Although we're fortunately in the downturn of the heavily-contoured beauty trend, bold brows are still in. They always will be; a shapely pair of eyebrows unquestionably frames one's face in a flattering way, drawing attention naturally to the eyes. However, not all of us have the patience to assemble a 5-tool process that requires a deft, focused hand. I don't want to keep track of a special brush, pot of eyebrow gel, and a separate brush to blend, just for eyebrows.
To really bring out your natural features without looking too 'made-up,' the trick is to lightly fill in the sparse spots to achieve a more symmetrical shape, and blend in the color so it doesn't look like you went for it with a ballpoint pen. Thanks to Charlotte Tilbury's brow lift pencil, I can do exactly that with just one product. All eyebrow grooming, one product.

A longtime professional makeup artist who rose to fame getting the supermodels of the 1990s runway ready, Tilbury's cosmetic line is everything she wished existed when she was getting started in the industry. Logical products that have a more customized approach, like recommending eyeshadow palettes by eye and hair color to showcase everyone's individual beauty more naturally. But glowy primers and luxurious Old Hollywood-inspired lipsticks aside, the Brow Lift eyebrow pencil is truly Tilbury's greatest innovation.
Technically a three-in-one magic plastic wand, there's a brush on one end and a creamy pencil on the other, each with a sleek protective cap. The shape of the pencil is a skinny, tapered rectangle at the tip, so you can easily define brows with short, light-handed strokes, or use it more liberally to really fill and shape the brow to your liking and still look natural. Tilbury recommends using the brush to smooth and shape your eyebrows before you begin, and I say go over them again after the pencil to blur any harsh lines that may look too drawn-in.

There's a second step to grooming brows for a naturally-defined appearance, which is highlighting the brow bone with a lighter color. I typically neglect this step for the sake of time, but this pencil makes it easy. Just twist and separate at the center of the pencil and a small sponge applicator appears, already dipped in a gleaming rose gold shadow (there are lighter colors for the lighter pencil shades, I used 'Naomi'). Simply pat the tip of the sponge a few times on brow bone, towards the outer half of your eye area, and then lightly pull your pinky finger across to simultaneously blend the shadow across the brow bone and clean up the bottom edge of your brows. Your face will immediately light up, and the noticeable-yet-natural contrast between your brows and skin can have a nice little optical illusory effect that evens skin tone.
Charlotte Tilbury’s products aren’t available at Sephora or Ulta, but you’ll still get several free samples for this $30 pencil, and free ground shipping on all orders, all the time. In addition to a sample of Tilbury’s “floral chypre” fragrance, Scent of a Dream, you can select two samples from an array of moisturizers, masks, foundation and concealers in every skin tone. No promo code necessary. It’s kind of worth a visit to her home site for the product descriptions alone, which almost all enthusiastically begin with “Darlings!”
See it here
(Cool Stuff is a new feature at Willamette Week where we feature product reviews, roundups, sales and other commerce and shopping-oriented content. All Cool Stuff reviews are editorially independent, meaning we provide honest reviews and aren't paid by the brands we write about. If you do choose to purchase something after following one of our links, Willamette Week may receive a commission, which helps fund our journalism.)