What it is: Elf Brow Laminating Gel is a waxy, strong-hold, brow styling product that can be used lightly for a natural look or heavily for a bolder look.

Price/Quantity: $8 for 0.27 oz / 7.8 grams

Availability: Elf, Ulta, Target, Walmart, Amazon

Shade Range: Only one shade (clear)

Packaging: Twist-open tube with an added double sided applicator. The main applicator is a spoolie and the two additional ones with the cap over top are a comb and mini brush. If I’m just doing a light application for a natural look, I don’t find the extra included applicators any more helpful than just the spoolie. For a heavier application to get a more “laminated” look, the mini brush was helpful. The spoolie holds A LOT of product. I have wiped off the excess into a tissue 3-4 times now and it continues to come out of the tube with more product than I want.

Smell/Fragrance: I don’t smell any fragrance but it does have a faint glue-like smell.

Expiration/Shelf Life: 6 months after opening.

Ingredients:

Performance

I’ve been using this a month or so now. I have a few other brow gel products and I’ve been reaching for this over those, so clearly I like it. There are things that annoy me about it though.

Texture/Consistency/Finish: This is described as a gel that dries down. I don’t agree with this description. To me this a primarily a brow wax and it does set down a little but it never fully dries. You can continue to move the brow hairs for however long you want but once it “dries”, if you attempt to add more or brush through the brow hairs again, the product will begin to look white and flakey on the brows.

Application: The way I apply this is by pulling the wand out from the tube, wiping off the excess either on a tissue or onto the neck of the container, and then LIGHTLY brushing through the hairs toward the front of the brows. I will use a clean brow spoolie to evenly disperse it through the hairs and get them in the shape that I want. Once that is done, I’ll apply the product more heavily to the outer tails of the brows, not worried about it looking heavy, because I use my finger tip to press the hairs against the skin. I have often applied more and continued fixing the tails of the brows without the issue of it looking heavy.

Longevity: If I don’t touch my brows, they will stay how I style them all day. Once in a while the outer tails will lift a little from the skin and I’ll just press them back down. This is something I don’t really do for “normal” everyday makeup but I like doing it for photos. This product holds the brows to the skin almost as well as the ABH Brow Freeze Gel. That one sets completely and stays “glued” all day but, this being more like a wax, has more ability to move with touch or strong facial expressions. As waxes go, this is the strongest-hold one I’ve tried.

Pros and Cons

Things I like:

• Very strong hold
• As long as I don’t touch my brows, they will stay in place all day
• Effective at holding down stubborn wire-y brow hairs
• Not crunchy-feeling (but does stiffen the hairs a little)
• Because it doesn’t dry fully, I can continue to make small adjustments to my brows as long as I want

Drawbacks and other considerations:

• Brush holds too much product
• Easy to apply too heavily and will then be visible on the brow hairs
• Combing through hairs once I’ve applied product (more than the amount needed to apply initial layer) can cause a flakey white appearance

Do I Recommend It?

For $8, yes. If this formula was in a container that offered me better control over how much I apply without having to reach for extra tools, I’d even pay more for it. If you aren’t too bothered by the extra steps, it might be worth checking out.  

Before and After

This is the way I normally do my brows for a more natural look. This is a very light application of product through the majority of the brow, with a bit more of a heavy application at the very tail end to help the hairs lay flatter against the skin. I did not use the extra double ended brush for this (just the spoolie and my finger tip to press the hairs down to the skin).

And here is my attempt at using this for the “laminated” look. For this I applied quite a bit of product throughout the entire brow, brushing them upward with the spoolie. To finish it up, I used the added mini brush the to maneuver the hairs into the shape I wanted. The very last image at the bottom is what the flakey white residue looks like at certain angles if you apply too much product. It’s not terrible but it can be annoying.

What it is: ABH Brow Freeze Gel is a clear brow gel with strong hold and a glossy finish that dries down and sets brows in whatever style you like. The formulation and thicker consistency is different than a regular brow gel, allowing for a little more versatility in how it can be used.

