Makeup brand Benefit got its start in San Francisco in the ’70s when an exotic dancer looking to make her nips rosier approached twins Jean and Jane Ford and asked them to concoct a product for her. This rose-scented sheer tint would go on to become Benetint, a lip and cheek tint that became the brand’s iconic beauty product.
Benefit would later make more “fake-ups”—quick beauty fix products—for women who were not makeup experts. In fact, the brand prides itself on not hiring professional makeup artists as their beauty consultants because they want to show customers just how easy it is to use their makeup.
One of Benefit’s most popular services is its Brow Bar, a brow-shaping service based on Jean and Jane’s custom three-step brow mapping technique.
Latest trend
The technique was explained at length by international spokesperson Jared Bailey, who flew in recently to share his secrets to a great pair of brows as well as to show the latest trend in brows: embellishment using Swarovski crystals.
“First of all, no two brows are ever alike, so drop those stencils. We have a no-cookie-cutter approach to eyebrows,” says Bailey.
Bailey, who has been working on brows for a little over a decade, emphasizes the importance of a good pair of brows.
“Brows help contour the face, too,” he says. In fact, the starting point of your brows can give you that coveted delicate nose you’ve always wanted, and you don’t even have to break out the nose-contouring powder.
“Who doesn’t want a slimmer, delicate nose?” says Bailey with a laugh.
To find the start of your brows, Bailey recommends taking a pencil and aligning this with the dimple of your nostril. This, he says, is where your eyebrows should start. As for the arch, align the pencil along the outer portion of your nostril and trace where this line hits your brow. This is where the highest point—the arch—of your eyebrow should be.
“Just because it’s an arch doesn’t mean it has to be a hard angle; the arch should be the highest portion of the brow but it still has to look natural—this will help give your eye an open and lifted look,” he adds.
Can a pair of well-shaped brows make your face look slimmer? Absolutely, says Bailey.
“The end of your brows should be determined by the intersection of the outer portion of the nose and the outer corner of your waterline,” he says. “For rounder faces, extending the area between the arch and the end of your brows helps to make your face look slimmer and give it a more oval appearance.”
Also, if you’ve despaired because your eyebrows don’t seem to be perfectly symmetrical, don’t worry, that’s normal.
“Eyebrows are sisters, not twins,” says Jared. To turn them into sisters, the use of a good eyebrow product is key. It is up to you whether you want to tame and shape brows using an angled brush and powder, a thin brush pen or a pencil.
Still masculine
Where eyebrow grooming was the exclusive domain of the metrosexual man before, now it’s de rigueur for any man with hair above his eyes. At Benefit, the brow specialists are also trained to clean up and groom men’s brows, giving them a clean and natural shape that is still wholly masculine.
Says Bailey, “Eyebrows are trending; it’s the designer’s best accessory on the runway.”
Just like the metallic tattoo trend that is big now, dressing up brows in sparkly bling is making a splash in the fashion world. During a Chanel show, models walked down the catwalk
with their eyebrows obscured by gems. Benefit’s more wearable approach makes use of Swarovski crystals with adhesive to help give the brows lift and sparkle.
The Brow Bling kit consists of differently-sized crystals plus a tiny pair of tweezers. The thought of applying crystals along your brow sounds a bit odd, but when applied, they actually help accent your brow by highlighting the shape (make sure your brows are groomed before blinging them).
If you want a subtle approach, Bailey recommends the “Touch of Bling” style, which uses three evenly spaced crystals placed on the brow bone, right below the eyebrow arch.
“The light will hit the crystals and reflect it very nicely,” he says.
Brow Bling is available at Benefit boutiques in Rustan’s Makati, Shangri-La, Greenbelt 5, Trinoma, Alabang Town Center and SM Mall of Asia. Follow them on Instagram: @benefitbeautyph.