Espresso eyebrows

(sorry for the awful shot, it's sooo hard to take a photo of your eyebrows. How do other bloggers do this?! Oh, and sorry for the badly groomed brows, I'm working on these!)

The name of this eyeshadow seems to be completely fitting, seeing as I am a total coffee addict.

Last week I decided that I have an intense hatred for my eyebrows. I hate the shape of them, and I just thought the pencil I was using was far too harsh and they look way too drawn on. So I decided to switch over to powder. Cue MAC Espresso eyeshadow and the MAC 263 small angle brush.

You'll have to excuse the shape of my brow still, but I wanted you to see the colour. I think it's a great match for my hair. Espresso has brilliant pigmentation, you literally need the tiniest bit on the end of your brush, and it's so easy to build up the colour if you do want a more dramatic brow. I've just been filling in the sparse areas, I'm no expert yet, but it seems pretty easy to do and I'll keep practising. I think I'll probably watch a couple of youtube tutorials on this too. Maybe I'll even do my own when I've perfected it. I'm really enjoying the brush so far too, and the great thing is you can also use it for eyeliner and eye make-up. Total investment in my eyes. Have you used Espresso before? How do you groom your eyebrows?

Hope you're all having a great Tuesday? As soon as a parked my bottom down at my desk today, I had a nail painting sesh. Yup, I'm such a good employee. Currently munching on Oreos, drinking tea and reading some lovely blogs.

By the way, if you follow me, don't forget to enter my Topshop giveaway!!

The 411: My Eyebrows

Even though I knew that eyebrows are something that shape your face they were never something I ever really considered 'doing' as mine are naturally quite thick. It was only recently getting ready with some friends when I didn't have my makeup to hand I decided to fill in my brows. After looking through pictures the next morning that I realised how different, in a good way, my face looked. Much more put together and my eyes looked much more defined!

Since then I've really gotten into my brows! I've experimented with liquid pens, powders and pencils, the latter being my favourite purely thanks to this Anastasia Brow Wiz in the shade Brunette (post here) which has such a fine nib it's easy to create fake little hairs. Here's how I go about doing my brows...

Nyx Eyebrow Shaper, Anastasia Brow Duality in Lace, HD Brow Beater, Anastasia Brow Gel in Clear, Anastasia Brow Wiz in Brunette, Suquu Liquid Pen in 01 Green, Spoolie Eyebrow Brush

The main saviour is something that's so cheap and simple, a plain good old spoolie brush, which I use before and after doing my brows. Before to comb everything through as they have the tendency to be quite unruly and following applying the colour to even the it out and blend any harsh lines.

Anastasia Brow Wiz (left) Suquu Liquid Pen (right)

My brows filled in with Anastasia Brow Wiz (left) Suquu Liquid Pen (right)

My two favourite brow items are Anastasia Brow Wiz and Suquu Liquid Pen. Brow Wiz is what I use on a daily basis as the nib is really fine and it's a perfect shade for my brows. Suquu Liquid Pen gets picked up if I'm looking for a slightly more natural effect. I have the shade 01 Green but when applied blends beautifully with my brows and doesn't make them appear filled in at all.

Above - Anastasia Brow Gel
Below - Anastasia Brow Duality

I'll then apply some Brow Gel to keep all the hairs in place. If my eyebrows are growing out a little and need to be threaded then I'll use Anastasia Brow Gel (post here) as it's a little thicker or if I need a lighter layer of gel I'll use the HD Brow Beater. There's always that one pesky hair that won't stay in place and for that I'll reach for NYX Eyebrow Shaper which is what I like to name a Brow Fix - a wax pencil that helps the most unruly hairs behave! 

I love a good eyebrow arch, for some highlighting I'll use Anastasia Brow Duality in Lace which is a double ended pencil - golden shimmer on one side and matt on the other. It looks beautiful when used as a natural highlighter - very similar to Benefit High Brow Glow (post here) 

It's very clear I'm a massive Anastasia convert which is why I let off a little childish squeal when Cult Beauty started stocking them as they were previously unavailable in the UK.

What do you do with your brows? Anything you recommend to a newbie?

Liana Beauty Award: Anastasia Brow Wiz

Brows are something that I have not yet addressed here so it's about time! I'm not really someone that sees brows as a big deal, mainly because mine are pretty full naturally (sometimes I even forget about filling them in!) even though I do notice the difference. There's definitely a brow trend going on at the moment and I do find myself crushing on celebrities brows like Camilla Belle and Lily Collins for their perfect full brows. 

There are 3 different ways I've tried to fill in my brows, with powder and an angled brush, with a felt tip brow pen and with an old school pencil. The latter being my preferred method. Especially since I discovered these Anastasia Brow Wiz!

You've probably heard me rave about Anastasia products before, them being the queen of brow products and all. Their Brow Gel is amazing for those with thick unruly brows (link to post here) as well as Lash Genius which is an amazing product for those unable to find a waterproof mascara they like (link to post here). Onto the Brow Wiz - a really soft creamy pencil that has the finest nib so it really helps create little fake hairs. As well as having a spoolie on the other end to blend the lines.

I use the shade Medium Ash which is great for lightly filling in gaps or totally building up the colour for a major scouse brow! It's not waterproof but does last a whole day in the heat despite it being more on the creamy side of the formulations as opposed to waxy. Being a wind up pencil, the only problem is there isn't actually that much product compared to a typical pencil and there aren't refills so once finished you have to buy the entire pencil again as opposed to another nib. 

What do you use to do your brows?

Anastasia Brow Wiz £15.50 is available from Cult Beauty here