Anastasia Beverley Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Ebony ❤ Review, Tutorial and Swatches!

As a fair skinned (read: pale) lady with dark, dark brown hair, it can be a struggle to find good eyebrow color matches. Anything I've come across in the drugstore has either been too chocolate brown, had too much red, or too close to black to go with my hair.

I've been interested in Anastasia Beverly Hills' brow products for a long time now, but I wasn't sure about what shade to go for in the pencil, powder, or tinted lash gel lines, and even after going to Sephora and swatching colors multiple times, I couldn't make up my mind.

When the Dipbrow product launched, I was intrigued. I like doing my brows with an angled liner brush that's fairly stiff to give me the most control, and while I normally use powder (Urban Decay's Darkhorse), the gel liner consistency meant crisper, more defined lines. Again, I faced the challenge of whether I should go with their dark brown shade or the ebony shade, but eventually, after struggling to find good pictures of the ebony dipbrow shade (seriously - there are not many good pictures) I just bit the bullet and bought it.

More after the jump!

I've gotta say - I am so glad I did. I am a lover of thick brows, and this pomade does work. The first time I applied it, I wasn't sure how to use it and ended up giving myself some major power brows. I think depending on the sparseness of your brows and how "natural" you want your eyebrows to look, there's a variety of ways to use this product. That's honestly one of the things I love most about it. But, I digress. I'll get into my preferred method of application later.

Ebony is a very cool toned color, and that's one of the reasons I chose it over the dark brown dipbrow. I can't say for certain whether dark brown would work for me, judging only from swatches online and having seen it in-store once, but I'm happy with my choice in the end. I can say with certainty that if you're looking for a true black, this isn't it. It's definitely dark enough to work for people with black hair, but you may want to set it with black powder to make it a tad darker.

I don't set my dipbrow with powder, because I find I get the perfect amount of color from using it alone on my brows. Once it sets, it is not moving. I promise. It's easy enough for me to wash off my face at the end of the day with a facewash and a little massaging, but it's not going to melt off from sweat or water. Unless, you know, you went swimming with it or snorkeling or something. But even then, I could be wrong. I've never 

tried it.

Another awesome thing is that the dipbrow comes from a cruelty-free company! I'm slowly trying to make the change over to cruelty-free products, since, as an owner of animals typically used for these types of experiments, I hate the idea of animals being tested on for the sake of cosmetics.

The typical way that I apply the dipbrow is that I tap my brush into the pot a few times, and I start at the top arch of my brow, defining that first. Like most people, my brows are NOT symmetrical, so I just kind of let them do their thing while evening up certain places as much as I can.

Pre-Dipbrow. Not overly sparse, but also not the fullest.

Tail and arch defined with Dipbrow.

After my arches and tails of my brows are defined, I use whatever's left on the brush and define the bottom of the rest of my brow. If needed, i'll do maybe another tap into the pomade, but I don't use too much at the beginning of my brows, since they're already fairly full on their own. I'll just spot-fill as needed.

Defining bottom line and spot-fills added.

Then, I'll take a clean spoolie and brush up from the bottom line that I've defined and through the rest of my brow, dispersing the pomade before it sets. I don't do this as much with the tail, since I like that to look defined, but I think the spoolie is necessary if you're going for any sort of natural look with your brows. 

Both brows done and spoolied through.

Overall, I love this product. I kind of wish that they would come out with even more shades, but that's just me being greedy. It's definitely a product that you can build or feather out depending on your personal tastes, but if it's your first time using it, always go for a lighter hand and less product, since a little goes a long way. I really feel that out of all of Anastasia's brow products, this one will last you the longest as well, since you get a good pot of product and you control how much you use. 

You definitely need a trustworthy brush (I find an angled liner brush works well for most anybody), but it's worth the investment for an amazing set of brows. However, it's not something I'd recommend for someone looking for something quick and easy to use on the go - I've done my brows with this on a moving bus before, brush and all, but if you have sparser brows or are new at filling in your brows, I'd recommend a pencil or tinted gel instead.