little white truths

As you may know, I'm on a couple of review crews and this brow tint was sent to me via one of them. I was interested to try it because it's had some good reviews and I'm always after time-saving products, which this tint claims to be.

I chose the colour 'grey brown' because I thought that would be the best match for my eyebrows, and while it is a good match, it's not perfect.

Although I do like the product, now that I've tested it I'll be sending it to a better home for no other reason than that it doesn't give me the look I'm after: it definitely works, but it creates a very strong brow and mine are strong anyway so it's not the right product for me.

Having said this, I can see how this gel would appeal to a lot of people - especially those who need to do a lot of filling and want something that does the hard work for them.

I think it would be particularly good for those with sparse brows who usually get them tinted professionally: something like this will give you a similar result and save you time and money in the long run.

Maybelline claims/product details:

• Wake up to defined, evenly filled brows 
• A game-changing peel-off gel-tint that leaves brows perfectly defined and evenly filled for up to three days
• Enriched with royal jelly and aloe vera, brows are left tinted and conditioned, gradually and evenly fading over time
• Available in four shades: Light Brown, Medium Brown, Dark Brown and Grey Brown
• To use: apply over brows in your desired shape and let dry for at least 20 minutes (for best results, leave on for two hours); easily peel off gel-tint, starting from the inner corner of the brow towards the outside
• RRP $24.95 AUD, but do shop around

There's what the gel looks like when you first apply it:  

There's what it looks like when it dries down: 

Then you peel it off and it leaves a stain behind (I left it on for about half an hour):

There's the result:

And here's what happens after giving it a good rub with a damp cloth (so it hangs around pretty well):

Verdict

Note first that the shade 'grey brown' is darker than I expected, so do be aware of that when you're choosing your shade. While the colour does match my brows, I prefer to use a lighter shade than this when filling them - otherwise they can look too strong (as they do with this product).

At first I was intrigued but also a bit nervous about using this product because I worried about two things: first, that it would pull my brow hairs out; and second, that it would make my brows too strong/block-y, which isn't a look that suits me. I have to say that both those things are true, and I'll expand on them below.

The applicator is a brush that, as mentioned above, I personally would prefer to be thinner: yes it allows reasonable control but it also means that you're not going to get individual brush strokes from the product (particularly because the gel itself is so thick). What you'll get is a big chunk of product over your brow area that doesn't allow for proper detailing. I noticed this especially at the tails of my brows, because it was difficult to get those as thin as I would like.

I've been leaving it on for around half an hour and it dries down so that you can pull it off in bits. In the above photos you'll see that it came off in one chunk, but it doesn't do that on my brows (I guess my brow hair clings to the product) - so it's a bit annoying to remove and you're never quite sure you've got it all so you'll need a spoolie to comb the last bits out.

Now it claims not to remove brow hairs but I'm on the fence about this because it does remove some of my hairs whenever I use it. Mind you, it's not pulling out heaps of them so perhaps those hairs were 'ready' to shed anyway and this product just sped up the process. Hard to say, but worth mentioning all the same.

This product absolutely works and it does remove the need for filling in your brows because it offers a nice stain that fills in any gaps. However, I have strong brows anyway and I just need to fill in some bald spots - so what this effectively does is make my brows look too strong and block-y for my personal tastes. I like the effect better on the second day, but it's worth noting that this product may be better for those who don't have much hair and need to do lots of filling, or who prefer a stronger brow.

What it also does is leave my brows looking very shiny so you can tell I've done something to them because they reflect light something chronic. This issue can be solved by putting some powder over them, but it's something to be aware of because of course powdering them down is adding an extra step and this product is designed to remove extra steps.

All in all, I think this is a good product that meets its claims but it won't be for everyone, and while I'm glad I've tried it, I'll return to using my normal brow pencil.

Decent but doesn't give the right results for me.