Hey there, fabulous folks! It’s me, hi, and I’m ready to spill the tea on the unforgettable shindig that went down at Butterboy in Quezon City last weekend. Benefit Cosmetics sure knows how to throw a party, and last Saturday's event was a delightful mix of Pride Month festivities, lip-syncing divas, and, of course, the grand debut of their newest brow release: the Goof Proof Brow Powder. So grab your mimosa and let's dive into this drag brunch realness!

Have you heard the saying “Your eyebrows are sisters and not twins”? Well, grooming my brows was one of the makeup steps I had a really tough time learning. From being heavy-handed to not knowing how to properly shape my brows, it was a rough process to try to get them to look like cousins - let alone siblings.

Seven years into my makeup journey, I would like to think I have gotten better at it, especially now that we have so many products and styles to try and choose from!

I’m sure you’ve seen the ads following you all over the Internet, so let me satisfy your curiosity a bit. I bought the Flawless Brows Eyebrow Trimmer (P999 for two at Glitzy Chic) a couple weeks ago online because I was dying to know if it worked. My quarantine brows have of course realized a life of their own so I needed a quick fix, quicker than my trusty tweezers. Now the good news is yes, the Flawless Brows gadget does work, although perhaps not in the way most people would think.

Historically, women like buying affordable luxuries like red lipstick and face powder after a crisis. But after COVID-19, I bet most of us will be keeping our masks on and our lips covered. With the bottom half of their faces covered, people are choosing to play up their eyes and brows. Sales of eyeshadow palettes and other types of eye makeup have increased dramatically, according to Inquirer. They called it the “eyeliner effect”.

Filipinos may love their lipsticks but eyebrow makeup is what they can’t live without! Having a nice pair of kilay is something of a national obsession, so it only makes sense that this would be the focus of Issy & Co’s newest release. ICYMI, this new Filipino brand recently broke into the local beauty scene with their vegan lipstick line in pretty, minimalist packaging. If you haven’t tried anything from them yet, I’m here to rave about their latest drop, the Brow Refiner!

A micro-tip brow pencil has always been my weapon of choice when it comes to doing my kilay. It’s easier to draw fine, hair-like strokes with a slim tip so I’m able to achieve the naturally #blessed brow look - just the way I like it! 

A good micro-tip pencil to me should meet these three criteria:

We were legit shookt when Vice Cosmetics started teasing what looked like a brow kit on social media. It was high time the local brand took on brows! Still, I felt it was a tad ambitious to start off with a retractable microbrow pencil and a brow gel as both are regarded as relatively more advanced and premium tools for makeup enthusiasts. I was truly curious with what the brand would come up with, considering their affordable product price range.

Have you ever heard of the old Hollywood trick of using soap on eyebrows? It may sound crazy but many professional makeup artists (both local and international) swear by this beauty hack for fixing brows into place! In fact, it has made such a huge comeback into the beauty scene that there are now several local brands that offer brow soaps in little tins that can fit into your makeup kit. But if it’s literally just soap, we can probably recreate the same effect using regular soap from the grocery, right? So, I decided to try it and find out!

We’re down to the last days of the summer! Have you squeezed in a beach trip to your schedule yet? Make sure that you’re keeping yourself protected from the sun by packing your summer skincare essentials, and update your makeup kit with beach-ready products to keep you looking good in vacation photos! If you’re looking for brows that can survive water activities and excessive sweating, I tested six brow products that claim to be long-wearing and waterproof so you don’t have to!

Often I feel lucky that Manila is so close to beauty manufacturing capitals like Japan, Korea, Thailand, and China. We get so many innovations here much earlier than the Western side of the world! One such newfangled concept is the recently released K-Palette Lasting Eyebrow Tint Pen (P845). This promises to deliver the same days-long (!) staying power of the ubiquitous peel-off brow tint, which K-Palette also started offering in 2017. The difference here is that you don’t need to let it “cure” for a few hours and there is absolutely no peeling involved. Interesting, right?

