::Review:: Anasasia Brows In Bloom Kit
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free skin care · Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:39 pm

I just got this with my recent Sephora order (wish EDS had Anastasia!), and I really like it. It's a lovely compact with a cute blossoming cherry branch detail on the cover, and on the inside it's got a mirror, four little pots, and a short (and crappy) stiff angled brush. Here's a link to the product on Sephora, since it's oddly hard to find in their Anastasia shop:

http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P184208&categoryId=5746

The pots are two different brow powders, plus a cream highlighter and a "wax cream" to keep hairs in place. I ordered the kit in "Blonde", the lightest shade they offer. The lighter of the two powders is quite dark on me, and I have fairly dark eyebrows for a blonde (I'm going to include a terrible picture taken on my cell phone just now, but it should give you a sense of the shade - I'm definitely NOT blonde-blonde, especially not my brows!).

I can't even use the darker powder at all, or maybe I can but it would be quite dramatic. I think the idea behind the kit is that you use different shades during different times of the year as your brows shift with the seasons like a delicate cherry blossom petal, haha, but my brows don't change in color THAT much! We'll see, maybe I'll get brave and use the dark powder, but it's obviously less forgiving if I screw up, and the lighter one does a perfect job of filling in and darkening slightly. I'll probably end up using the darker powder as a powder eyeliner or something - it won't go to waste. It's a nice, neutral, not too brassy matte brown tone - might even make a nice shadow!

The brush that comes with the kit sucks, by the way - I used my new Too Faced stiff angle brush to do it, and when I tried doing a quick touch-up with the Anastasia brush it was not nearly as precise as before. But I imagine most people who go to the lengths of ordering a complete brow styling kit are probably makeup-happy enough to own a few good brushes. Smile

And it's not totally impossible to use the brush it comes with, it's just that I started with something so much better! Laughing

The cream highlighter is OK, but nothing special. It looks like it'll be nicely peachy and shimmery and skintoned in the package, but when I put it on, the color and shimmer is a bit sparse, and it's a bit too hard to spread evenly. I wound up mainly using it as a base for other eyeshadow to adhere to my brow bone. Plus, many blondes tend to be fair-skinned as well, and I found that the highlighter was actually a bit darker than my natural skin tone - not a huge problem, but I think of a highlighter as being a bit paler, not a bit darker. Small change, but thought I'd mention it.

The cream wax is both my favorite and least favorite part! Bear with me. Smile

The texture is pretty thick, and it's actually hard to get enough out to really gum up your brows - I found that dabbing my brush in it was the most effective thing to do, but then I have to really wash it out of my brush afterwards which is an annoying extra step, seeing as how I normally wash my brushes only once every week or so. Plus if you don't pull your brow hairs off the brush between strokes, they get stuck in the wax and are hard to get out, which drove me crazy! You really have to wash the brush afterwards every time with this stuff, but I find it too hard to get the wax out otherwise so I guess I'll make my peace with that. Or maybe I just like to use too much wax! I was excited to move from my old tinted Chanel brow mascara/gel to this because I thought this would have better hold and control. And it does, sort of - but not all day long. It shapes and defines MUCH better initially, but it seems like it lets my hairs escape mid-way through the day, or doesn't hold up to being accidentally knocked if I brush my bangs to the side and hit my brow on the way. My Chanel never held up to that either, though, and nor does just hairspray on the brows. I think you'd need a REALLY spiky-hard gel to withstand that, and I'm not sure I'd enjoy that texture - but for what it's worth, this cream wax is NOT a brow rubber cement.

Despite some of my complaints, I still really really like this kit. My friend and I had wandered around a Sephora testing out all the brow kit options, since she's fair-haired like me but nearly browless and she wanted my help selecting a brow grooming and defining routine that actually made hers show up. That's part of why I was a bit off about the color on me - we had tested all these on HER more than me, and I remembered this one being really nice and fair but she's not QUITE as fair as me (she's more of redhead/strawberry blonde, and a bit darker) so I should've realized it might not be the fairest of them all! But in our testings we found the lighter Anastasia shade to be the nicest, and we also liked the consistency of her cream wax better than all the others we tried.

This kit is a bit expensive at $28, but it's got the fab packaging, bonus of a highlighter, two powder options, and a nice wax cream compared to the others we looked at (all I remember now are Lorac and Sephora brand, but we tried tons), and I really do like it quite a lot. And even though the brush ain't much, at least it comes with one at all - I may replace it with another better brush someday that I break or saw off to be short enough, but I like that it has space for one there.

O-kay, I know this was a hecka long review for one simple product! But the overall verdict is that I'm converted now, and I like this better than my old Chanel brow mascara. Using a powder instead of a mascara is MUCH better at filling in sparse bits, and it allows me to chill out and let my brows grow in better if I overpluck a certain area by mistake, since it looks much better with powder while it's still growing in. And the highlighter is nice even on its own, just not what I expected. All in all, I just think Anastasia is the best brow brand out there that I've seen, and I'm glad I made this purchase.

Oh, last thing - the compact is not particularly portable - it seems like it takes up WAY more room than is really necessary given the size of the product. So it's good for AM makeup, but not so great for on-the-go touch-ups - but then, I tend not to do those on my brows anyway, so I don't mind. Smile

Ah, fashion over function, once again! Hope this review helps!

free skin care · Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:44 am

Oh, that's a bummer, it helps so much to be able to sample things! Normally I'd offer to decant you a bit of whatever I was trying, but it's kinda hard with an eyebrow kit. Laughing

Glad to know this may have helped!

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