Our collective obsession with thick, fluffy and defined eyebrows doesn’t seem to be waning. What might have started as a trend (thanks to the likes of Cara Delevingne) has turned into a full-on movement, with techniques dedicated to achieving bold, bushy brows the norm on social media.
One such technique that has permeated Instagram this year is soap brows. This brow treatment isn’t a new trend though — it has been used for decades, starting with starlets in Old Hollywood.
If you’re yet to try the soap brows technique or have no idea what we’re talking about, here is everything you need to know about the eyebrow treatment.
What are soap brows?
Soap brows is actually a grooming method to achieve bushy, brushed up brows — you simply brush soap through your eyebrows to achieve a slicked and defined look. While it might sound odd, it’s actually pretty genius as soap is both affordable and accessible and creates a sturdy hold on your eyebrow hair.
According to Allure, the reason soap provides such a strong hold is down to glycerin, which coats the hairs and helps keep them in place. Glycerin soaps have a pretty low pH, which also prevents irritation to the skin, so keep that in mind when shopping for a soap bar. Yes, you can’t just grab the bar hanging out in your shower right now.
Glycerin soaps are usually transparent (so the soap won’t look white in your brows) and common brands include Neutrogena’s Hypoallergenic Cleanser Transparent Bar and the Pears Transparent Soap.
Unlike a product like hairspray — which is another common method to tame brows — soap also won’t leave your eyebrows looking shiny and stuck to your face.
How to do soap brows?
To achieve the soap brows look, all you need is a bar of transparent soap and a mascara spoolie. Simply run the spoolie over the soap bar and brush it through your brows and you’re done. The soap won’t leave any noticeable residue in your brows but if you want them to look a little darker, you can follow it up with a little powder or pencil.
It’s really that easy! And while brow gels still have a place in your makeup kit (as many impart colour), soap will keep your eyebrows in place for longer than a gel will.
While the soap and spoolie method is by far the easiest and cheapest way to achieve soap brows, there are a few products that also mimic this method.
The Soap Brows Essentials kit from West Barn Co includes a brow soap, a brow brush and a prep mist, which has “been specifically formulated to activate your Soap Brows® and will give you the very best results. It also doubles up as a facial mist to prep the skin before makeup application.”
So, you don’t need to go down the physical soap bar route if you don’t want to.
There are also a few brow wax products on the market, which achieve a similar feel. The newest release from Fenty Beauty is the Brow MVP Sculpting Wax Pencil & Styler — which we recently reviewed and loved because of its ability to give you fluffy brows.
Another product is the Brow Wax by Savvy, which is sold at Priceline. Unlike the other waxes, this one is coloured so you can fill in the brow, darken and set it with one product. And, it’s only $6.99.