I don’t need to sell you on the endurance of the brushed-up brow trend, I’m sure. Celebrities have been stretching their manicured arches skywards for seasons, which brought a little-known treatment out of relative beauty obscurity and into our feeds. Yes, we’re talking about that celebrated brow lamination look, which is characterised by almost obnoxiously elongated brow hairs that reach as far up your forehead as is fallible. It’s huge, and it’s going absolutely nowhere.
While the feathered style persists in popularity, our options have expanded. Now there are a multitude of avenues one can take when it comes to achieving that soft, rounded brow lamination look. Yes, there are treatments you can try – where a perming solution is applied to your arches to secure their upward trajectory – but if you’re less inclined to commit, you can improvise with a few temporary makeup techniques at home.
One of the most obvious options is to employ the use of ‘soap brows’ – a grooming trick that’s seen stratospheric growth on Instagram – that uses regular supermarket hand soap and a spoolie in place of brow gel to help the hairs ‘adhere’ to the brow bone. Good old Pears has been the go-to arch extender for makeup artists for decades, until brands began bringing out their own versions.
The products marry the brow lamination ethos of soap brows with a decidedly more sophisticated delivery system. The spoolie still administers a waxy texture to your brows, but you won’t be left with any awkward flecks of soap stuck in your arches that you’re the forced to pick out using your iPhone camera on the bus (always ideal).
Now you can find a brow lamination style product at every price point, including the new Brow Guru Super Soap from MECCA MAX ($16) and the Fenty Beauty Brow MVP Sculpting Brow Wax Pencil & Styler ($31). It should be noted that you can actually buy brow lamination kits to DIY the salon treatment at home, but they’re still in their infancy so in my opinion this is a far more risk- and mess-free way to try the look.
So how does it work? Gently swirl the brush or spoolie in the styling product until it’s coated, then brush upward through your arches until those little hairs stay sitting upwards for a flattering lifted effect. Finish with a pencil to fill in any sparse areas and go. You can double down on your efforts by using a nourishing treatment product that will hold your brows in place while also encouraging growth, such as Amy Jean’s genius Daily Brow Mask.
Ready to try the cheat’s way to brow lamination at home? Shop our edit of the best options for getting the full, feathered look at home, from less to luxe:
Mecca Max Super Soaper Brow Kit, $20 SHOP NOW
Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Brow Styling Wax, $23 SHOP NOW
Amy Jean Collection Daily Brow Mask, $98 SHOP NOW
