I don’t wear makeup. In fact, I’ve probably worn makeup on less than twenty days in my entire life (one of those days was my wedding day). While I’m comfortable with my makeup-less face, the one small complaint that I do have about it is that I seem to have no eyebrows or eyelashes. This is one of the curses of the natural blonde. (The other one is the jokes.)
Eyebrows and eyelashes, like fezzes, are cool, and I would have liked to have some. Sadly, mascara application is something that I fail at. It comes out all uneven and clumpy, so I resigned myself to a life with no eyebrows or eyelashes. Laziness and not caring were very much factors in this decision. Until I found the only make-up routine that works for me…
A few months before I got married, I decided that I wanted to have eyebrows in my wedding photos, and one of my friends told me that I HAD to get my eyebrows tinted.
I initially laughed at the suggestion. I’ve never even dyed my hair, so it seemed like quite a big leap for me. But I decided to at least give it a shot.
With some trepidation, I went to the booth in the local shopping centre that advertises all kinds of eyebrow treatments. My sister came to hold my hand. After all this psyching myself up, I’m told that I have to come back another day, because they use henna dye and have to do a patch test to check for allergies.
Having duly ascertained that I didn’t have a reaction, we tried again, and this time we were successful. It was fast, less than fifteen minutes in total. For my eyebrows they basically applied the dye, then wiped it off a few minutes later, and checked I was happy with the colour.
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My eyelashes were slightly more complicated. They applied a protective layer to the area around my eye before applying the dye, and I had to keep my eyes shut for a few minutes before they took it off. That was a bit weird, but my sister kept talking to me the whole time. My eyes smarted slightly when they’d finished, but that quickly passed.
The results initially panicked me. (My face! It looks different!) But I soon got used to it, and even grew to like it. (Yay, my eyes don’t look so lonely in my face anymore!) So much so, in fact, that I’ve decided that this is a make-up routine I can live with. It only has to be done every six weeks, I don’t have to learn how to do it myself, and best of all it adds zero minutes to my morning routine.
Anyone else apply permanent or semi-permanent make-up? If not, what are your lazy make-up hacks?
I honestly had never even thought about tinting eyebrows and eyelashes. I’m fortunate to have dark hair everywhere (although I still like to darken my eyelashes by wiping eyeliner on them occasionally), but I would LOVE to see some before and after pictures, if you have any. My sister (blonde) has started putting eyeliner on her eyebrows to darken them, but I bet she would be really interested in this.
I love this tinted brow gel: http://www.sephora.com/tinted-brow-gel-P187202
It’s super easy (literally takes half a second to do) and you get the effect of darkened eyebrows without having to deal with precision eyebrow pencil application.
I had kind of been under the impression that dyeing your eyebrows and lashes was illegal in some areas – does it depend on where you are, or since it’s a tint with henna is it therefore safer?
It has been illegal in many places- particularly eye lashes- they’re more lenient on eye brows. It depends on state and local laws so look into it. They use henna or vegetable dyes for these spots.
As a fellow natural blonde with no eyelashes or eyebrows, I love this idea! I wear makeup every day because I also have a bad complexion, but even on “no makeup” days I usually put on mascara and tinted brow gel.
I have a $5 box of regular haircolor that I’ve used for years now to dye my eyebrows (mix a teeny glob from each bottle together on a plate, apply to eyebrows (NOT!!! eyelashes) with old toothbrush, wash off after 10 minutes or whatever the box says) but it only lasts about 2 weeks and I still have to “fill in” where the super-blonde-maybe-white hairs just won’t color. I’ve been in love with the idea of more permanent colors and dying my lashes but haven’t built up the courage to take the plunge with all the FDA ramblings about how I could go blind, etc. If anyone has specific products or formulas to recommend, I’d love to hear it!
Yup, my eyelashes and eyebrows are on the light side–not totally blonde, but definitely lighter than my natural medium-brown hair, or my currently dark auburn hennaed hair. About half of my regular days I do mascara and eyebrow powder. (With the right brush, I like powder more than pencil because it’s a lot quicker and it’s easier to wipe off little mistakes with my finger.) For the other half I’ll just do the eyebrows, since I like the look when they match my hair more. It’s super fast after a lot of daily practice!
I’m planning to grow out the henna for now, but if I do it again maybe I’ll try a little swipe on my brows for a few minutes. Though I’m way too protective of my eyes (seriously bad eye issues) to ever try dyeing my eyelashes.
For my wedding my Maid of Honor (and resident GURU) did my makeup. She drew in my eyebrows (they’re so light they could be blonde). I hardly recognized myself when she did….it looked so good! I’ve never even thought of getting them dyed that way…
I’ve never had any use for eyebrow makeup, but I love my tinted lip balm. It’s lipstick for lazy people!
I’m in Australia – I’ve had my eyelashes dyed about 5 or 6 times. It usually stings a little bit afterwards but not for too long. I’ve never done it myself, it’s only about $15 to get done. I’ve never had my eyebrows done but I have been contemplating it – sick of filling in my eyebrows now that I have dyed my hair, lol.
I had my eyelashes dyed once, it was awesome! (My friend who owns a spa in LA sprang it on me while I was visiting her.) I’d just wake up and have mascara. All day fucking long. I’d do it again, but I’m SO lazy that I’m too lazy to make an appt.
I live in the UK and have my eyelashes and brows tinted once a fortnight. they’re translucent and I don’t feel like myself if they’re not tinted. I never knew that its not a common thing in the US!
I also have my brows waxed once a fortnight, file, buff and paint my nails every other day, fill in my eyebrows with powder daily and wear eyeliner and mascara every day. I literally don’t identify with the person I see in the mirror if I don’t have my face on.
My mom got her eyebrows tattooed on and it actually looks super awesome! I didn’t even notice until she told me, though I don’t see her very often in person. Still, it really looks good and it works really great for her because she didn’t have much eyebrow hair anymore so now she just has to tweezer out the few random hairs that do show up once in a while and she’s good to go.