Only a few of us are genetically blessed with perfectly bushy brows and no sparse spots—you know who you are, and it’s not me—but Glossier Brow Flick helps me fake it, and pretty convincingly, too.
I have been perfecting my version of ideal thickness and coloring for the better part of my twenties. To shape and create my arches, there’s a lot of eyebrow pencils and pomades on the market to choose from. Some make it work with retractable pencil, others a classic kohl that calls for a sharpener on hand. I’m partial to a sleek pen for a reason which brow artist, licensed esthetician, and founder of Brow Down Studio in Downtown LA and Beverly Hills René de la Garza, echoes. “Brow pens are typically a felt tip soft bristled pen with the consistency of a marker,” de la Garza tells Vogue. “They can create the illusion of a more brow-hair-dense shape. I find that I will reach for a brow pen for the fronts of the brows to create ‘more fluff.’” More fluff? Sign me up.
I’ve found my holy grail in Glossier’s Brow Flick: it’s my secret weapon for perfectly placed faux brow hairs. However, that’s not all it does—the buildable, smudge-resistant, semi-sheer texture also stands in for the perfect “natural glam” eyeliner. I’m often asked—how do you get your winged liner so skinny and feline-esque in the inner corner? It’s subtle compared to a classic liquid liner but no less flattering (and perhaps a subconscious homage to being a proud cat mom).
But before we get in too deep in eyeliner, let’s talk brows. Glossier’s pursuit of naturally feathered brows is not new; the brand launched Boy Brow almost a decade ago in 2015 and it quickly became a hero product for the brand. (Funny enough, Glossier and I also go way back: I was one of the then-small-startup’s first interns in 2017 when it still had its offices on Lafayette Street in SoHo, New York.) At the time, Boy Brow was the cool girl beauty product to own, and it was constantly sold out in the story just above our office. Though I wanted to be as devoted to the pomade as the rest of my cohorts, every time I went in with the spoolie applicator my brow hairs would fight back. Try as I might, I could never get them fluffed enough to stay in place the way they did in Glossier’s ad campaigns. Where Boy Brow added volume and a darker tint to existing hairs, Brow Flick lets me create the illusion of the hairs I’m missing in the first place. Little did I know then I’d have to wait another two years (2019) for my favorite brow pen to launch.
Glossier’s website suggests using Brow Flick before gel. I, ever the rebellious type, have found the opposite works best for me. I have stubborn, coarse eyebrow hairs grow that straight down, and the only thing strong enough to hold them up is a heavy duty gel. (Got2b Glued Styling Spiking Glue is my go-to.) For a freshly laminated-looking result, I let the brow gel fully dry down before filling in the sparse areas of my brows. Once dry, I go in with Brow Flick to create those feathered, hair-like lines that fit right in with my natural brows. “You can achieve a more natural result by drawing softer pressured strokes, and since this is a buildable look, adding a few strokes at a time will help determine the intensity,” de la Garza tells Vogue. “I would recommend Brow Flick to anybody who likes a fluffy feathered brow style.”
Finding the right products to achieve the fluffy-yet-manicured brows of my dreams has always felt like a process of trial and error for me, but what I appreciate most about Brow Flick is how versatile the pen really is. Not only is the dermatologist- and ophthalmologist-tested formula streak-proof on eyebrows, creating the illusion of fluffy voluminous hairs that don’t look drawn on (despite that I did, in fact, just draw my missing eyebrow hairs on), but as a fan of creative experimentation, it goes beyond product description to prove its multi-usability.