Revolutionizing Brows with $4 Inglot Freedom Brow Powders

Today we’re going to get a bit intimate about a topic we shouldn’t shy away from anymore. Now, it may be uncomfortable to discuss, but I think it’s too important to ignore. Ok. Are you ready?

Eyebrows.

See? That wasn’t too bad, right? Eyebrows are so unique to each and every one of us, and there is no single perfect brow color, thickness, or shape. Some are sparse, others overgrown. Some are slanted (or curved), others straight. Some would meet in the middle if left to their own devices, while others are light wisps that barely extend the full length of the eye.

Whatever the case may be, brows can define and shape an entire look. And they do, backstage every fashion season, among other places, with the help of artists like Pat McGrath.

But eyebrows are also easy to take for granted, and sometimes to neglect. They’re such a strong feature that they can be easy to forget. Oh, we might do a bit of tweezing here, and maybe a professional waxing every few weeks, but very often, that’s it.

Some brows, however, just won’t play nice. They may need to be trimmed a bit to lie flat, or brushed to stay in shape. Perhaps they were over-tweezed, or fell victim to an overzealous esthetician with a large vat of wax. Perhaps you dyed your hair a completely new shade, or were born with naturally sparse brows. If any of these sound familiar, have I got a product for you, and yes, it’s from Inglot.

Today we’re taking a look at their brow powders.

Like many of my loves from this Polish makeup company, Inglot’s powders are part of their Freedom System, and fit into the same palettes that their lipsticks do.

The formulation: amazing. Although they’re obviously a powder, they’re so creamy and smooth that they almost melt into the skin and hug even the sparsest hairs (they apply in such a way that you don’t get fully opaque coverage, which could look unnatural).

Application? Simple. There’s no dragging, pushing, or scratching at all. Using an angled brow brush, I simply flick the product in light strokes in the same direction that the hairs grow. That’s it. You’re well on your way to softly defined brows (or, using a thinner brush, you could “draw” them on for precise ’20s or ’60s brows). The product is incredibly pigmented and blendable, and goes wherever you touch, which can be dangerous if you’re not careful. Three taps on the pan are often enough for a full brow.

Once applied, these powders are there to stay. No fading, no smudging, and no transfer. One night, even on my oily skin, they stayed put through six hours of dancing, and didn’t even come off when I zipped to the restroom to blot my face.

They come in 10 shades ($4 each; empty Freedom Palettes run about $8 apiece), which is great, seeing as how many companies only offer around four, and none of the shades I’ve seen look artificial or too intense. It’s such a relief to finally find a brow product that looks like the color of real hair! For my first order, I purchased five: 566, 560, 563, 562, and 565.

566 is a very pale ash blonde — perfect for those whose eyebrows are nearly invisible by themselves (like close to a platinum, a level 9 or 10 hair).

560 is an ashy taupe that’s relatively universal. It can be used to fill in most brows on people with pale to medium skin, and it’s perfectly suited for those with dirty blonde to light brown hair.

563 is a warm chocolate brown, and one of my most heavily used shades. I prefer to use it for people with medium to dark brown hair, with golden or red undertones.

562 is a cool cocoa — pretty much an ash-toned counterpart to 563, but I’d be a bit careful using it with lighter brown hair, where it has the potential to look somewhat unnatural.

565 is the deepest shade of black. No weird blue or other undertones. Just black. Perfect for people with black hair or for those of us with the darkest shade of brown. Be careful with it, because when it’s applied too liberally, it can look incredibly fake and intense. I probably wouldn’t use it on hair more than one stage away from black, unless I was shooting for a specific effect.

My only real problem with these powders is more the fault of the company’s website than the powders themselves. For some reason, some of the colors on the website (and in the pictures in this post) aren’t perfect matches for the actual pans.

Overall, I think Inglot is extremely accurate when they represent their products online, but in this case, they swung wide. 560 is much lighter than it is in the picture, 563 is much redder (with more of a golden base), and 562 is about three shades darker and much cooler than the small swatch to the right.

Just something to keep in mind.

Other than that, I have nothing but great things to say about these powders. I’ve been using them on men and women alike on almost every makeup job, and I can’t wait to add the other five to my collection.