Rave review: Benefit Gimme Brow

Brows are such a pain in the arse. I specifically grew my fringe so I wouldn’t have to deal with them. That’s a lie, actually – it’s also because I have a freakishly large forehead, but the brows were a big factor too. And after years of hearing my beauty-obsessed friends talk about how brows are the most important facial feature, and how undone eyebrows look lazy, I’ve developed crippling brow avoidance syndrome.

If you can’t see my brows they don’t exist, right? Especially if I look grumpy.

Benefit, on the other hand, specialise in brows. As well as their Brow Bar services, they’ve also launched a new product, Gimme Brow, which you may have seen me model on Instagram. Gimme Brow was designed for people like me who try to ignore their brows as much as possible. It’s an almost foolproof product for giving your brows an extra bit of oomph without requiring too much skill, and I have fallen hard for it over the last couple of months!

But first, for Gimme Brow to work, you need to have nice brows to start with. I dropped in to Benefit’s flagship Sydney boutique in Paddington for a brow wax and tint by one of their resident brow experts, Laura.

The basics of brow shape haven’t changed much since my mum took her first beauty course back in the 80s. You can mark out the structure of a good brow shape with three points, which you can find with a pencil:

Start of brow: Hold a pencil vertically against the side of the bridge of your nose. This is whee your brow should start.

Arch: Line up the pencil with the outside of your nostril and the centre of your pupil while looking straight ahead.

End of brow: Line up the pencil with the outside of your nostril and the outside corner of your eye.

Naturally, it’s easier for someone else to do it for you than it is to try to look at your eyebrow while looking straight ahead! Getting it done once by a professional who’s seen a lot of eyebrows before is always a good idea – there are lots of subtle variations you can introduce to enhance your facial features (messing around with where the brow starts to correct for imperfectly spaced features, playing with shapes like the popular flat Korean brow). You can find a whole host of variations and handy brow tips in the book Raising Eyebrows by Cameron Tuttle, which is available in Benefit – it’s a very interesting read!

Laura assured me that my brows actually had quite a nice shape – they’re a bit short, but that’s easy to draw in! I highly recommend Benefit’s Brow Bars for brow shaping – their brow technicians are well trained and extremely hygienic and professional!

Once your brows are nicely shaped, you can go on to adding more colour. If your hair is light, you may want to try tinting them darker. Otherwise, less permanent products can help you out. Laura recommended that for a beginner like me, concentrating on getting a smooth, defined beginning of the brow was most important. 

This brings me back to Gimme Brow, and why I love it:

– Multitasker – It tames the brow hairs and thickens them, plus you can use it to stain your skin. The staining on the skin is very pale, so it’s difficult to overdo.

– Beginner-friendly – The thing I love most about Benefit’s products is how easy they are to use. Gimme Brow is the least intimidating brow product I’ve ever tried – difficult to overdo and self-dispensing on the mini built-in spoolie wand.

– Colour – I’ve searched quite extensively, and it’s difficult to find brown brow products that are widely available and match Asian colouring. If you have dyed hair your search will probably be easier, but most East Asians have grey-brown undertones in their hair, and unfortunately most of the products in stores here are medium brown or reddish brown. Benefit’s Gimme Brow in Medium is brown with a slight grey tinge – perfect!

I love the subtly more finished look it gives to my makeup – check it out in action:

Right eyebrow (on your left) is done, left eyebrow (on your right) is untouched:

This successful foray into brow shaping has inspired me to search harder for more colour-appropriate brow products for Asian colouring – I’ve made a big order with the Korean online store 2plus1 of some brow products from Korean brands, and am looking forward to trying them out when they arrive!

These products were provided for editorial consideration, which did not affect my opinion. For more information, see Disclosure Policy.