Product Review: Anastasia Brow Ex-press

By Melissa Barlow on December 11th, 2009

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Since Prescriptives has essentially closed their doors and will be out of department stores by the end of next month, I recently began a search for a new brow powder. I had my eyebrows shaped at the Anastasia Brow Studio in Beverly Hills a few years back after a two month long, self-imposed tweezing ban, and loved the results. My brow expert waxed, tweezed, trimmed and filled in my brows to perfection and, of course, tried to sell me the brow powder she used as well. But I didn’t give in, I was happy with what I was already using.

Now that my Prescriptives is pretty much gone, I decided why not try a line that was created specifically for brows. I recently picked up the Anastasia Brow Ex-press palette in Brunette, and I’m really happy with the purchase. Anastasia Soare, brow specialist to the stars, (Madonna and JLo are fans) has built a beauty empire out of her eyebrow obsession and believes, as I do, that a well shaped brow can change your face and is imperative to good grooming.

Brow Ex-press is a small, conveniently purse sized palette that has everything you need to shape and care for your brows on the go. The kit contains: two brow powders, a lighter shade and a darker one, so you can custom blend you exact shade, as well as a cream highlighter for accentuating the brow bone, a non-colored brow wax, a small angled brush, and four different stencils to help guide you in your shaping.

As for the stencils, everyone is different and you may find that the stencils look too big for most brows. If they are too big, you can always use them for guidelines and to help find your arch if you are a little iffy about where it should be. While I didn’t buy the kit for the stencils, since I am happy with my current brow shape, they really do help when I’m tweezing so I don’t pluck an essential hair. Simply fill in your brows before tweezing and only remove the hair that isn’t covered in powder.

The powders in this kit blend well and go on smoothly. I haven’t had any fading or smudging problems, and the setting wax keeps the unruly, stick straight out hairs in check (does anyone else have those?). The brush is nice and stiff without being scratchy. Still, I prefer my Jane Iredale Angle brush so I really am only using the enclosed brush for touch ups. Remarkably, though, there have been very few occasions lately where I’ve needed a tail touch up.

So it looks like I’ve found a new staple (for now). I love the portability and ease of Brow Ex-press, especially as I am one of those women who must drag everything I own along with me in my massive purse. Oh yeah, if you would like to have you brows “Anastasia’ed,” but don’t live in LA or NYC, she also has brow studios in select Nordstrom locations throughout the country.