Price/Quantity: Full size is $26 for 0.24oz/7ml and the mini size is $13 for 0.15oz/4.5ml. The mini a slightly better value.

Availability: Anastasia Beverly Hills, Sephora, Kohl’s

Packaging: The outer part of the packaging has a soft-touch, rubberized feel. The wand is a plastic/rubber type of wand with two different lengths of bristles. One side has longer, more spaced apart bristles and allows for a lighter coating of product while the other side has shorter bristles that are spaced more closely together. Using the shorter side lays more product more quickly over the brows. Two sides of the wand also completely lack bristles at all and are just flat, so you can use it to press the brow hairs flush against the skin. Personally I find using my finger more effective than using the flat edge because that way I’m not adding more product while attempting to shape the brows. You can definitely apply too much and create a mess on the skin around the brows. I feel the wand holds a good amount of product so that I’m able to give both brows a light coating for a natural look without having to dip back into the container. If I apply it heavily to laminate the outer ends, I may dip back into the container once or twice.

Smell/Fragrance: No noticeable fragrance but I do smell a light chemical scent mixed with a moderate alcohol scent. If I apply it heavily, I can feel the cooling sensation of the alcohol as well. So far I haven’t noticed it irritating my eyes during application.

Expiration: 6 months after opening.

Ingredients:

WATER/AQUA/EAU, ALCOHOL DENAT., HYDROXYETHYL ACRYLATE/SODIUM ACRYLOYLDIMETHYL TAURATE COPOLYMER, POLYACRYLATE-2 CROSSPOLYMER, GLYCERIN, TROMETHAMINE, SORBITOL, ACRYLATES COPOLYMER, PANTHENOL, POLYSORBATE 60, SORBITAN ISOSTEARATE, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, CITRIC ACID, ALLANTOIN, ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN, SODIUM PCA, SODIUM LACTATE, ARGININE, ASPARTIC ACID, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, PCA, BIOTIN, PELVETIA CANALICULATA EXTRACT, LAMINARIA DIGITATA EXTRACT, GLYCINE, ALANINE, SERINE, THREONINE, VALINE, ISOLEUCINE, PROLINE, HISTIDINE, PHENYLALANINE, 1,2-HEXANEDIOL, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, BENZOIC ACID, MYRISTOYL PENTAPEPTIDE-17, SODIUM BENZOATE, PHENOXYETHANOL

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Performance

Texture/Consistency/Finish: Doesn’t feel lightweight like a standard brow gel, but thicker and stickier like honey. It goes on the brows totally clear and dries down completely holding the hairs strongly in place. Once it sets, it continues to look glossy. It reminds me of those skincare facial masks that are a clear gel that you allow to dry for about 15 minutes and then peel off, but in a tiny little container with a precision brush. 

There is a small amount of flaking that happens but it is far less than what I got with the Milani Brow Wax (review). If I work quickly and get it applied thoroughly before it starts drying, I have much less, and possibly zero flaking. What you see above is how it ends up looking most of the time when I just do a natural look with it. If I work too slow and apply a lot of product, it can start to gum up as I brush it through the hairs and cause way more visible residue.

Application: It combs through the brows just like a regular brow gel but the brush design is supposed to help you style your brows in different ways. I can use the side with the longer bristles to move and shape the hairs into place in a more natural looking way. The side with the shorter bristles makes it so that I coat the brows with a bit more product and lays the hairs closer to the skin — this gives me something between a natural look and a laminated look. And you can also use the flat side without any bristles to press the hairs flush to the skin.

It gets on the skin if you do anything more than a natural look with it and it leaves a glossy film around the brows. If I only get a small amount on the skin, it’s not a big deal, but if I do a laminated look, it’s a ton of shine on the skin and it looks like a mess. In this case, trying to brush it away is difficult. Using a spoolie to do this kind of peels it away, leaving some flakes around the brows in the process. Using a pointed cotton swab with some makeup remover or micellar water to clean up around the edges gives me a much better result.

