Anastasia Beverly Hills Dupes??

Since I first tried Anastasia Beverly Hills brow products I instantly fell in love with them, whether it’s their Brow Powder, Brow Wiz or Dip Brow Pomade, using one of them at a time or sometimes all 3 at once I just love them. They are my Holy Grail brow products but Holy Grail as they are, they are also super expensive so I am always on the lookout for something just as good quality and an acceptable price tag.

If you’re an avid reader of Beauty Blunders, you might have also noticed that another brand I love is Makeup Revolution, so when I had seen that they released a new brow pen and brow cream I knew I had to try them and see if they compared in any way to the Brow Wiz and the Dip Brow Pomade.

I’ll start off with the Ultra Aqua brow tint; I had really high hopes for this cream. All the pictures I had seen showed really defined brows so I figured it would be just like the Dipbrow Pomade. While the product is really pigmented it just didn’t have the same effect as the Dipbrow and I would still have to put a pencil through my brows to fill the rest in. I can’t fault the price though £3.00/€3.79 so I can’t be too disappointed with it not coming up to scratch against the Dipbrow.

(Left) Ultra Brow Arch & Shape - More Defined
(Right) Ultra Aqua Brow tint - Less defined

The next brow product I tried was the Dual Ultra Brow Arch and Shape. So this wasn’t an exact match to the ABH Brow Wiz but I did find myself picking it up more than my Brow Wiz. It has a pencil top like the Brow Wizz but it’s waxier which is great for keeping any stray hairs in place, at the other end there is a felt marker tip that gives a faint tint. I don’t really use the felt tip end, I mostly use the pencil end and when I do I always go a bit heavier then needed and comb it out with a spoolie as it removes and excess leaving the perfect amount. While this isn’t exactly like the Brow Wizz it does look more like the Soap and Glory Brow Archery pencil which I also have, but I would say this is so much better and cheaper too at £3.50/€4.42. I think this one will be a repurchase for me; it’s probably one of the best budget pencils I’ve ever used.

So I haven’t found any dupes for my favourite Anastasia Beverly Hills products yet but the search is still on. If you are in the market for a budget friendly brow product that lasts all day then I would really recommend the Makeup Revolution Brow Dual Ultra Arch and Shape.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

My Current Brow Routine and Obsession

I have a major love for eyebrows. For me there’s no point in having amazing makeup if you’re not going to bring your eyebrows into the mix.

I love getting my eyebrows done; I get them threaded every 4-6 weeks in Elysian Brown on South William Street. They are a bit pricey but from experiencing other cheaper salons that do threading they really are worth the money. For years I was going to BT2 in Dundrum to get them done, the girl there was amazing and always threw in a free head massage, unfortunately she ended up getting deported which left me in limbo and with butchered eyebrows for a few months before I found the holy grail of eyebrow threading  in Elysian Brows. It was a real first world problem but eyebrows really frame the face and for me even if I don’t have any proper makeup on as long as my brows are lovely and groomed then I can get away with having no makeup out in public.

I used to get my brows tinted but after getting my hair blonder I stopped doing that, I also fill in my brows so that does any darkening up I need. Before I went to America I was using just any light brown pencil to fill them in and the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow powder.

I love the Anastasia Beverly Hills brow products, at the moment you can only buy them in Elysian Brows in Dublin or you can buy them online. I waited to buy more of their brow products when I was in the States, I headed straight to Sephora when I got their and picked up the Dipbrow Pomade and the Brow Wizz brow pencil.

I have the Brow Wizz in Soft Brown and Dark Brown. I bought the Soft brown and the Dark Brown was in one of my Sephora Favourites boxes. I use the Dark Brown to draw in the ends of my brows and to get a sculpted shape between the middle of my eye to the end of the brow. The Soft brown is used to fill in the front of my brows and shape everything up that end. If I used the Dark Brown all over my brows it would probably look a bit Scouse brow but by using the colours at either end make it a lot more natural looking. This is all I do now for my daily brow routine like going to work or just a Saturday afternoon.

Too step my routine up for night time or just to make them even more sculpted I do the same routine with the Brow Wizz but I add in the Dipbrow Pomade just to make them more defined. I have a dual ended spooly that I bought from Crown Brush which has a little angled brush at the end which I use to apply the pomade. Again I mostly apply it towards the end of the brow but if you really want that HD Brow look then you can apply it at the start of the brow. When I have all that done I take a little bit of concealer and just clean everything up, doing this really highlights the brow and really defines it.

