A MUA Told Me to Use Gray Brow Gel—I’ve Never Looked Better

My brows have always been, for lack of a better word, wimpy. They're generally sparse and especially gappy towards the tails, and the individual hairs are so light that they all but disappear in the sun. (To be clear, I do adore a bleached brow look on most people. It just doesn't look as intentional on me.) I typically opt for a brow tint every six weeks to help them match my natural brunette hair color, but it's been a minute (try six months—oops) since I've sat in the salon chair.

That said, I've been leaning on a medium-brown brow gel to help me fake a fuller, richer look for the time being, and I thought I had the technique down pat. Then I had the opportunity to to see iconic celebrity makeup artist Katie Jane Hughes for a Wednesday morning glam touch-up (casual), and she told me I was approaching my brow grooming all wrong. “For you, I'd only use a gray brow gel,” she said, wiping all traces of chestnut pigment off my arches. Apparently, it's the smarter-not-harder way to enhance my naturally thin hairs, and it completely altered my brow game. That's the thing about those face framers—even the smallest tweaks really do make a difference.

Who Should Use Gray Brow Gel?

Gray brow gel is well suited for those with, well, gray hair, but Hughes says it also works like a charm for anyone rocking cooler tones. Think platinum, ash blonde, and mushroom brown—my natural hue. I do have some (very grown-out) golden highlights scattered throughout my mane, but Hughes says that my overall tone isn't too warm, which is why cooler taupes and grays will actually suit my brows best. Warmer tints, like the medium to dark brown I had been using before, can appear a bit harsh in comparison; blonde brow gels, on the other hand, could even read a bit red.

As someone with golden undertones in my skin (I'm a warm autumn, according to my recent color analysis), I always thought warmer makeup shades would suit me best—not the case, apparently, when it comes to brows. To prove her case, Hughes swipes Glossier's Boy Brow in Grey across my arches, making sure to back-comb the tails so the pigment can really latch onto the tiny hairs. The gray tint somehow gave them the extra oomph they needed while still looking feathery and natural. I usually apply tinted brow gel very sparingly—I can easily wind up looking like Groucho Marx—but with a gray formula, I can really go to town with the pigment until I reach my desired shape.