Lesley on Battle of the Brows

Recently, as you all may know I've gone a little eyebrow crazy and I'm attempting to have the perfect, neat, symmetrical eyebrows. I'm going to do a little comparison post on two eye gels and see which one in my opinion, is better.

Mac vs Benefit: which one is better?

Benefit's 'speed BROW'

I have to admit i have a love/hate relationship with this 'speedBROW'. I got it unexpectedly as a free gift when i ordered lots of makeup off of a website. Here are my high and lows of it so far...

We will start with the negatives...

• The tube is SO small! I admit it has lasted me months and I'm only halfway, but for only 3g a bottle and using one/two coats everyday, i think i will get through a few during the year.
• Although the gel looks brown in the tube, it actually comes out a very light almost clear brown, it might as well be a clear gel.
• If i put on more than two coats, it flakes badly.
• It takes a little while to dry: i would use this as a final part of my routine.
• If i use it on its own it won't last the whole day.

The positives: 

• I love it as a lazy girl product, just two coats and my eyebrows will stay in place (after applying with brow zings of course!)
• It's a good travel size, so i might buy one just to keep in my travel makeup bag.
• As it is quite clear, it's not messy to apply and you can't see if I've missed and gone past my eyebrow.
• The wand is big for a quick and easy appliance
• Doesn't dry "crunchy"- I've heard a lot of gels that do this and i would not use a product that did that.
• No smell.

MAC's 'BROW SET'

My first impression on 'Brow Set' was "why does it look shimmery?" Also, it wasn't the brown i was expecting. I recently bought it online from the Debhenhams 10% off, otherwise i wouldn't have tried it.

The negatives...

• A bit messy to apply, i kinda just went for it and applied liberally like i do my with my Speedbrow - you can't do this! It went all over my skin and took a while to clean up, not a great start as i was in a rush.
• The colour is dark, so again, less is definitely more!
• Strongly scented
• My eyebrows look perfect, literally perfect! Which is not always a good thing, as i do like the natural look. My brother asked me why my eyebrows looked weird when i used this with Browzings for day time. 

The positives...

• 8g for this baby! Because you only have to apply a little bit, it will last for ages and ages!
• The gel and wand reminds me of mascara (which makes sense really) the brush is compact and the gel is so strong and it lasts a full day on my thick unruly eyebrows.
• The colour is a very deep brown and highly pigmented, which is a good thing for me as my eyebrows are almost black. However, if you have medium or light hair i wouldn't recommend this for you, as it is noticeable.
• As this has such a good colour pay-off, i don't have to worry so much about filling in my eyebrows with browzings, perfect lazy girl product for me and also great when i have no time!
• Doesn't flake
• Also doesn't dry crunchy, and my brows look highly defined.

MAC and Benefit

VERDICT: MAC is £11.50 for 8g, Benefit is £12 for 3g, instantly i would reach for MAC as it is more value for money. The two eyebrow gels itself are so different, they are rather like cousins than sisters. The most important thing for me is staying power.

 Benefit's 'Speed BROW' i will use after complete time and effort filling in my eyebrows with 'Browzings.' I think it makes a good finishing touch. However, you can use clear gel or vaseline with hairspray and the results would be exactly the same. It is better suited on its own for a natural day time look.

MAC's 'Brow Set' is more for the night time look. I used 'Brow Set' on its own today for work with a natural face of makeup, and every time i looked in the mirror i thought "woah!" To me, my eyebrows stood out so much! It has a better staying power than Benefit, which is important to me as my eyebrows always 'drop' making them look messy.





THE WINNER.... MAC!

(However, I'm not going to stick with this forever, i am willing to try others in the near future.)