L'Oreal Brow Stylist Plumper Review

L'Oréal Brow Stylist Plumper  ($8.99, Walgreens) is a brand new product for Spring 2015 and already has a lot of people talking. There have been a lot of brow products released lately such as Maybelline's Brow Drama, Covergirl Pow-der Brow, and Hard Candy Brows Now!, so L'Oréal is the latest brand to jump on the bandwagon. I wasn't impressed with Maybelline's Brow Drama and since L'Oréal owns Maybelline I was hoping this would be different (hint: it is!).

Right away from reading the packaging I noticed that this is a fiberized formula, which immediately made me think it could be a Benefit Gimme Brow dupe (more on that below).

I've been very happy with the Divaderme Brow Extender, (and the new Covergirl Pow-der Brow is a great dupe for that), but sometimes my brows get a bit unruly for whatever reason and I need a gel to tame them and keep them in place. That's when I usually reach for Gimme Brow. Hard Candy's version has fibers and is a good dupe for Gimme Brow, but the lightest shade is too dark for me so I don't really use it, sadly.

Here's a few packaging shots to show the description and ingredients:

The tube that Brow Stylist Plumper comes in is about the size of a regular mascara, way bigger than other brow products I've seen, especially Gimme Brow.

The brush is smaller than a mascara brush but larger than the Gimme Brow brush, although it's the same tapered cone shape.  I don't mind the size because it makes the process of doing my brows go a little faster and it's not so big (like Maybelline's Brow Drama) that I can't control where the product is going or get it all over the skin above and below my brows.

Here's a photo of the Gimme Brow brush for reference from my past review. Looking at the two brushes, you can see how thin the L'Oreal formula is sitting on the brush, while the Gimme Brow looks thick and mousse-like.

Here it is next to Benefit's Gimme Brow- it's close to 3 times the size at .27oz. (Gimme Brow is only .1 oz. for $22). 

I purchased the Light-to-Medium shade, but it also comes in Medium-to-Dark and Transparent. I have natural ashy dark blonde hair that I highlight so the overall look is a medium golden blonde. I don't like my brows to look too dark because it creates too much contrast with my light hair, so I usually go for the lighter shades when it comes to brow products.  Sometimes, even the lightest shades are too dark, but not in this case.

This Light-to-Medium shade is like a warm gold color and it struck me as really strange and unnatural when I first swatched it on my arm.  Since my natural color is very ashy, I was worried that this mustard-y color wouldn't match my brows.  Gimme Brow's Light/Medium shade is more neutral so it can work with warm or ashy tones.

I've found that the easiest way to use this is to comb it in an upward motion, but also to press it into your brow so that the product can adhere to your skin.

Here are my before and afters (sorry for my lack of makeup)...I was pleasantly surprised that the pigment in this covered my natural color and made my brows actually match the warmer tones in my hair!

Before

After

L'oreal Brow Stylist Plumper also has incredible staying power- I purposely didn't wash it off and it still looked perfect the next morning.  I would say that this is somewhat of a Gimme Brow dupe, but the formula is thinner.  I think that the Hard Candy Brows Now! (see my review here) is actually a closer Gimme Brow dupe, due to the thicker, more mousse-like formula, but the lightest shade is very dark compared to the Light/Medium Gimme Brow.  Also, I felt that the fibers in the L'Oreal formula were much smaller than either the Benefit or Hard Candy versions so it didn't "plump" quite as well.
Still, this was easy to use and inexpensive so I like it...but I still like Gimme Brow a little bit better.

Have you seen this in stores?  What do you think, will you try it?