Estée Lauder Automatic Brow Duo Review

Those of you who have met me in person, or seen any one of the torturous number of selfies I post, will know I have the most pathetic eyebrows known to man. I was a 90′s teen which meant I went to school with over-plucked eyebrows and a healthy slather of Rimmel’s Coffee Shimmer on my lips. Old school photos make me cringe!

You might have read that I’m on a mission to grow back my eyebrows and have set a deadline of February to get them thick enough for a thread and tint. In my arsenal is Mychelle’s Ultimate Lash and Brow which is a patented Myracle Peptide enriched serum designed to stimulate the production of keratin leaving your brows fuller, thicker and longer. This is neatly doing its job in the background as I go about daily life, but it’s taking lots of willpower to leave them a shaggy mess in the meantime. The temptation to whip out the tweezers during X Factor is almost too much to bear.

So in a bid to create the allusion of structure, I’m now using Estée Lauder’s Automatic Brow Duo, and am absolutely loving it.

It’s a retractable kohl with an angled shaping brush at the other end. These are a godsend if you have children who like exploring your make-up bag; a pencil sharpener might as well be a machete in the hands of a two-year-old! It’s also dermatologist-tested, ophthalmologist-tested & fragrance-free (good to know if you have sensitive skin, but not essential given it’ll have minimum contact with your skin). You also have a spare refill cartridge, so more than a year’s worth for the £19.00 (RRP) pricetag.

The angled brush is great for blending and tidying, and strong enough to withstand a punishing grooming routine.

Application is easy - I’ve heard some people niggle that they have to press harder than they would have liked, but I don’t find this at all. I want a natural look, not to scare my friends and family turning up to their houses trussed up like Cruella de Vil! The trick is to aim for one to two shades lighter than your hair colour - the soft brown tone therefore gives me the most natural look.

To get the perfect shape would be virtually impossible for me at the moment as I have too big a gap between each brow, and have taken far too much depth out of them so they sit too high on my face. To fill in this area would look very artificial so I’ve just made the best of what I have (which isn’t much). Nevertheless, my arch is much stronger and there’s more depth and fullness to my brows - making that nose look much smaller!

Once set with a light sweep of powder, your shape will last all day, notwithstanding a session down the gym, a dip at the local pool, or a rainstorm. There’s no budging until you whip out the eye make-up remover. Perfect.

This has made me feel more confident about my self-inflicted barely-brows, and is the perfect interim measure before I’m able to get a professional on the case.

You can buy directly from the Estée Lauder website for £19.00 with free delivery (where they’ll also pop a few a samples in with your order) or pop into John Lewis, Selfridges or Boots to try before you buy. Refills cost £9.50. You can also head to Twitter and Facebook to see what’s new and read more customer reviews.