Beauty: Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow in Ash Brown review

I've talked at length about how important eyebrows are to my look. As you can see in my old blogposts from before I started getting serious about make up, my eyebrows are much lighter than my own hair colour, and a little sparse to boot. That means I need to fill them in to get that made up look I love so much. Eyebrows really frame the face, and it's gotten to the point where I feel like my face looks weird if I don't "put my eyebrows on". Over the past year or so, & Other Stories' eyebrow ceam in Tryptich Coal (review here) has been my favourite product to emphasize my brows, but lately I've been wanting to try something new, to freshen up my brow game. 

Everyone who is as obsessed as I am with checking on-fleek eyebrows on instagram, knows that Anastasia Beverly Hills has some of the most popular eyebrow styling products in the business. ABH's Dipbrow Pomade is a beautyblogger favourite, and I knew I wanted to try it for myself. I picked up the product in Ash Brown and I've been using it daily since! Read on for a full review.

The reasons I was on the lookout for something new were twofold: first of all, I wanted to try a different texture. The & Other Stories eyebrow cream has a tendency to get a bit flaky if I touch up my brows after the product has dried, and I've also noticed that my the eyebrow cream is prone to smudging, especially if I've been using my camera (looking through the viewfinder, pressing the camera to my eyesocket). A second reason I wanted to try something new is that I wanted to try a different intensity of eyebrow: a softer, more natural look. While most light haired people look best with an eyebrow that is about one to two shades darker than their own hair, dark haired people look good with a brow that is a tiny bit lighter than their hair. 

In Belgium, Planet Parfum is (by my knowledge) the only store that sells Anastasia Beverly Hills products, so I dropped my my local Planet Parfum to get myself acquainted with the product. I first tried it in Ebony, but the cream applied so intensely that the effect was too harsh for my taste. Ash Brown was a lot lighter than the colour I had expected to suit me best, but the cream gives a coverage that is very buildable so I'd advise you to get the lighter shade if you're in doubt.

Pro tip: rather than buying your Dipbrow Pomade at Planet Parfum after finding your best colourmatch, surf over to beautybay and get it for €18, which is a whopping €11 less than at Planet Parfum. I also picked up the recommended brow brush (the large synthetic duo brush) to get the full effect.

Here is a clear comparison of & Other Stories' eyebrow cream in Triptych Coal versus ABH's dipbrow pomade in Ash Brown. As you can see, Ash Brown is a bit lighter, more creamy and more saturated. Triptych Coal is darker, more prone to sheering out along the edges, and drier, setting more quickly.

And this is what the two products look like on my brows. Both allow for sharp application, although I have to say that ABH's dipbrow pomade works better to get that sharp tail (outer ends of the eyebrow). The product also definitely surpasses & Other Stories' eyebrow cream in staying power, staying in place all day and barely smudging if I rub my eyebrows. To show the effect of the lighter eyebrow colour in context, let's zoom out.

For comparison's sake, this is a shot of my typical application of Triptych Coal.

The darker colour gives a harsher look, and the application isn't as neat along the top arch or the eyebrow tail because of its smudging issues. Safe to say: I'm hooked!

I give this product two thumbs up, both for the awesome formula and for the wide shade selection that offers loads of cool toned options. The price may be a deterrant for some, but I see this lasting for a year before running out. Go get it already!