Benefit’s Gimme Brow might be the “no makeup” brow booster you’re looking for.
As much as I love makeup, especially very high-end makeup applied heavily and with an eye towards drama, I have to admit that in real life, I am very, very lazy. On most days, I am a messy bun and no makeup kind of person, and I’m fine with that. I wear makeup when I feel like it, and I go barefaced when I feel like doing that. It works out well for me. I have no problems with people seeing me in my natural state, but I do wish my natural state included just a little more eyebrow.
This is what I look like with no makeup at all:
I don’t know if I overplucked in the ’90s or if I just never had very much eyebrow to start with—I suspect it’s the latter, mainly because I wasn’t a big plucker in the ’90s. I think this is just all the brow I was ever going to have. In the ’90s, when skinny brows were the thing, I thought that was great. But lately, I’ve been feeling kind of sad about my shrimpy brows. Not sad enough to do much about it, but sad nonetheless.
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All of my friends lately have been wearing big, bold, slightly over-the-top, and unnatural arched power brows, usually courtesy of Anastasia Beverly Hills’ cult Dipbrow eyebrow pomade. I envy their bold brows, but Dipbrow seems like it’s too labor-intensive and has too much of a learning curve for me. Also, that heavy, drawn-on look is a little bit much for me.
But then I was walking past the Benefit Cosmetics counter at my local fancy department store, and the saleslady there grabbed me and insisted my eyebrows needed work. She tried to sell me on Benefit Gimme Brow ($24), which I had heard of before as being a very easy brow gel to use. I had never tried it, though, because it only comes in two colors: Light and dark. I have red hair, so I assumed I needed a red brow product.
When I told the makeup artist that I was looking for something red, she looked at me like I was crazy and said that red brow gel wouldn’t look right. Instead, she told me to try Benefit Gimme Brow in light, which is a light grayish brown color with not even a hint of red at all.
I was skeptical, but I am desperately susceptible to a hard sell at the makeup counter, so of course, I left with it. I was annoyed at myself because I had just purchased another designer beauty product I didn’t really want. But then I tried it, and it turned out I really liked it.
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Here’s what it looks like:
It’s extremely easy to apply. I can do it in the morning while bleary and stumbling around the bathroom without my glasses on. It makes my eyebrows look a bit fuller and prettier, and they don’t look drawn-on at all. It just looks like I have totally natural eyebrows that are a bit fuller and darker. I like it, especially as part of my exceptionally lazy, “I’m running around with no makeup” look. And the makeup artist was totally right about the color. I used Gimme Brow in “Light,” and it’s just great on me, even though my hair is red and the light Gimme Brow is more of a light ashy brown.
If you want a big, bold, dramatic, drawn-on eyebrow, this probably won’t give it to you. But if you want an eyebrow product that will give you a bit more eyebrow while looking like you don’t have the product on your brows, Gimme Brow is a good one.