You can't go on social media without seeing at least one pair of perfect "Instagram brows."
But some of us can only dream of having thick, full, and perfectly arched brows. From birth, I've always had extremely light, sparse, and stubborn brows.
I have tried almost everything to enhance my brows; I even tinted them. Now, I'm looking to simplify my routine with the best brow gel from the drugstore.
These are my eyebrows with no tint, no pencil product, no nothing!
Normally it takes a total of 45 minutes to beat my face — with a full 20 minutes devoted to brows. The goal today is to find an eyebrow gel that can cut my routine down to a couple of minutes.
Every brow gel I tried — with the exception of e.l.f. and Revlon — was tested alone, with no other brow products on my face.
LET THE RANKING BEGIN!
8.) E.L.F. CLEAR BROW & LASH MASCARA, $2
On my mission to buy as many drugstore eyebrow gels as I could find, I walked into CVS and was told by a beauty associate that e.l.f. would change my life.
Buy it here
Since this is a clear gel product, I penciled in my brows before using it.
The formula went on easy and was lightweight.
Unfortunately, the gel dried to a glossy finish and highlighted my sparse areas.
NOPE!
7.) MAYBELLINE EYE STUDIO BROW DRAMA TINTED GEL MOUSSE, $7.99
I'm no stranger to Maybelline's tinted gel mousse. It used to be my holy grail brow product.
Buy it here
I had to do five strokes to get a slight tint and make my hairs to stay in place.
If you have full brows, and all you want is light hold and tint, this might work for you.
You just don't do it for me anymore, Maybelline.
6.) MAYBELLINE BROW PRECISE FIBER VOLUMIZER, $9.99
As a drugstore makeup aficionado, I already knew that Maybelline had two different eyebrow gels. To be honest, I thought this one was going to be my number one; the thickness of the gel creates fibers around your hairs, making them appear thicker and fuller.
Buy it here
For me, the fibers felt chunky. I had to use a clean spoolie to dull the effect.
The fullness is definitely there...
…but having to clean up after every coat was time consuming.
For under $10, Revlon's eyebrow gel comes with a thick eyebrow pencil.
I filled in my brows with the pencil before going over them with gel.
Even though the final look was nice and clean, the gel had almost no hold and was virtually useless.
I technically just paid for an eyebrow pencil.
4.) COVERGIRL EASY BREEZY BROW MASCARA, $8.99
I had no idea that CoverGirl made eyebrow gel! This one had me excited.
Buy here
The brush had a particular curve that worked well with my arches.
But the curve shape made for sloppy application on my inner brows.
I did love how much pigment it gave in only a couple of coats. This one took less time to apply than the others.
3.) NYC SHOW TIME BROW STYLING GEL, $2.49
When I shop for beauty products at the drugstore, I tend to skip over the NYC display. But while I've found their lipsticks to be dry and easy-to-break, their eyebrow gel is a cut above.
Buy it here
The thick spoolie distributed the perfect amount of product.
With one pass of the wand, I had just the right shade.
I usually trace the perimeters of my brows with concealer for a sharper look, but I might not need to with this product.
It's in third place because of the limited shade range.
They say you get what you pay for, but with Wet N Wild, I felt like I had spent some Anastasia Beverly Hills money.
No sparse spots here.
This definitely gave me a finished look.
THE WINNER: L'OREAL PARIS PLUMPER BROW GEL MASCARA, $9.99
L'Oreal won first place for giving me the most natural, easy, and accurate color deposit.
Buy it here
It even managed to tame and tint my right eyebrow, which grows in three different directions.
The shorter spoolie allowed me to brush hairs into place without any clumping.
This 2-minute product gave almost the same effect as my 20-minute routine. What is this magic?
L'Oreal, you have won me over.
