Eyebrows are important. Not just from a vanity standpoint, they're also a key facial recognition feature. I don't mean that in the way when you clock someone with atrocious brows and it's burned into your visual memory because that is brow-shame-y, but truly, changing your brows is the most efficient wholesale way to give your entire face a makeover.
As someone who jumped at the opportunity to volunteer as tribute in the early days of microblading, I can attest that that's true. I don't regret my microblading experience, but I was told that it would last about two years before fading completely and lo and behold, four years later, there are still hints of the little hairline strokes, now blurry and bled into each other to form a faint brownish shadow behind my brow hairs. Not the worst, but definitely not ideal. Because I find that most brow pens and pencils aren't thin enough to create hair-like strokes, I've been using brow pomade with a thin, angled brush.
Then, this genius-sounding product came into existence. Maybelline New York's Tattoo Studio Brow Tint Pen is a felt-tipped pen with a forked tip so you can draw on those hairline strokes that mimic the look of microblading. After seeing blogger Tina Yong try this new-fangled brow pen, I knew I had to be the next Yong to give it a shot (heh). The Tattoo Studio Brow Pen comes in four shades: Blonde, Soft Brown, Medium Brown, and Deep Brown. I chose Deep Brown.
These are my naked brows. My ghost of microblading past has a bit of a reddish-brown stain that you can see here.
Maybelline New York's brow pen has a good firm tip, which makes it easy for drawing. I figured the fork-like tip would be really great for making the sparse areas behind the hair look fuller, and then if you tilt the pen so you're just using the narrow edge you could easily define the tail end of the brows that way. This was certainly not my first time at the brow rodeo.
There were a few hitches at first. The tint came out a bit streaky and didn't want to adhere to my skin. Using it after my foundation and makeup had been done seemed to be the culprit, especially when elongating my brow tails (the main thing I'm concerned with when I do my brows). Those first few attempts were a bit streaky, but after cleaning the whole area with a cotton bud soaked in micellar water, letting that dry, and starting over with clean skin, the lines were much sharper. That said, if you're going to try this, maybe do your brows first in your makeup routine.
Overall, it was pretty easy to use, save for that little hiccup. The ink faded a bit throughout the day but didn't bleed over too much, so my brows retained the shape I drew them in. I may not have the makeup skills of some beauty bloggers, but that would be the beauty of this innovative little pen — it does a lot of the work for you. All you need is a steady hand.
See? It's not a huge difference, but that isn't quite the point. Don't get me wrong, you're not really supposed to have the exact microblading look (I mean, definitely go to a pro for that please), it's just supposed to make creating those hairline strokes that much easier.
All I really want from a brow product is the definition of "my brows but better." Nothing too defined or shapely, just a zhuzhing up of my own brow density and a slightly more defined tail. This forked pen is brilliant for people who also just want to fill in sparse areas without looking like your brows are very done, you know?
The effect is very "Oh these brows? Why, I barely touch them at all."
And who doesn't want an opportunity to brow-brag, right? Not a bad deal for a drugstore brow pen that's less than $10. You can find the Maybelline New York Tattoo Studio Brow Tint Pen at Ulta and local drugstores for $9.99.
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