HD Brows Tamed my Mad Bushy Caterpillars and Made Make Up Simple For Me

Last week, I went to an appointment with HD Brows. I’ve seen them advertised numerous times, and was attracted by the fact that many of their models have thick, strong brows like mine.

I’ve documented my relationship with my eyebrows quite thoroughly. Despite hating the thick slugs on my forehead when I was younger and shaving them to within an inch of their lives, I’m lucky that they did grow back to their original shape. I used to care a bit more about them – trimming, plucking and shaping – but somewhere along the road I gave up. The last time they were plucked was this January, by Mary Greenwell, because of course you’re gonna let a legend shape them. But to be honest, over the last five years I’ve not touched them myself. I take a certain pride in their wildness, especially amongst a landscape of overplucked, overshaped and over-coloured-in eyebrows that I see in certain celebrity culture. Also, I have a fringe to hide them. Oh…And I don’t like pain.

However, I think it’s fair to say that they’d got a bit out of control…

I was somewhat hesitant when I arrived for my appointment with Jamie Long in Harley Street, fearing that they’d be overshaped, but I was in safe hands. He handed me a mirror and kindly explained that he’d be removing their hair from the middle of my brows and, “Perhaps where they grow into your hairline?”

Then Jamie explained that he’d shape, pluck and trim. I was a little surprised when he started getting the wax strips out. Uh-oh! I’ve never experienced this before! It’s honestly not painful at all though. Very quick and it’s over with, and far preferable to suffering a long time of plucking.

THEN he came at me with two bits of string! I was about to be threaded! This is a method of removing and shaping hair and is done in a variety of cultures, often for facial hair. He put my fringe to the side and went at it on my forehead – who knew it was so hirsute?! Then a little below the brows. I’m not gonna say that this was pleasant – imagine pain crossed with the desire to sneeze – but it was extremely brief.

The next step was trimming my bendy, thick brows and plucking a few from below and above (apparently it’s a myth that you shouldn’t pluck above the brows). A quick fill in with a brow pencil and I was done.

Here’s what I looked like directly after. As you can see, there is some fetching redness where he’d tackled the monobrow and hairy forehead, and the brows are certainly strong with my totally unmade-up face (I also had a horrible skin reaction to a serum that was sent to me so definitely my most glam here). However I was really happy. They’re cleaner, but still as strong as ever, and I think it’s crying out for a soft, 90s-style make up look. What’s funny is, to me, they looked way thinner, even though to most they are still big. There is more distance between my eyelid and brow now, opening up my face.

One Week Later

So it’s a week later. I haven’t touched my brows because I wanted to see how they settled down, but I will be tweezing them with more regularity as Jamie has given me a great guideline to stick to. The redness lasted for a maximum of half an hour by the way, and was a little tingly on the forehead when I used Glow Tonic for two days, but nothing more than that.

I LOVE how easy it now is to shape my brows with a bit of gel and kaboom! They’re in a gorgeous shape that needs little else.

Here’s what they look like when I wake up and don’t touch them: not exactly neat, but not so Dennis Healey-esque anymore either:

I have five of these polo necks by the way. Only realised after taking the pics it was the wrong way round…

What I thought I’d share with you is me trialling a few HD Brows make up bits. Firstly to explain to you – I’m little more than a make up virgin. I can put a bit of tinted moisturiser on, mascara and blusher and powder and beyond that…Nada. I never wear eyeshadow or try out ‘looks’. And I’d like to experiment more, but I’m scared! So here I will share with you unwrapping their product and trying them out.

OK so here is what I was given:

A sculpst stick, an eyeshadow palette, brow gel and a ‘Browtec’ in ‘Foxy’ (I like it).

So the Sculpt Stick…Here’s what it looks like, and is meant to be applied to the hairline, jawline and below the cheekbones. It’s £22.

It looks super handy for travel but I avoided it because I’m still unsure about using it, plus I didn’t want to put on foundation or do a whole ‘look’. Maybe another time. I’ll share it with you when I do. As for the Brow Gel, it needs a specific slanted brush, which I don’t have, so I’ll save that for future too.

What I AM confident with is the Browtec pencil and shaper. It’s £19.60.

This has a really efficient brush on one side and a very fine pencil on the other. I tend to brush my brows down, then colour spaces in with the pencil, then brush them up, which is SO easy with this brush. I’m not sure if the brushing down part is the ‘done’ thing, but a make up artist taught me years ago and I’ve stuck with it – it works for me as it highlights the really gappy parts of the brows.

Brushed-up and filled-in brows

This is what I’d usually stick with but I’m giving things a go today, so I cautiously had a look at their eyeshadow palette, thinking that this is where it’d all come unstuck for me. This is £23.50, and in the colour trio ‘Copper‘.

I started out with the ‘Rose Gold’ colour on the left, which according to the instructions states that I could put this all over my lids for a natural look. It was so easy and effective! I did it in seconds, covering my eyelids up to the eye socket.

I think it adds just a little freshness and brings out my eye colour.

I went for the next two steps in one go. I applied the central shade, Copper, to the middle of my eyelids strongest and blended it out to the outer corners of my lids. Then I used the more rigid, shaped end of the brush to apply the ‘Bronze’ to the lid line and framing my eye socket to the middle of my eyelid. Then a tiny bit of blusher on the apples of my cheeks and concealer to the pigmentation spots and red nose.

Now I’ll be honest, I was sort of winging it here and trying to go by what I ‘feel’ make up artists are doing while my eyes are closed. I was happy, though, with the effect. I felt like it made my eyes pop and look quite almond shaped, and with a slick of mascara I thought it was subtle enough for daytime and also enough for night. Maybe if I was going out I’d be braver with the Rose Gold shade and layer it up a bit. I then added a pink beret, for jauntiness, and because I thought you might be getting sick of the lonely-black-polo neck look.

I had also put my jumper on the right way round by this point, too

I have a fringe, so my HD brows don’t sing loudly, but I can really see the difference. There aren’t lots of wiry black hairs all the way down to my eyes, there’s no monobrow, the shape has lifted my face and enhanced my cheekbones. I just feel that I look more ‘open’. And as for the eyeshadow. I am looking at the above pic and feeling quite proud – strong natural light and no retouch – I managed to to that in mere minutes, simply following the instructions on the packet.

Scared though I was, I’m SO happy I experienced the HD Brows treatment. You can also go further – according to your desires and the judgment of your technician – with tinting and using way more products (here was what was on offer at my appointment…)

I was expecting the worst: over-plucking and over-styling, but Jamie was really sensitive to my requirements as a model and natural beauty-lover. And the products are very easy to use, effective and make a dramatic impact with very little skill required (believe me, I generally plonk stuff on my face with my fingers and rub away ’til it looks OK).

While this isn’t natural and organic, it is cruelty-free, uses paper from responsible sources and supports the Worldland Trust. I feel quite excited to have a new look!

Rebecca x

To find out more head to beautyinhighdefinition.com

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