I’ll confess: sometimes I cringe when I’m complimented about my ‘Korean’ face. I appreciate the intention, but I also can’t help but want to argue about how much skill it takes and the kind of mental dissection I do to make people (myself included) achieve K-Beauty without looking too contrived.

Last month, I did an epilating story which entailed a lot of pain and experimentation, all in the name of beauty. This time, as other writers shied away from another potentially painful procedure, I begrudgingly said yes to Brow Resurrection, a semi-permanent makeup microblading service by Browhaus. This gave me an idea to start a new column called “Beauty is Pain,” where I would try out scary-looking and “painful” (or perceived to be painful) beauty treatments. We hope that doing this will make the treatments less intimidating by explaining the process and sharing our tips to make your experience safe and comfortable.

I've tried so many eyebrow formulas at this point, but I always keep coming back to pencils. They're the fastest to work with and delivers near flawless results most of the time. Staying power, while variable, remains generally good across different brands. Truly, it's hard to go wrong with a feathery pencil in a shade that matches you!

I have a confession to make: I look forward to all sorts of hair grooming sessions. Brow threading dates, waxing appointments, diode laser hair removal sessions – these to me are precious me-time, self care activities. When I started tracking my expenses though, I realized just how costly these services were! So while I can’t do the latter two by myself, facial hair grooming seemed a good DIY candidate to help me save a few bucks.

Any self-respecting beauty girl knows that one of the core tenets of millennial beauty is this: kilay is life. Full, perfectly-groomed Insta-ready (though not necessarily Instagram) eyebrows are "in", leading to any number of products catering to them, from liquid brow liners to peel-off “tattoo” tints. But while women have embraced rocking the power brow, one had to wonder... how might guys feel about trying the trend?

Move over, Instagram brows - Korean straight brows are in. They're perfect for creating a look that's sweet, innocent, and oh-so young! Naturally, they pair well with Hallyu-inspired gradient lips and puppy eyeliner. If you've attempted it before and ended up with a solid block instead of feathery frames, we're here to help you, dear reader, to achieve your K-Drama goals. Snagging an oppa on the side is just a plus!

A couple of days ago, I came across this video where guys were getting facial hair waxed. Then when I looked at the comment section (big mistake), there were comments that said how these men were “pussies”, or accusing them of being feminine. Sigh pie, it saddens me that men get judged for simply wanting to groom themselves! It’s really not anyone’s business what people want to do with themselves, whether it be removing body hair or wearing makeup. The process of grooming not only makes one look clean and neat, it’s also important me-time for focusing on what we need mentally and emotionally! Men also enjoy the feeling of relaxation and rejuvenation when they get groomed so why should this exclusively be a "girl thing"?

In the era post-2000s bushy brow revival, there are #blessed girls... and then there’s me.

Ladies and gentlefolk, I will not mince words: my brows are a pair of jerks. While practice has allowed me to more-or-less perfect the rest of my makeup routine (even the dreaded winged liner causes me no anxiety), the very thought of having to shape my brows has me exhausted. Not only are they sparse to begin with - they’re also very uneven and ridiculously unruly. While getting K-pop bangs has helped my struggles some, I still spend a ridiculous amount of time and effort getting my eyebrows anywhere close to presentable. In fact, I was even tempted to spring for microblading, if only to cut down on my daily prep time. Unfortunately, my fear of needles trumped my need for better arches.

In recent years, Pinays have become more and more kilay-conscious. It used to be that the general pulse for minimum makeup was face powder and lip gloss but now, many women swear that they'd never leave home without drawing their brows on. I feel naked without them is an oft-heard sentiment, followed by the overused but appropriate #kilayislife.

This rings particularly true for those with less than perfect eyebrows, a.k.a. 99% of the population. We try our best to copy the on-fleek looks we see in YouTube videos and on Instagram but the truth is, technique is only one part of the solution. It's also important to know which is the right type of brow product for your particular condition. Today, we tackle the most common eyebrow problems and the best ways to fill them in!