When you say brows, there are only two brands that really made a name for themselves in the beauty world. On the one hand we have Anastasia Beverly Hills and on the other there is Benefit. I haven’t tried much by ABH: the brand just doesn’t appeal to me and I have a tendency to prefer drugstore brands for brow products. One of my favorite brow products is Essence’s Make Me Brow, which is a dupe for none other for Benefit’s Gimme Brow. It was about time, I tried the original, don’t you think?
Benefit Gimme Brow Brow Gel // Review, Swatch, Makeup Look
The main reason why I had never tried this? The price point! I am not sure why, but brows is not something I tend to splurge on. I have no issue spending €113 on a palette, but to pay nearly €30 for a brow gel was a big step for me. My brows aren’t necessarily a feature that need a lot of help. In fact, they need a bit more taming more so than anything else. So to spend €28 on a brow gel seemed a bit steep to me. So the question is: is this worth the money?
The Packaging
You have to give it to Benefit: their packaging is always on point. It is sometimes a bit too cutesy, but for a brow gel there isn’t all that much you can do in terms of packaging. So I think this is probably the most you could get out of it. It has a sleek design and it is easy enough to hold and I feel you have a lot of control with this.
The Brow Gel
So what makes Gimme Brow so special I hear you say? To be quite honest there is a lot I have heard about it, but I never really felt this product looked like anything special. All it does is keep brow hairs in place: so so what? From what I have heard the formula of this should be great and it should have a good hold on your brows without making them feel crispy. It is also one of a few brow gels that comes in more than just 2 shades, so that is another thing it has going for it.
The Applicator
As with more brow gels, you apply Gimme Brow with a spoolie that is covered in product. This spoolie has a pointed tip that allows you to be a bit more detailed if you’d like and the spoolie is small enough to easily fit into your brows. That is something is definitely has going for it: the spoolie combs through your brows with absolutely no effort and it distributes product quite nicely.
The Swatch
When I was deciding which shade to get I wasn’t sure and I ended up buying shade 3 upon recommendation of the sales lady. It is more cool toned than the shades below this and that suits my brows better. I also have quite dark brows compared to my natural hair color so I knew it could potentially work. The formula of this is quite wet and that is something I am not a fan of: it gloops your brow hairs together and there is too much on the spoolie when you first take it out of the tube. Additionally lots of product gathers at the bottom of the spoolie: it just sits there and eventually dries out and you get this weird hard ring of product that starts sliding down the wand.
The Application
Let’s start with a positive about this once it has been applied: the final result. I haven’t has such feathery brows in my life time. This product nicely defines the brow hairs and really gives you that fuller brow look. This is what I am going for personally when I do my brows. But there is also a downside to this: it is messy. Where I can just slap on the Essence Make Me Brow and not give it much thought, Benefit’s Gimme Brow smudges everywhere when I apply it. It catches onto the smallest of brow hairs, coating them with product and I easily spill product above my brow hair line. It is easy enough to clean up though, but it is just not as easy as I would like it to be.
My Final Thoughts
I was hoping I would get the hype that Benefit’s Gimme Brow has been getting all these years, but sadly I don’t. This is a mediocre brow product for me at best. The product itself is too wet and combined with that sublime spoolie, I feel it just doesn’t work for me. I do think that I will want to clean off that spoolie once I am done with this as this is one of the best spoolies I have ever tried. I could reuse it with my Essence Make Me Brow, which I know I will go back to, or keep it clean for a quick brush through before my brows set in place. At this price point, I expect perfection and this just isn’t that for me.