My Experience at the Benefit Brow Bar

I thought I’d share a little bit of my experience with you after my visit at the Benefit Brow Bar! Maybe this is kinda a review of the Benefit Brow Bar if you’d like to call it that….! I typically either thread or wax my brows at a local salon which I’ve used for many years. In most cases, since my brows are pretty thick, I go for waxing but on occasion I’ll have them threaded. The salon I go to offers both services and they do an excellent job in my experience! They are friendly, clean, and fairly priced so I really have no reason to change up my routine.

Aside from curiosity that is…

I just wanted to give the Benefit Brow Bar a try out and see what I might be missing.

Here’s the deets!

So after hearing some of your reviews when I last posted about the possibility of trying out the brow bar I got a little scared! There was talk about the esthetician being to talkative and even pushing product. I dislike aggressive sales reps in stores like Bath and Body Works so I feared that my experience with the Benefit Brow Bar would lead me to some sort of $200 purchase in makeup and other crap I didn’t need because I’m the worst kind of consumer who simply has a hard time saying no. I did head into my appointment being slightly scared because of this!

The first thing I did was call up Ulta and arrange for an appointment! It was for 7:30 but EEP I had to cancel it. The next time around I decided just to walk in and hope for the best. Lucky enough I walked right in and the esthetician was there with a smile and happy to take me right away. She was friendly, not too chatty, and she made the entire experience really enjoyable! She wasn’t aggressive, she didn’t try to sell me Benefit anything, and she just asked some very minor questions, and for the most part she was silent. I was quite comfortable with that because making small talk while having your brows done is not high on my list of comfortable things to do.

The first thing she explained and did was a brow mapping with some Benefit Brow Zings Gel. She just did three lines on my brows to show where my brows should begin and end. She told me that the middle point of my brows was waxed too short and I should grow it back in. I completely agreed as the last trip to my salon a new person did my brows and I felt like they took too much off. After that she proceeded to gently wax my brows.

Honestly, I’m used to a far more brutal waxing. This girl was super gentle and she did waxing in patches so I barely felt it at all. If you’re sensitive the Benefit Brow Bar is the way to go because the entire experience is completely relaxing and doesn’t hurt at all.

The thing that kinda sorta made me question the waxing portion would be the fact she was dipping into a large wax pot. When I go to my regular place they actually have small disposable pots of wax that they heat up and use exclusively on me. So there is no double dipping….! She did use a brand new stick to apply the wax but once it touched my skin she was putting it back into the large pot of wax. It’s safe to say the pot is used for ALL her wax jobs so yeah um…not sure about that. Also it’s a little unsettling that the waxing is done right in the middle of the store. I choose to go to the Ulta Benefit Brow Bar which is obviously located in a central part of the store. I felt a little uncomfortable having her wax my upper lip while a few dudes were walking around. Typically when I go to my normal salon they take me into a private back room but this isn’t the case with the Brow Bar. I dunno, maybe I’m uptight but I felt a little strange being waxed in public. Total goldfish syndrome!

After the waxing she treated the area with a little cream and began to shape my brows. At this point she did ask me if I filled my brows and I told her no, that I thought it unnecessary since my brows are very dark and coarse already. Unfortunately, this is where things went a bit wrong. Although I liked the arch she did and I thought she shaped my brows very nicely she ended up over filling them with brow powder. She also kinda drew them in towards the middle where we had discussed growing them back so I kinda looked like that dog meme with the brows. Seriously, my two best friends who are completely bitchy gay men completely thrashed me when I left the store and laughed themselves silly! I’m positive they both pissed themselves in their fit of giggles. At first I was horrified but after a minute I couldn’t help but join in as I looked ridiculous. I’m not sure why she felt the need to use so much brow gel but it was completely unnecessary. After my friend Jai, produced a makeup wipe to wipe it all off I felt much better and I looked more normal. I actually had a moment of panic because with the brow gel on it appeared one of my brows was longer and thicker than the other but after wiping it off I realized it was because she filled them a bit wonky! Thankfully the arch was perfect and the length and thickness was fine too. I really had to shake my head as anyone can see my brows do not need filling but I guess it’s just part of the Brow Bar experience?! I should also mention the brow gel or powder whichever you’d like to call it was a brownish red so it did not match my own natural hair color at all! That made me look even MORE strange!

On that note, I will say it is a little expensive. I had my upper lip done, my brows, and the slight fuzz I have going on below my chin and it set me back $41 plus I left her a $9 tip for a total of $50. Typically the same thing, done by my salon, sets me back $35 and that includes the tip. So I might have to save the Benefit Brow Bar thing for special occasions… She did gift me with a small little sample of Benefit’s new mascara as well as their De-Puff Eye Cream which was really nice of her.

Would I go back?

Probably not.

I like where I currently go already. They do a great job, they are clean, friendly, and inexpensive! I would however, recommend the Benefit Brow Bar experience for people that are sensitive to waxing or those who possibly have sparse brows and need shaping maybe (that’s a big maybe as you heard my horror story!).

It was interesting and I’m glad I did it but all in all it’s a bit expensive and I wasn’t completely satisfied with the experience. I could have totally done without the filling and shaping part 🙂

Have you tried the Benefit Brow Bar?

Did you enjoy it?

Do you go often?

Find it too expensive?

Do share!