REVIEW: Hard Candy BROWS NOW!
For about the last year or so, I've been pretty eyebrow obsessed, I have to admit. Oddly enough, this has been probably the first time in my life that I've actually really liked my natural eyebrows. Even back in the 90s when tiny thin eyebrows were very much the trend, I never really overplucked my brows, which I'm very happy for now that a thicker, more natural brow is the look that most people are going for. I never had to try to grow my brows back and I don't have to fill them in a ton. For me, I just like to add a little bit of volume to the outer ends of my brows and give a slightly more defined look to the rest while keeping it looking fairly natural.
The one product that I've been using fairly religiously over the past year is the Anastasia Brow Wiz in Medium Ash. I find that this pencil gives a really natural look to my brows and the spooly on the end does a really good job of brushing everything out at the end to make it look really natural, but I've been looking for a good brow gel to use along with it. That, my friends, has been quite a struggle. When I saw this is previews a couple of months ago, I absolutely knew that I had to try it. As you'll see when you look closer, this does seem to be a bit of a dupe for the Benefit Gimme Brow, which has been highly sought after since it launched.
Keep reading for a closer look and for my thoughts.
Instantly shape brows into thick arches like a pro! Apply the volumizing fiber gel with ease using the precision tip brush. The never-budging long wear formula allows buildable coverage for natural looking brows.
Sounds pretty perfect, right? Well, we've heard that all before, so I definitely had to try it for myself before making any judgements or getting too excited. This product comes in two shades, Light Medium and Medium Dark. I picked up the light medium shade, because I find that even though I have fairly dark hair darker eyebrow products tend to look really start and fake on me. The shade is actually pretty perfect for me and feels like it could be quite universal, although I would say that very light blondes and redheads are kind of out of luck with these particular products. It has a very nice, neutral taupe shade to it so you don't have to worry about it running too warm, which has always been a concern with brow products for a lot of people.
Before I opened this, I didn't realize that it was going to be a fiber product. (Yes, I know, it says it right there on the package... but I didn't really look that closely.) It makes perfect sense, though, since the fibres can easily add a little bit of fullness to the brows while still looking fairly natural. And it does. The brush is quite small, similar to the Benefit Gimme Brow, though it is a fair bit thicker. I find that the size of the brush is really nice for a quick, easy, almost fool proof application of the product. However, I do find that I still need to use a pencil on the outer ends of my brows if I want to have a really precise, defined look that that part. It does pair quite seamlessly with the Brow Wiz in Medium Ash though. This brow gel sets to a matte finish as well, so that it doesn't draw any undue attention to the brows like some gels can.
Though the focus has been almost entirely focused on the brow gel, this is a dual ended product with a shimmery highlight stick on the other end. Honestly, this is kind of a throwaway for me. I don't personally like a shimmer highlight on my brow bone and would have much preferred a creamy matte highlight with a finer tip to really define the lashes.. but you can't always get what you want. This does make a nice inner corner highlight and I suspect it would work well on the lid as a base for other shadows, though I can't speak to whether or not it would crease or get greasy since I haven't personally tried that. It's a bit of a throwaway for me, but I'm not mad at it because I was here for the brow gel all along.
Overall, I really like this brow gel and how it performs. The shade is pretty much bang on perfect for what I'm looking for and I think it would be fairly universal for anyone with dark blonde or brown hair, and like I said there is a darker option for those with darker toned brows. I would say, though, that if you have lighter brows I would use a light hand with this or it could run too dark for you. For me, this is definitely the best brow gel that I've found in the drugstore, though I would probably still say that it doesn't quite hit all the high notes of the Benefit Gimme Brow, which is a little more precise and a little more universal in shade.
The Hard Candy Brows Now! Brow Fiber Gel & Highlighter is available at Walmart and retail for $5.98.
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