Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics- Brow Artiste (Dark)

I've been doing some extensive testing of products by Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics and so far I'm very impressed, including with items I never thought I would like (mineral makeup has never been my friend). But today I'm reviewing their Brow Artiste set, which I bought several months ago, when the line first arrived at Henri Bendel.

Like any beauty-obsessed worth her powder, I own the necessary eyebrow tools, brushes and filling colors. Still, an edited pro-looking kit that is slim enough for travel and holds all the items one needs for a polished look is a very appealing concept. Brow Artiste includes a tweezer, a double ended brush (spoolie on one side and an angled brush on the other), setting wax and two powder colors. The kits come in four shades: Auburn, Blonde, Brunette, and Dark. Normally I would choose Brunette, but Youngblood's makeup artist used Dark when he gave me a makeover, so I decided to go with it.

The big advantage of having two powder colors in the palette is that you can mix and customize your filler to the exact shade you need and make adjustments as needed. The colors are excellent and very soft, so they melt and meld into the eyebrow's shape. The darkest of the two is a very dark taupe, which looks much more natural than any black, brown or gray. When I don't have the time to play and mix I can use it with a light hand and it still looks good.

Applying the wax requires a little practice. The first time I used the kit I overdid it with both wax and color, resulting in some mess and stains that require cleaning the whole thing and starting anew. But it's actually quite simple and once you comb the color evenly into the eyebrows with the spoolie and use just tiny dab of wax to set it in place you get the desired look.

The only issue with Brow Artiste kit is the tools. The tweezer feels flimsy in my hand. The metal bends too easily and the pinching head isn't as efficient as I'd like. It's painfully (pun intended) clear that this is not a Tweezerman. The angled brush head came off before I even took the pictures and required a drop of superglue to be put together again. Once I got it fixed everything was fine. I'm not too fond of teeny tiny brushes (I have relatively large hands), but the spoolie is great- thick yet soft.

Bottom Line: It would be a great set if Youngblood Cosmetics would upgrade the tools. In the meantime, I'm still packing a mini Tweezerman in my bag.

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics Brow Artiste ($36.50) is available from Henri Bendel (in store only) and the company's website, ybskin.com.

All photos by me.

The Model Brow Tools

One of the important lessons I've learned in nearly 25 years of using makeup is the importance of using the right tools and brushes. It's true for cream products, powders and everything in between. It's especially important when messing things up can make the entire face look off. Shaping and defining eyebrows is one such task (if you've seen the First Lady in the the Haiti PSA you know what I mean).

I'll skip the tweezers talk (You can't go wrong with Tweezerman. I own a few, one in a zebra print because everything looks better in zebra), because this is about eyebrow brushes. We all know these little two-sided combs, one half for lashes, the other side grooms eyebrows. For years I thought that was the only necessary tool, until I've learned the importance of using an eye shadow and an angled brush to fill and/or darken the brows, and how to work whatever product I'm using into the hair so it looks natural using a spoolie brush- the one that looks like a standard mascara wand.

You can find similar tools at Sephora and from several eyebrow specialists. I bought these three brushes from The Model Brow, a line created by makeup artist and brow expert Elke von Freudenberg.  The spoolie brush is currently out of stock, but it's really a great tool- it blends the color evenly and softens the look to the point the brows look natural instead of drawn. I like this specific brush because the bristles are soft enough and not abrasive. The head is also flexible and can be bended into a more comfortable angle.

The slant brush is one of several I use. It's the most essential eyebrow tool as far as I'm concerned. A good brush for filling, shaping and adding color/length/volume should be thin enough to do a very precise work but not too stiff or narrow that the result looks painted and weird. This Model Brow brush is one I use very often.

The 3" dual-ended brush fits nicely in the smallest makeup bag and is a decent travel tool. I find it too small to use comfortably most of the time, but I guess it's good to have something like that in one's purse for brow emergencies. The more useful side is a slanted brush to fill the eyebrows. The other side is a fluffy eye shadow brush, meant to apply a highlighter under the brow bone. I prefer much (much!) wider and thicker brushes for this purpose.

The Model Brow tools by Elke von Freudenberg ($16-$6) are available online at themodelbrow.com, which is where I bought mine.

