(Trial Run)
This Just-Launched Brow Gel Is The Next Best Thing To Actual Lamination
One and done.
In our series Trial Run, TZR editors and writers put the buzziest new beauty products to the test and share their honest reviews. This week, beauty editor Amanda Ross is testing the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Gel.
My very first introduction into the world of brow care is as much of a locked-in core memory as anything else from my childhood. I was 12 and watching The Oprah Winfrey Show with my mom after school, listening to the TV legend introduce her eyebrow artist: Anastasia Soare. It would still be years before I got the hang of styling my own, but the initial education never left my mind. Not only was Soare’s collection the first line of eyebrow-specific products I ever owned, but the brand continued to evolve alongside my application skills. The new Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Gel, though, is the rare find that appeals to makeup masters and avowed minimalists alike.
Personally, in recent years, I’ve found myself shifting into a more low-key mode when it comes to beauty, preferring multitasking products that deliver a natural look more appealing than the 23-step process I loved through college and most of my 20s. Eyebrows are a key component — grooming them before heading out the door is as important to me as brushing my teeth and hair. When the opportunity to test out the latest ABH formula arrived, it felt like a godsend. Could this new gel-wax hybrid be the one-and-done holy grail I’d been after since that fateful afternoon with Oprah?
Ahead, my full review of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Gel.
Fast Facts
- Price: $26
- Size: 0.24 oz / 6.8 g
- Clean/Cruelty-Free: Yes
- Best For: Locking in your brow hairs and products with a clear sheen
- What We Like: Excellent comb for fluffing and application; long-lasting
- What We Don’t Like: Frankly, nothing
- Rating: 5/5
How TZR Keeps Score: 1/5: Making a return; 2/5: Keeping as a backup; 3/5: Finishing to the last drop; 4/5: Recommending to my group texts; 5/5: Already on auto-replenish
The Formula & Design
At its core, the new launch is one-half clear, strong pomade, and one-half weightless gel. For context, it feels like a hybrid of the brand’s Brow Freeze Wax — which went viral amid the lamination boom of the 2020s — and its best-selling Medium Hold Clear Brow Gel. Though the poured-out formula looks just like the latter, it has the satisfyingly sticky viscosity of the former. However, it’s made with polyacrylate-2 crosspolymer, a synthetic, hair-friendly polymer that effectively creates a flake-free film over brows that keeps it sculpted into place and virtually waterproof. It’s commonly used in classic hair gels. Simultaneously, the formula features good ol’ fashioned glycerin to hydrate the area and keep it looking natural rather than shellacked.
Aside from just that bulletproof formula, the gel’s brush design is a major part of what makes the product such a hit. Look closely and you’ll notice it’s actually multi-sided, with different comb teeth and types for nailing assorted styles. One section has wider gaps between the bristles for better shaping, another features them much closer together to coat every hair and separate, and a flat, toothless portion is perfect for smoothing brows up, lamination-style.
About My Brows
More days than not, it feels like my eyebrows have a mind of their own and the will to match. I appreciate their density, but it can get overwhelming — left unchecked, my natural monobrow returns after only a few weeks. The individual hairs are also rather coarse and curly, often turning up at the ends in little spikes. Sometimes, I’ll have to re-wet or even pluck otherwise normal hairs to work out the more stubborn kinks. When I remember to book an appointment, I like to get them laminated at The Mod Room in Dallas, Texas, but when is the operative word here.
Instead, my day-to-day routine consists of plucking any stray hairs starting to pop up and then a simple brush-up with a clear gel. I’ve tried and enjoyed plenty of formulas — ILIA, REFY, Benefit, Kosas, Glossier, Merit, and more — but my chief complaint is that most simply aren’t strong enough to tame my wayward hairs for more than a few minutes. Brow pomades and waxes lock them into place, but then are usually too thick and noticeable — a real Goldilocks conundrum. My ideal product would glide right on, brush and separate my eyebrows into that fluffed-up look I love, and stay transparent and non-flaky all day.
My Experience & Results
The very first thing that popped into my head when I applied the gel? I need more. Not more on my brows, but more tubes of this stuff in general. Using the fine-toothed side first for an initial brush-up, I was immediately pleased by how genuinely clear the formula looked on my dark brown eyebrows. It straightened out even my most crooked, bent hairs. But as any makeup or hair care aficionado will tell you, the real road test is how good it looks at the end of the day rather than upon that initial application. As it happens, I received my tester product just before the holidays kicked off — the perfect time to see how well it wore through long nights of socializing and my own nonstop fidgeting.
Honestly, it was as close to perfect as I think a product of its type can be. Even as I brushed my bangs off my face approximately 30 million times per hour, half of my brows didn’t get pushed downward the way they normally do. The subtle shiny finish made the hairs look healthy and conditioned, not hard or — despite the name — frozen. It was as close to the look and feel (most critically) of lamination that I’ve tried. To test its powers of finer, thinner brows, I let my mom have a go with it, too, and I’m pretty sure she placed an order for one of her own the minute it became available online.
Is The Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Gel Worth It?
That would be a resounding yes, friends. If you like a natural-looking eyebrow, this is absolutely one to try. It was the only brow product I brought with me for my holiday travels, working to fan out and fluff the whole zone without fiddling with different brushes and tools. Those who prefer a more dramatic, carved-out brow will likely still want to play with their pencils, fiber-building formulas, and colored pomades, but even so, the Brow Freeze makes for a rather universal finishing touch.
Available in both full-sized and miniature versions, I think it’s safe to say that even more than two decades into its life, the ABH brand has found a new tentpole.
