Nearly every time I send a friend a link to something I've recently purchased or am thinking of pulling the trigger on, I get the same reply: Don't you already have that? The answer, of course, is no — though when you own as many black sack-like garments as I do, it's fair to say that they may appear indiscernible from one another to the untrained eye. New additions to the brow category seem to me the same way my latest gingham sundress likely seems to my friends. Don't I already have this?
And yet, the way I keep buying low-heeled black Chelsea boots every fall, I keep trying new brow products, hoping I'll one day find the elusive formula that shapes, fills in sparse areas, and adds volume to my dark, skinny little hairs. Through this, I have come to the conclusion that there is no one perfect brow product. Rather, there are two: Kosas Air Brow and Brow Pop, a tinted gel and pencil duo that makes my brows look, well, the way I want them to but have never quite been able to achieve.
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Each priced at $28, Air Brow and Brow Pop are sold separately, so you don't have to use them together; I just like to. Brow Pop, described as a "dual-action defining pencil," has a spoolie on one end and a pencil with a fine triangular tip on the other. I use the spoolie to brush my brows up and out then switch to the pigmented side to fill in, using light strokes starting with the middle to tail end and working toward the part of my brow closest to my nose, which happens to be the sparsest. Once I'm happy with that, I comb through once more to blend any harsh lines, then whip out Air Brow, a "volumizing treatment gel."
I love a really nice, dark, fluffy brow, which is why I use them in tandem, but if I just needed some sculpting and thickening action, Air Brow would be my one and done. Where other gels I've tried have left my brows stiff, strangely wet, and overloaded with pigment, Air Brow has a unique whipped texture that uses plant-based microfibres to beef up the hairs for all-day hold without making them look or feel unnatural. I start at the inner corners and work my way outward, brushing up here and there for a fuller effect.
I can't say the difference before and after is dramatique, but the two-step routine adds much-needed definition to my face considering I just use concealer and a little bit of blush most days. Air Brow also promises stronger, healthier brows over time courtesy of ingredients like castor oil, panthenol, and biotinoyl tripeptide-1, but I haven't been using it long enough to attest to that. The shade selection is a selling point for me, too: My skin tone is both very fair and very neutral, and many brow products made for brunettes skew warm, which looks orangey and unnatural on me. Brown Black is the perfect cool, soft shade that actually looks like the colour of my hair. (There's a clear one, too, if that's what you're into.)
With summer on the way, my season-long shopping spree of floaty white dresses that look almost exactly alike is only getting started — but on the brow product front, I think I'm set.
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