Review: Avon PRO Brow Enhancer in Dark Brown

Most of you know by now that I draw in the ends of my brows. I've been doing so for the past 7 years. Why? Well, you can read here to find out :P So when I saw this product in an Avon catalog, I was instantly interested. Of course, the before and after product pictures made it look ahhhmazing. And of course, while I was skeptical, I was silently hoping for an eyebrow miracle.

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And let me tell you, this product was no miracle :(

Price: $8 (I got mine for the introductory price of $5)

What they say: No more worries about sparse brows! Fills in, defines and shapes brows.

What's in it: WATER/EAU BUTYLENE GLYCOL NYLON-6 HYDROXYETHYLCELLULOSE PROPYLENE GLYCOL TRIETHANOLAMINE PHENOXYETHANOL CARBOMER CAPRYLYL GLYCOL PVP DISODIUM EDTA SILICA PANTHENOL CITRIC ACID MAY CONTAIN:IRON OXIDESBLACK 2/CI 77266

The good stuff:

• Tinted gel, is a good match for my brow color
• Contains little fibers to mimic brow hair
• Easy enough to apply
• Makes brows look good from a distance
• Unique tip "combs" through brow hairs and deposits product ↓

The low-down:

• A bit pricey
• Can get messy
• Only 3 shades (black, dark brown, light brown)
• Fibers obviously will not all go in the same direction your brows are growing
• Makes brows look messy close up
• Will not adequately fill in missing sections of eyebrow

My take: Unfortunately, like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this product was no eyebrow miracle for me. It is basically a tinted gel with tiny fibers in a basic twist-click pen (which I needed to twist a gazillion times to get the product to come out -- just like ELF lippies! XP)

Dark brown looks like this:
See the little "hairs"?

I do like the unique applicator tip though... it has little "fingers" that comb through your brow hairs to deposit the product more evenly. It also combs through the brows and gives them a "groomed" appearance.


However, the product itself is less than spectacular. While Dark Brown is a good match for my brow color, it just doesn't look good on my brows CLOSE UP. The gel gets deposited heavier in some places and clings to some hairs more than others. Also, the little fiber "hairs" will of course NOT all face the same direction that your brows are growing in... so some will be horizontal or at other awkward angles (not that you can tell from far away).

Also, not enough fibers are deposited onto my brows in a single application for it to sufficiently mimic eyebrow hair. And the more layers of product you add to get more fibers, the messier it starts to look. Also, if you need to fill in large missing sections of eyebrow like I do (I have to draw on the ends), this product will not work. Like I stated previously, not enough fibers come out in the gel in order to realistically mimic full eyebrows.

Here's what it looks like filling in my brows:

I only fill in the inner half, then draw on the ends using
Physician's Formula Brow Pencil in Dark brown (my HG).

Okay, I guess it looks alright in this picture. But that's why I said it looks good and natural from afar. But CLOSE UP, it looks very messy and obviously filled in. Even if it does look good from far away, I'm too self-conscious to wear this on its own, just knowing that up close it looks so terribly messy :/

Here's what it looks like with brow powder:

So my solution to this problem was to just finish off with some darker brow powder (which I normally use anyway). So my brows still retain the groomed look thanks to the unique tip applicator, but look A LOT less messy when inspected up close, since the powder covers up all the inconsisntent gel spots. While I do like the way it looks with the brow powder a lot better than without, this still isn't something I'd like to do every day. So I just went back to using my normal DHC Eyebrow Perfect Powder (another one of my HGs) to fill in the inner half of my brows. To me, that's a lot quicker, easier, and more natural looking than going through the entire process of using the Avon PRO Brow Enhancer first, fixing it up, AND THEN using powder.

Would I repurchase/recommend?: No, I personally would not repurchase this product. While it does fill in brows "good enough," -- It works relatively well on sparse brows, it just takes a little fooling around with the product to get it to look natural AND clean -- I still think this would fare a lot better on people who only want to enhance their brows a little. I wouldn't recommend this to people like me who need to fill in large sections of eyebrow or don't want to spend time fixing up their brows after applying this product.

The Rundown:
Packaging: 4/5
A twist pen. Exactly what you'd expect from a twist pen. But it's at least sturdy.

Product: 3/5
Good concept... but will not work for EVERYONE. Takes some working with to get it to apply "nicely."

Price: 3/5
I think it could be a little cheaper.

Overall:
[ click here to read about my Review & Rating System ]