Ah…the age old question continues. High end or drugstore…?
I must admit brows used to be the least of my concerns for all those years. Then I joined instagram ( @macygreyhorse / product placement)
and realized that brows are a big deal for some reason and I should feel ashamed I am not giving them the proper attention. So, before you know it, Anastasia Beverly Hills started taking over my makeup bag, one thing led to another and we ended up to this post.
Let’s break it down,shall we? We are talking about the products that will keep our brow hairs in place whilst (such a scholar…) adding a bit of color to “fill in” any sparse areas. What happened to the good old Maybelline Great Lash Clear and out the door??? I am getting too old for this… *sigh*
The two products I am putting under my proverbial microscope are the Maybelline Brow Drama and the Benefit Gimme Brow. Right of the bat, I have to clarify that these products are not marketed to be dupes of each other, simply because they are not formulated in a similar fashion. The Brow Drama is marketed as a “Sculpting Brow Mascara” and the Gimme Brow as a Volumizing Fiber Gel. Truth be told I wanted to compare the Gimme Brow with the L’Oreal Perfection Brow Artist Plumper but I couldn’t get my hands on it for the life of me, so I unfortunately ended up with the Brow Drama.
I am going to discuss the formulas so we can put that out of the way. The Maybelline is more watery and not as thick, whereas the Benefit has a more thicker consistency and a more dry feeling. Application wise, the Brow Drama suggest that you comb through the brow hairs in the opposite direction of how the hairs lay at first, and THEN comb through as you would normally do, so that the hairs are evenly coated. Uhm…excuse yourself Maybelline, it ain’t gonna happen! I didn’t just spend 3 minutes carving out my brows so that I can mess it all up by sweeping your ginormous wand back and forth! No! Just no.
As you can see, and I am truly sorry if you are not familiar with the metric system, the wand on the Brow Drama is significantly bigger than the one on the Gimme Brow, which makes it nearly impossible for people with thin brows to use without messing up their whole face. Let’s just say that the ball on the tip of the Brow Drama came in like a wrecking ball…
I personally like to do my brows after I have applied all of my face and eye makeup, so this was a problem… Another bump on the road was the fact that it accentuated all the fuzz that was around my brows that I normally wouldn’t see or even care to remove, because…well it’s fuzz #aintnobodygottimefordat !!! But when the fuzz gets tinted brown, oh, you care!
The Gimme Brow was small enough for me to do my brows without getting outside the lines (it’s kindergarten all over again), and it gave me exactly the look that I was going for. The fibers kinda filled in the brows, without making them look strange or overdone.
Finally let’s talk about colors…
I picked up the shades Medium Brown(Brow Drama) and Medium/Deep(Gimme Brow) because that’s what the girls at each counter suggested. The Maybelline is a bit lighter and warmer in color than the Benefit, which is a tad darker and ashier in tone. I personally prefer the ashy tone of the Benefit, simply because it pairs well with the roots of my hair (aka my natural hair).
All in all, for my personal needs, the Benefit won this round. But if you are after a more natural effect and your brows are relatively big I think you could get away with using the Maybelline and saving quite a lot of money… In local currency the Gimme brow retails for over 20 euros, whereas the Brow Drama for less than 6…
Too bad it was exactly what the name suggested for me…Drama.
Have you tried any of these out? What do you think?