Used heavily to laminate the brows, it holds really well. It holds better than a wax and very nearly as well as soap. Even if I make expressions and move my brows around a lot, the hairs stay in place. I am able to apply pomade and brow ink over it and those things adhere perfectly fine over the dried brow gel in areas where it is coated very heavily.

If I use it just to fluff up the brows, where I’m not getting much of the product on my skin, I can still work brow powder with a brush through the hairs and onto the skin underneath without difficulty getting the powder to adhere or moving the hairs. The hairs stay in place well during application and I don’t get any flaking from touching the dried gel.

Longevity: After 1 wear test of about 11 hours, my brows didn’t move one bit by the end of the day. They still looked exactly the way they did when I finished them in the morning. No added flaking, no hairs pulling up away from the skin, and still fluffed up in the front half of the brow.

Pros and Cons

Things I like:

• I like that this is a strong hold product that comes in a tube with an applicator. It makes application easier, faster, and simpler than a product in a pot.
• Works well for the brow style I like which is natural most days with the occasional time where I want to laminate the outer 1/3 down (especially for photographing eye looks).

Drawbacks and other considerations:

• It gets on the skin if you do anything more than a natural look with it and it leaves a glossy film around the brows. 
• Completely laminated, “soap brow” style is possible but leaves a mess on the skin around the brows that is difficult to avoid.
• Dries down to a stiff/crunchy feel.

 Worth Buying?

If you only see yourself using this for the purpose of lightly grooming and shaping your brows, it will give you about the same result as a regular brow gel. If that’s how you plan to use it and you already have a brow gel, this probably won’t add a whole lot of usefulness. However, if you like the idea of having a little more flexibility with a single product that can do both natural and more bold brows, it might be worth trying. Likewise, if you have more coarse brow hairs and need an extra strong hold product, I could see this possibly being more effective than a regular brow gel. For fully laminated brows, I prefer the less glossy look of brow waxes and soap, but this one works decently well if you only laminate a small portion.

Natural Look

Partially Laminated Look

“Soap Brow” Look

Milani Stay Put Liquid Brow Wax is a product for shaping and holding brow hairs in place. It is a colorless wax and does not come in tinted versions but can be combined with other brow products (powders, brow pens, etc.) to add color. It similar in concept to a clear brow gel but feels different to the touch (not crunchy), and has more hold but remains flexible all day. The tube is about the same size as a mini mascara, contains 5ml, and can be purchased for $11 from Milani or Ulta.

Of all the new Milani things I picked up, this was surprisingly my favorite one. I almost didn’t even get it. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like anything different or special and I already have plenty of things I can use to set my brows into place.

In my skepticism “liquid wax” sounded like just another gel. But this truly does work like a liquid wax. The hold is much better than what I get with standard brow gels and is very nearly into brow soap territory. I imagine it would work well with coarser, more textured brow hair. Because it stays flexible, I can keep messing with the shape of my brows until I’m happy or fix them later in the day. As I’m applying it, the product hardens and the hair becomes less pliable within seconds, but it never causes my brows to feel crunchy or stiff.

It is supposed to dry down clear – it doesn’t. From straight on, it looks completely transparent, but at certain angles, it has a very faint white cast to it and I can kind of see it sitting on top my brow hairs. Sometimes I see a few tiny clumps. The more heavily I apply it, the more of an issue it becomes. The clumps are generally small and you can use brow powder over top to tone down or hide the white color. As long as I distribute the wax evenly, it isn’t terribly obvious. I’m not too bothered by this but I could see it being annoying to some.

Be careful to apply it sparingly because it can build up quickly and cause the hairs to end up plastered against the skin. That’s not a bad thing but it may not be your desired effect. The brush holds a reasonable amount of product – not too much, not too little. It has lots of very tiny bristles and spreads all the brow hairs out evenly. It’s a much nicer brush than the ones on the ends of my various spoolies. 