Brush photos by me.
Vintage photo by Yale Joel for Life magazine, 1953.

Diorshow Brow Styler Ultra-Fine Precision Brow Pencil

I'm a firm believer that when it comes to filling and shaping eyebrows, pencils are not the best option. I use a short bristled angled brush with matte eye shadows in muted browns, taupe (Bobbi Brown has never failed me), or for evening drama- espresso. I highly recommend using a sealing liquid (like Paula Dorf Transformer) to avoid transferring the color to your hand or the shirt of your significant other (speaking from experience) and avoid black unless your hair is really that color and your skin is very very dark.

The only problem with the above is doing it on the go, in a hurry and sometimes the amount of extra space required  in your makeup bag. I don't even want to think about juggling my eyebrow products in the car. Which brings us to the next best thing, a really good eyebrow pencil with a built-in brush.

I was pretty skeptical when I received the Diorshow Brow Styler, because the retractable pencil is really ultra fine and I was worried it would draw a very visible line. Also, a one color fits all policy rarely works. But the Universal Brown is actually a dusty taupish brown that blends well with my coloring and filling the brows in quick short strokes and then using the brush for blending is quite effective without looking very obvious.

So the Diorshow Brow Styler worked quite nicely for me.

But.

This is touted as a universal product which I had a hunch was not the case. I needed someone with fair hair, skin and very light eyebrows to test this. Enter the long suffering husband. He has dishwater blond hair, pale skin with pink undertones and his eyebrows are very light and quite sparse. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect candidate. Now, the color of the Diorshow Brow Styler wasn't terrible on him, but it's definitely darker than his natural color and made him look frowny. My guess is that for people with this coloring, a slightly lighter shade of brown would be better.

The bigger issue, though, is the pencil itself. If you need to fill large gaps, a pencil is not the right tool. No matter how carefully you used it, it still looks drawn, and unless you're a drag queen it's never a good look. I did my best on the husband's brows, but I would not recommend it for anyone who require serious brow work. I didn't dare use the built-in brush on him, which brings us to the other problem with the Brow Styler. The brush is quite good, really, but it's a little too stiff, and with the husband's sensitive skin I thought it would be best to avoid raking his brows with it. I compared the Dior brush to an eyebrow tool from Elke von Freudenberg's line (review coming later this week), which is just a bit softer and feels better on my skin. I don't really have much of a problem using the Dior as long as I'm careful with the amount of pressure, but if you're prone to skin irritation, it might not be the best tool for you.

Bottom line 1: Works well for me, great on the go, but definitely not a universal eyebrow product.
Bottom line 2: My husband is a saint.

Diorshow Brow Styler Ultra-Fine Precision Brow Pencil ($28) is available from Sephora and most department store. I received it as a PR freebie.

Photos by me.

It's the little things

I'm not a fan of anything extreme in makeup, crazy eyebrows included. But you can't deny that darker, more defined eyebrows are an important trend this season and there are ways to do it right without becoming unrecognizable to anyone but our mothers, like Gwyneth Paltrow (from a photo spread for W magazine). Or clownish, like Sienna Miller.

My eyebrows are very very dark brown, but not black, which is why I'd avoid using black for eyebrows, unless this is really your natural color. Instead, I discovered that Bobbi Brown Espresso eye shadow is an excellent choice. It's darker than my actual color and makes them stand out just enough to get the elegant and polished look, without channeling Dita von Teese just before a show where she's about to take most of her clothes off.

The secret to keeping the well-defined eyebrows to stay put all day is to use the miraculous Paula Dorf Transformer. Just like you would use it for turning an eye shadow into a long-lasting eye liner: Put a tiny drop on the plastic lid, dip the brush in it and swipe it over the the edge of the shadow pan (don't let the transformer all over the compact) to collect a little color, then paint your eye brow in small, feathery strokes.




The right brush for this endeavour is an angled eye brow brush. Bobbi has one as do many other brands. I had good results with a small angled one from the Sonia Kashuk line for Target. Don't use an eyeliner brush (too thin, requires too many strokes) or a straight, flat brush (the kind you'd use for applying contouring eye shadow to the lash line (too wide strokes, harder to get a natural look).