a day of me wiping my forehead in a damsel in distress fashion and leaning with my head in my hands (my incognito sleeping position on the tube), my brows are still perfectly positioned. Could I be anymore in love?

The stickler? At £26 a pop from Space NK these are definitely a brow tamer treat – a bit of a last resort purchase for those with a similar brow bugbear if you’d like. The product to price ratio is measly, but it’s a pencil you really don’t have to use heavily-handledly so I’ve got a feeling in my belly this will last a while. I’ll have to keep you hanging on that one. But for now I’ll suck it up as I’m brow content, and that hasn’t happened in a long while…

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