As I mentioned before, it builds up quickly and once that happens it is hard to “go back” without removing the product. If all you want is a natural-looking, light hold here’s a tip:

Once you get just the right amount applied to get the desired hold, stop using the included applicator to maneuver brow hair into place. Switch to a separate, clean spoolie so you aren’t adding more product while adjusting the hairs into place.

It is possible to get the “soap brow” look with this. If I want to apply it heavily, I will drag the wand slowly and firmly against the brows, adding 2 or 3 layers. The included applicator presses the hairs flat on its own but you could use a separate tool like the Elf Brow Lift Applicator or just the handle end of a brush. This holds the hair very well against the skin and I can use powders, ink pens, etc. over top and they adhere fine over the wax.

Using the product this way almost works as well as actual soap. The hairs generally stay well all day on the outer half of my brows but hairs on the inner part are more stubborn and want to pop up away from the skin early in the day.

The Covergirl Easy Breezy Brow Ink Pen is a dual-ended felt tip brow product and spoolie available for around $10 and comes in 4 shades. It is supposed to be able to create fine hairlike strokes and be smudge resistant. 

I have the shade Soft Brown which is a sheer medium brown that isn’t too warm. At first I noticed it looked a bit green but it wasn’t noticeable once I had the product in my brows. After using it a couple times, that green tint seemed to go away.

The very first time I used this, I was impressed. It actually did give me a lot of control and I was able to get very thin lines with somewhat sheer but buildable color payoff (good for ease of use and making brows look more natural). As the days went on, I noticed it started taking on the precision of a brow powder rather than a brow pen and the felt tip became more and more dry. I tried storing the product pen tip down and that helps a little, but it still runs out of ink as soon as I fill in one brow.

The base of the felt tip still holds product even when the tip has dried out, so it is still usable. If I hold the pen at an angle, I can use the fat side of it to quickly cover a large portion of the brows, drawing thicker lines through the center of them. After, I will use a tiny angled brush and a brow powder to fill in any uneven edges that I couldn’t get right with the brow pen.

I have gone between brush tips and felt tips before with eyeliners and found brush tips almost always create finer, more controlled lines than felt tips do. One thing about brush tips, is that they tend to deposit a lot of product and look heavy and harsh. It had been a while since I tried a new felt tip product and I went into this hoping things improved.

The spoolie brush on the end was what drew me to this and I would love to see this concept incorporated into brush tip brow products because I find a spoolie necessary for those kinds of products. However, for this one, it really isn’t needed because the color payoff is sheer enough and precision is low enough that it sort of blends itself.

I don’t see myself repurchasing this when it completely dries out. I like that I found a good way to make it work, but I feel like you’re better off passing on this product if you want it specifically for the hair-like strokes you are supposed to be able to get with a brush tip pen. 

The NYX Lift & Snatch Brow Tint Pen is a brush-tip brow product that comes in 10 shades and retails for $12. The product inside is a semi-sheer liquid, similar to an eyeliner but not as pigmented and the brush tip is very fine and offers a high level of control. I have used maybe 5 or 6 products like this over the past several years. The one I’m currently most familiar with is the ABH Brow Pen (links to my review) and I’ll share my thoughts on how they compare later on.

I use this like I would use an eyeliner or a pen and I draw individual hairlike strokes where I feel that my brows look a bit sparse. If what I draw comes out too harsh, I will take a clean spoolie and lightly brush through where I applied it after it has had a minute to dry down. This will soften the effect. If I have over-softened it, I will simply redraw over the area again until I get it how I want it.

I can use this by itself or together with other types of brow products. My favorite way to use it is for small detail work at the very front part of the brow and then fill in the rest with a brow powder or micro pencil (like ABH Brow Wiz, for example). If I use it by itself for the entire brow, I can create a very natural and perfected look but this can be time consuming and I don’t always get a consistent result. How well I apply it is highly dependent on how relaxed/patient I feel in the moment. Being calm and having plenty of time helps with having a steady hand.

