My Brows Never Looked This Full & Defined Until I Started Using A Clear Gel

Despite accidentally Nair-ing them off at age five, my eyebrows are currently one of my most prominent features and the main area of focus when I’m putting a makeup look together. Throughout high school and college, I stuck to an extremely consistent threading schedule; playing a bit with the shape as I went along, ultimately deciding the thicker the better. At home, I experimented with filling them in with brow products, using powders, pencils, and pigmented gels, focusing on the gaps my childhood Nair fiasco left behind. In the end, my results always looked too harsh.

Enter clear brow gel. I first discovered it while watching my favorite beauty YouTubers’ videos, and it’s the one product that really transformed my brow routine. By shaping my existing brow hairs and holding them in place with a gel, I could stretch my monthly threading sessions to a quarterly schedule and ask for them be “cleaned up” as opposed to the more intense shaping, angling, and trimming. And once the pandemic hit, I stopped threading altogether (a practical move that turned out to benefit my brow goals).

For years, the H&M brow gel I came across while online shopping was my go-to brow product. (It was affordable and ended up offering hold like no other gel.) I had a small panic last year when it was discontinued, but I pulled it together to find my new holy grail gel. I started testing drugstore gels and after comparing notes with a friend who’s also really into brows, I finally settled on Refy’s Brow Sculpt this past April.

As things opened back up last year, I considered brow lamination to make my brow routine even more effortless. I even consulted with my facialist about how to space out my appointments once I realized using a DIY was a bad idea. (I wasn’t prepared to give up my facials for the sake of laminated brows.) So for now, my small brow gel arsenal is working in my favor.

Ahead, the clear brow gels I rely on for full, natural finish. Plus, the rest of the products that make up my easy-breezy, everyday makeup routine.