Here’s a place where my collection is fairly slim and I’d like to keep it that way. I am not completely convinced that what I have will get me through the year, and there are items I am still experimenting with, but I do have enough to get me through now, and that’s important.

We are talking about eyebrow products. What I’ve learned over the last year is that I am crap with a pencil. I don’t want to use one and I want to keep them out of my collection. Now, my hair stylist has been saying for years “You’ve got such nice brows!” but that meant nothing to me until recently. I think what she was trying to say is “You don’t need to do much with these.” And I think that’s what I’ve learned over the past year. Brow pencils are for people who need to work harder at their brows. For me, the best option seems to be simply filling everything in with a color a little darker than my natural brow color. If I stick with the natural shape of my brow this works quite well. They certainly don’t need to be thicker, so I don’t need anything with fibers. An example of me using a brow pomade and nothing else:

An example of me using a colored brow gel and nothing else:

I don’t need to be glam, I think both these looks are fine for me. And they are looks which are easy and quick. So, my preference which I have figured out over the past year is either a pomade with a clear setting gel or simply a colored setting gel.

Now an example of what I currently have in my collection:

The Chella brow cream is my current favorite. It looks so good on me and is easy to use as long as I don’t use the applicator that comes with the product. I have an itty bitty angled brush from crown brushes and it is perfect for this product. The brush is small enough that it doesn’t get messed up when trying to dig out the product from the small tube. Unlike the brush that is attached to the product itself!

Next to that is the It cosmetics universal brow pencil. This is a sample size and it’s in my project pan as I want it out of my stash. It looks ok but it’s a pain to use and it is not very creamy at all, so it tends to be a lot of work to get the product on the brow.

Then I’ve got a Nyx eyebrow powder pencil. I do actually like this product and I am glad to have it in my collection. When the time comes, I think it’ll be easy to use this one up.

I have my AOA studios colored brow gel. At $1 it’s a complete steal and it’s my second favorite product in my collection. So I think this will end up being a permanent part of my collection.

Next to that, I’ve got the ABH clear brow gel. It’s my intention to try the Nyx one once I’ve used this one up. I don’t think I am a person who is interested in spending big money on eyebrows. This is another thing I’ve learned over the past year. But we shall see as I continue to explore options.

And then we’ve got a wild card item. The little pot is Bang Beauty brown gel eyeliner. That sounds nice, right? But it doesn’t actually work as an eyeliner. So now it sits in my stash waiting for me to see if it works as a brow gel. I also want to try it as a base for eyeshadow to see if I can get a more intense color payoff. Since it doesn’t work as what it is made for, I am hoping to see if I can get it to work for another use. It’s a subscription box item so if it ends up being decluttered, I won’t be terribly disappointed. But I just thought I’d give it a chance.

I think next up I have to explore my blushes/highlighters/bronzers/contours, and that just feels overwhelming. I don’t want to! So I keep putting it off. Maybe we’ll take a look at eyeliners first. Anyhow, in order to keep me “honest,” I do want to be taking a look at each part of the collection. I am also saving each photo I take to a separate folder on my phone in order to be able to access that on the go. So when I decide “I’d like to purchase this item!” I am then forced to take a look at what I already have of that category in my collection. And then, ideally, if I don’t really “need” that item I can let it go.