It takes a little bit of practice to get used to a brush tip brow product and even after getting the hang of it, if I skip a week or two of using it, I can become out of practice. I will say if I’m in a rush or feeling extra stressed or tired, this is not the product I want to reach for in the morning. But after having a brush tip brow product like this, I would never want to be without one. It’s a great addition to have if brows are important to you.

How It Compares To The ABH Brow Pen

I have used both of these pens side by side and there isn’t that much of a noticeable difference between them. The slight difference in color is hard to tell unless I’m really inspecting and looking for it. The NYX brush looks finer and sharper but the lines I get aren’t that different. The ABH Brow Pen draws very slightly finer lines and I feel like I can control the ABH pen a bit more. The NYX one seems a little easier to wiggle. Maybe the thicker base of the ABH brush helps give it some stability? For the way I apply this type of product, the difference really isn’t noticeable unless I’m looking way up close.

The NYX pen is a way better value. You get .5 mL of product for $22 with ABH and 1mL for $11 with NYX. For reference, I have had my ABH Brow Pen for about a year and a half. It is a little more dried out now than when I first got it but it doesn’t seem to be running out of product yet.

I have the shade Ash Brown in the NYX pen which is similar to Medium Brown from ABH, just a bit lighter and warmer. The color payoff from my NYX pen is a little sheerer and more transparent than ABH. I have at times gone over an area once or twice more to build up the color if it didn’t come out as dark as I wanted. The depth of the shade is more noticeable if I do a thick swatch on the back of my hand. Using these pens the way I do in my brows, drawing very fine lines, the difference is much less visible.

The lighter shade of the NYX pen makes it more forgiving if I do a wonky job of filling in my brows and it’s light enough that I often skip brushing through with a spoolie to soften it.

If you’re deciding between these two, they are so very similar that I don’t think you can go wrong either way. Go with the brand that has the best shade match for you or that has the price you feel most comfortable with.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission when you make purchases through them.

The Anastasia Beverly Hills Micro-Stroking Detailing Brow Pen is claimed to be “a waterproof, superfine-tipped pen ideal for creating realistic hair-strokes that will give you your most natural-looking brows yet”. It contains 0.5 ml / 0.017 fl oz of product and it retails for $22.

These types of brow pens have been around for a little while now. The one I’m most familiar with is Mac’s Shape + Shade Brow Tint Pen which creates more transparent strokes than this one. I found that one really easy and pretty fool-proof to use but at times I felt the need to keep building up the color to get it to show up in photos.

I purchased this in the shade Medium Brown, which I’ve used before in ABH’s Brow Wiz. The color is a pretty close match to the Brow Wiz, maybe slightly more olive toned. The product is quite pigmented and goes on darker than I was expecting. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not what I’m used to. I think it’s just something takes some practice to get the hang of.

You can draw fairly fine strokes with it but you do have to have a steady hand to do so. It is easy to apply too much pressure and end up with thicker lines than intended. 

Though this is claimed to be waterproof, I don’t think that necessarily translates to being budge proof. Applied over any type of moisturizer, which many people wear, or even just slightly oily skin can cause the product to be prone to rubbing off. It’s not like a stain.

I use this to define the tail ends of my brows and draw in a few tiny strokes in areas where I have gaps in the hair. To me, filling in gaps with this pen will give the most natural looking result that would work well for “normal” everyday wear in real life. This is easier to do in areas with obvious gaps. In areas where I have a lot of hair, though, it’s better to use a brow powder to fill in the color. It’s very easy to lose control of the brush tip where there is too much hair in the way.

I like this enough to keep using it for now but I’m not sure I’d repurchase it after it runs out. I might go back to the Mac Shape + Shade in a darker shade. I found the more transparent formula of that one to be more forgiving if I didn’t do the best job with application.