Above: Brows shaped with Dip Brow Pomade and Brow Wizz.
Below: Natural brow with no product.

So I have a bit of a brow obsession, I’m very particular about who does my brows and what goes on them but having such bushy brows that grow pretty quickly and crazily it’s one thing that I need to have perfect.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I’m not the only one out there with the love of brows!

Love Sarah xoxo

Soap and glory Archery Brow Tint & Precision Pencil

I love eyebrows, there’s nothing more satisfying for me than perfect eyebrows. I get some serious brow envy sometimes especially looking at the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Jaclyn Hill or Kim Kardashian, their eyebrows are the most amazing perfect things I’ve ever seen.

For my brows I usually use a pencil, I’ve no particular brand I use, but I have the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo which I love and if I don’t use the powder I use one of the MAC shadows I have in my palette.

So the point of this post is to tell you about the new brow product in my life, the Soap and Glory Archery brow pencil.

This is a duo pen, on one end is a twist up pencil to shape the brow and on the other is felt pen to tint and fill in the brow. It only comes in two colours, either Love is Blonde or Brownie Points. Even though I’m blonde I have dark brows so I got the pen in Brownie Points.

Before and After

The felt part of the pen I love, usually I just fill in my brows with a pencil, which can be a bit harsh on your brows and depending on what pencil I’ve used it’s taken a hair or two as it filled them in so I love how the felt pen isn’t harsh. It’s also super quick and easy at filling them in.  The only thing that annoyed me about the felt part was that it dried out sometimes and you had to turn it upside down to get the tint to go back to the top.

The pencil part I didn’t totally love, it crumbled a lot. If you don’t have the pencil twisted back into the pen then the lid cracks it which really annoyed me and you think I would have learnt my lesson the first or second time that I did it but I’ve kept doing it so I’m sure I’ve lost a lot of product because of that.

The pencil cost €13.00, which I think is slightly more expensive than it should be but that could just be because I only loved half of it. It could also be in more colours, having only 2 in the range meant I had to go with the darker shade and sometimes my brows can look very dark after applying it.

So I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it! My brows actually looked well when I used it so I suppose it wasn’t all bad but I don’t think I’ll be buying it again as I’ve been waiting till America to get the Anastasia Brow Wiz and Dipbrow Pomade, even though I can get them at Elysian Brow in town but I think it’s cheaper in the States.

So have you tried Archery? Let me know what you thought of it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

My week in photos

Sunday

After the amazing and heart stopping victory over the French to win the 6 Nations last weekend, my friend and I went to Dublin Airport to welcome the team home. We waited nearly 2 hours to see the boys, the crowds where crazy and I finally got the perfect spot beside the elevator to get snaps off them all!

Brian O'Driscoll

Rob Kearney

Cian Healy

Paul O'Connell (and the Trophy)

Monday

I didn't live up to the Irish stereotype of getting blind drunk on St. Patrick's Day, instead I stayed at home and watched the parade. I did eventually get dressed and tested out some tan products from Cocoa Brown.

Testing out Cocoa Brown

Tuesday

On Tuesday I went to the O2 to see Drake with my friend Megan. This was my second time to see him, the arena wasn't as full as last time but the crowd where still buzzing. I bought the most ghetto looking outfit I could find and I fitted in perfectly, in fact I was probably a little over dressed compared to some of the other girls.

Wednesday

My brows where looking a little crazy and I had an interview on Thursday so I needed to look my best so I booked into Elysian Brow. They're my go to place to get threaded, the girls in there really know their stuff.

Thursday

When I had my facial last week I was recommended by the girls in Pink Beauty to try Nimue Cleansing Gel and Conditioner Tonic. They didn't have any in stock so they ordered it in for me, so on Thursday I picked them up. My boyfriend was with me at the time and gave out to me for spending so much on "crap" for my face, he was so disappointed he's given me a spending ban (we'll see how long that lasts).

Friday

I was in work all day friday and after I went to see Starred Up with my boyfriend, so when I got home I had my March Glossybox waiting for me. This month it had Vita Liberata tan samples, Dove 60 second hair treatment, a Sleek Pout Polish in a limited edition Caribbean collection, a Mitchell and Peach body cream and a Bellapierre Cosmetics shimmer powder.

I don't think this week will be as eventful but we'll see!

Hope you all had a good weekend 😃

Love Sarah xoxo