A Visit to Benefit Cosmetics’ Brow Bar
Last month I attended the San Francisco preview event of Benefit Cosmetics’ new all-in-one highlighting powder, One Hot Minute, at their cute Chestnut Street boutique.
Not only did I get my makeup fix there, I also love that Benefit’s boutiques have Brow Bars, offering a range of services from brow waxing, arching, and tweezing to other facial waxing for lips and chins. After I browsed some of their new goodies, I sat down to get a brow makeover, a brow-over? 
My eyebrow hairs are extremely thin and light so I opted to try the tint, hoping that I wouldn’t have to fill in my brows every day.
Before we started, my brow guru combines a custom color mixture that would best enhance my natural hue. She then applied a liberal amount of the mixture to my brows, promising that the color would only adhere to the hairs and not so much on my skin.
I have to admit, I got a little scared when I first saw myself in this state but had to trust my Benefit beauty girls that I wouldn’t go home looking like Cruella de Vil. Once the tint was ready to come off, she removed the gook completely and began the waxing process.
We both agreed that my brows were a little thick for my face so she thinned them out. With the slight change, I could definitely see that it opened up my features.
After my brow-over, I came home with mixed feelings on the results. While I loved the shape of my brows – they’re dainty and better defined – I couldn’t see a huge difference in the tint.
The tint only adheres to the actual hair and since my brow hairs are sparse, it looked slightly darker and wasn’t dramatic enough to convince me to go back and get them regularly tinted.
So who would brow tinting work for?
If you have a fuller set of light brown or blonde brows and want to darken your arches, this would certainly work better for you.
For me, I got the darker part, but since I have some spots where there aren’t any hairs, I wasn’t able to achieve the fuller. Sometimes you just can’t fake it, right?
Here I am the next day without any product on my brows. I could definitely tell they were slightly darker but just didn’t frame my face the way I wanted them to.
With a bit of brow filler, you can see that a little color goes a long way. I’m really thrilled with the shape of my arches and will have to continue visiting Benefit’s Brow Bars for maintenance, but will pass on tinting in the future.
My Benefit brow guru noted that tints will last you approximately 3-4 weeks. Pricing for a brow tint and wax will set you back $17 US and $20 US, respectively. However check your counter first as costs for brow tinting varies by location.
If you want to try any services from the Brow Bar, find a boutique near you here. Or call your local Benefit within department stores, sometimes they have Brow Bars at larger counters. It’s like a one-stop beauty shop! Now if they only did nails
What are your thoughts on brow tinting? Is this something you’d consider for yourself? I’d love to hear from you ladies with lighter coloring to see if this worked for you!
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On June 18th, 2009 Arianne said:
What are you wearing on your cheeks? It’s a lovely glow!
On June 18th, 2009 Lilan said:
Hi Arianne,
I’m glad you like it! I’m wearing a just a little bit of Benefit’s CORALista with their new One Hot Minute dusted over it.
On June 18th, 2009 Karrie said:
I like your new brows!
I don’t think tinting my brows would work for me.
My brows are dark but sparse.
I have come to accept the fact that I have to fill them in for a defined and fuller look.
On June 19th, 2009 Lilan said:
Thanks Karrie!
I’m glad I’m not alone in my brow woes, LOL
On June 19th, 2009 Marisol said:
I am so glad that you had such a positive experience at the brow bar. I get my brows tinted but i think I am the only one that notices it.
Coralista looks awesome on ya. Definitely the blush of the summer.