What part of your makeup routine do you enjoy the least?

How I do my sparse-tailed S&P brows:

I don’t spend too much time or effort to try to make my brows look that alike. I find most people lack symmetry on their faces anyway, and IRL when we’re looked at by others our faces are many times in motion, moving as we talk or turn our heads or whatever, so people don’t look as closely as we may think they do. If a photo is being taken or something similar, then I may spend a bit more time to try to make them look more alike but there are other parts of my face that are also not fully symmetrical, so I think this is pretty much a waste of time. I spend maybe 5 minutes on my brows, if that.

I focus more on how each individual brow looks in relation to the eye below, making the arch rise in the same or similar place on each side and having the inner and outer ends pretty much line up the same in relation to the eye, and have similar thickness at the same spot on each opposite brow. If the brows need help in this regard, that’s where the products come in.

I’ve tried gels, powders, pencils, etc. and think that the best approach is to use whatever works the best in enhancing or masking issues and is the color that is the most flattering. Personally, I think gel is the wrong thing for sparse brows, mainly because it seems most gels look too unnatural. I know many people like gels and the look they create. But to me, they look too much like the brow is painted on, and when they’re used by someone who already has a full brow, I think they make the brow look overdone and a bit off. Again, this is my personal opinion and I don’t mean to offend anyone. I’m not always one to follow fashion or makeup trends so maybe you’ll disagree and choose to use a gel as one of your daily products, and if a gel works for you then go for it.

I’ve given up trying to find the *one* right color for my brow, mainly because my brow hairs are cool-toned, almost black w/some salt in them, yet the hair on my head is S&P leaning more light gray. Just as on natural hair colored heads, brow hairs can be (and frequently are) more than one color. Slapping on just one color of gel or pencil or whatever works great when the hair on the head is the same color all over (such as with artificially colored hair or frequently with very dark or light colored hair), but with many other people one-shade brows look unnatural. I’m in the latter camp. The benefit of this approach is that because it’s hard to find a good cool-toned gray or similar shade in brow colors, using several products at once makes the end result look more natural. The disadvantage of this is there are more products, so that means more cost and a bit more effort.

My current approach, which may change as I age more or discover new techniques or products, is to use a pencil, powder, a waterproof or long-wear liquid eyeliner and a microfiber-based color gel (which is like a colored mascara, with a mascara type wand). I always do my brow work in a magnifying mirror but continually check them in a regular wall mirror from about 2 feet away, which is the average closeup distance that most people would see my brows. This checking ensures I don’t overdo the brows or needlessly stress over tiny details.

I like to start the filling in from the upper part of the brow and on top of the brow (especially the sparser areas) instead of underneath the brow, as this lifts the eyes (which aging eyes need anyway) and looks more natural in my case because I’ve got some nice hairs above my brows especially above the arch. Even lacking the hairs above the arch, I think going higher looks right on many people, but you may need to experiment to see if that works for you.

My pencil is more of a cool dirty gray dark brown; I use that first to give the overall framework to the brow, not to completely fill in all of the brow. I use the pencil to make a rough line from the arch to the tail, being careful to not go too thick or too dark, and to fill in here and there on the rest of the brow. I don’t use the pencil to fill in everything needed and so move on to the other products. I then take some brow powder I’ve got in a dark grayish brown and use a nice brow brush to enhance and slightly expand the line I’ve made with my pencil. The powder is a darker gray than the pencil and looks more noticeable so I try to use a light touch with it. I then follow this with a fiber-based colored brow gel mascara that is dark brown and not only colors the hairs more but adds volume with the fibers. The fiber-based gel mascara really does the trick—it’s critical because it not only makes me look like I’ve got more brow hairs by having the fibers cling to the (few) hairs I’ve got, giving a 3-D look to the brow enhancements I’ve made, but also colors most of the white hairs.

A final/recent step I’ve added is to use a dark brown long-wear liquid eyeliner in a careful and conservative manner for two purposes only. First, I use it to color any white hairs that were too stubborn to accept the colored brow gel—if you don’t have this issue, skip this task of course. Second, after wiping off what first comes out, I use the liner brush to make lightly applied tiny dots or specks in the very bald areas of my brows. I don’t draw too many of these specs because I don’t want my brows to look like a pointillistic painting—rather, the specks serve to give some color grounding to those bald areas that have only pencil and powder. This is one step that really requires checking up on the magnifying work in a wall mirror, because up close it may seem that the specks will be very noticeable and unnatural. But from the arms-length distance of a wall mirror, the bald spots seem to disappear. You may find that using a darker colored gel like Ka-Brow with a liner brush that has a small pointed tip may work just as well as liquid eyeliner for this purpose.

I can list the products I use personally but as I mentioned above, the pencil brand and color seem to be discontinued and the powder color has also been discontinued. Color wise, as long as you stay within in cool or warm family that is your natural hair coloring, you can create a look that will work for you. If you can skip using either a pencil or a powder, go for it. (I used to use just powder—no pencil—but adding a pencil in slightly different/lighter color allowed for making a stronger tail line than using just one or the other.) For the fiber-based gel mascara, I see at least five or six brands in a cursory search online, which is pretty encouraging; two brands I’ve used are Blinc and LashFood.

I hope that this write-up gives you some ideas for your brows and apologize for its length.