First Look| Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade in Dark Brown


Let me tell you, I did not hop on the bandwagon on this one.
Not only did I purchase the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade ($18 retail) eons ago back in 2013 for a Cyber Monday sale, I hadn't touched the thing since now. Apparently between all that passed time, everyone and their mother has discovered it, loves it, and wants to marry it. It's all over YouTube since everyone now has an "updated brow routine" in which their brows look very similar to Sharpied-on caterpillars.
But in honesty, 99% of the success of the dipbrow will depend on user application and technique. I had very shoddy technique when first using it and the learning curve was a little much for a damn brow product. In fact, it reminds me of Make Up For Ever's Aqua Brow product but in a jar
packaging, perhaps making it a little easier for you to dip your brush into it.


I can understand why it's so popular with people at the moment. While it's not revolutionary, it's an interesting approach to brows that's not powder or pencil.
  • Very accommodating shade range: Blonde, Auburn, Dark Brown, Chocolate and Ebony. I think for those who prefer a lighter looking brow Blonde would work even if you have darker hair since the color payoff is super intense. Dark Brown has less red tones than Chocolate without being as intense as Ebony.
  • It can be used as a brow filler or eyeliner because it's very smudge proof. I mean very, unless you have super oily skin. Since it's waterproof those living in humid weather or girls who like swimming with makeup will like it.
  • If you have literally 4 brow hairs in total and can't get a brow powder to adhere to anything but skin, this will take care of the problem. You can create a whole new shape of brows!
  • The 0.14 oz of product will last you your lifetime (well, until it dries out...) because you only need a little.
However, I still have my gripes with it.
  • The color payoff is so intense and the range runs dark, meaning that you need to use a light hand and minimal product. If you even touch your brush to the pot, you will get too much.
  • It's rather hard to mimic "hair-like strokes", especially when you're filling in the outer portions of the brow. It's easy for the product to just look like a block around your natural brow hairs.
  • Therefore, while it lasts and lasts on the skin, your brows look rather unnatural and drawn on, even if you tried your best to mimic the natural appearance of you know, hair.

Warning, long read ahead regarding application:
I have found that the best technique discussed in the beauty community is to take the smallest amount of product and work into the back of your hand first so that you only get the residue onto your actual brows. Yes, it's a waste and completely moronic, but it really takes down the chances of you putting on too much pigment the first time.
Second, you should really focus the majority of the product on the outer tail of your brows and only bringing the rest of the product on the brush to the inner half. It's even better if you don't put any product on the inner part and use a spoolie to distribute the color in last. Of course, you should brush everything out when you're done.
As an extra step, you should go in with a tinted or clear brow gel to really bring forward the hairy texture of your brows (ew) so that it looks more natural. Of course the gel step is optional, but I find that it takes away the boxy shape created by using the pomade alone. Finally, you can clean up with a bit of concealer under and above the brow to really define the shape, and this step is only important if you already like that semi-artificial/#dembrowsonpoint sort of look.


On my left brow (your right) is the product done as "gently" as I could, but as you can see it's still a statement brow. I blame it on my generally big brow shape (sparse, but big) so I'd have to tweeze off a lot for it to look clean, but it would definitely be drawn on at that point. 


This is without any brow product. I could technically go out like this, but something about filling in brows makes me happy. I generally just extend the tail and give it some definition on the outer lines. 


The final look. Yeeech, still not a huge fan of these brows for daytime. I need to be rocking a full blown smokey eyes with lashes and glitter for this to even compute to the human eye. I was trying out the Tarte 12 Hour Full Coverage foundation in light-medium sand this day and as you can see it's a tad too light. Sigh. Medium Sand it is. 

This pomade hands down takes the cake for sculpted, perfect, and sometimes over the top brows that's definitely not for every day. Which makes sense, since there are way too many steps for the average person getting ready in the morning to go through unless they really, really cared.

As for me, I'm still taking the time to play with it and learning about how natural it looks through the loving comments of my husband (NOT). It's a very volatile product, but if you know how to use it properly it won't disappoint you.

xo, Be











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