I Got My Eyebrows Laminated And It May Have Changed My Life (Yes, There Are LOTS Of Before And After Photos)
Image from Brow Lux LA
by Audie Metcalf
Here’s a harsh truth that I’m finally able to admit to the world:
I have bad eyebrows.
They’re sort of sparse, they curl into my face like commas, and they’re too short.
A few years ago, I took the matter into my own hands and got microblading. If you want to read the whole Q&A with the single most celebrated brow artist on the West Coast (and you should because it’s fascinating) please do so HERE. But if you want the quick and dirty, here’s a before and after:
Spectacular, right? The brow I’ve always dreamed of! Bushy! Sharp! Bold!
The small catch is that you need to get them “touched up” every year or so, and during the pandemic, lying 6 inches below someone’s mouth wasn’t really in the cards. Additionally, it’s WILDLY expensive. So alas. Here are my brows, 3 and a half years later:
And another pile of brow-sadness:
Sad! Thin! Weak! The opposite of bushy!
And so, for the purposes of both benefiting me and my happiness in nearly every conceivable way WHILE also creating content for you AND making it a work expense, I decided to try…brow lamination.
If you’ve already heard of this trend, skip this part. But if you haven’t, this is one of the buzzier new beauty treatments wherein you basically get an eyebrow hair perm that both straightens and lifts your brows for around 4-6 weeks. Yes. I am writing these words to you now: that in 2023, on planet earth, you can get your eyebrows permed. What a world.
Here’s some before and afters for you to marvel at before we get to my own:
Clearly this was what my old-man brows needed, so I soldiered to Brow Lux of Woodland Hills, CA, and put my face in the able hands of the soft-spoken, brow-wizard, Madison. I am nothing if not a Guinea pig for all of you.
It was a marvelously pain-free process, which is not something I can say for microblading, which was just as excruciatingly painful as you might imagine someone using a BLADE and SLICING HAIR STROKES onto your skin might be. There were a few steps involved wherein you might scare yourself if you look at a mirror too soon, but again, I took one for the team.
Here was the process:
Step 1: Solution that smells EXACTLY like a perm which slightly burned my eyes as I opened them to take this photo for you which I do because I love you
Step 2: Many minutes of covering and recovering with plastic and combing the brows down with a spoolie
Step 3: The terrifying tint (I also got a tint because why not?)
Step 4: The slightly intense final result where I had to take a few deep breaths to manage emotionally!
As you can see, my brows were really plastered onto my skin, but Madison assured me this would dissipate after one shower, and that the tint would lessen by 30-40%. But I did have to wait full 24 hours (like a real perm!) until I could get them wet.
And so, friends. I present the actual final result, post shower, with zero products on my brows:
And a little side by side to see how much of a difference it made:
So will it work for you? Only you can gauge if lying on a table for 30 minutes every 6-8 weeks for around $140 is worth it to have the natural-looking, fluffy brows of your wildest imagination. For me, it’s a must.
Otherwise, if you can’t be bothered, there’s always this TikTok filter:
And, as the lamination wears off, I’m sure I will start to use my brow products again. So if you have stubborn or straight or curly or unruly brows, and also haven’t the foggiest about what brow products are truly great, here’s my go-to list:
Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze®
Price: $23
Charlotte Tilbury Brow Lift Eyebrow Pencil
Price: $26
Glossier Brow Flick Microfine Detailing Eyebrow Pen
Price: $18
Got2B Schwarzkopf Glued for Brows & Edges
Price: $10
Audie Metcalf is the Editor-in-chief of The Candidly, and lives in LA with her family. You can find more of her articles here.
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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