This first appeared on the Strategist U.K., our recently launched, Brit-specific shopping-recommendation site. Since this brow gel is also available to buy here, we are publishing it for our readers on this side of the pond.
Back in 2012, when YouTube beauty gurus were still a relatively new and unknown territory, I had just started university and had discovered the joys of filling in my eyebrows. Thanks to Lisa Eldridge’s recommendations, I bought the Eyeko Brow Gel and my whole makeup routine felt revolutionized — suddenly my whole face looked so much more polished and refined, yet natural. Despite my lackluster makeup skills, it was easy to apply — I first filled in my brows with a gray/taupe powder using an angled brush, though true to my then-haphazard ways, I just used an eye shadow rather than any specialist brow product, followed by a few swipes of the gel. It made me look like an adult with naturally defined brows, and not a teen with reddish kohl conspicuously drawn onto her eyebrows. Previously I’d used a dark-brown eye pencil (yes, an eye pencil, a kohl eyeliner, not even a brow pencil — forgive me please, we knew not what we were doing back then), which made my eyebrows look suspiciously gingery.
I was so proud of the result that I took a picture and posted it on my Tumblr, as you do when you’re a 19-year-old student with way too much time on your hands. It was reblogged over 200,000 times by “aesthetic” blogs and hashtagged as “eyebrow goals” so many times that for a while, if you Googled “eyebrow goals,” my somewhat cross-eyed photo would come up. My theory as to why it took off is that it stood in contrast with the emerging hyperdone Instagram brows — instead, it was an achievable, relatable, natural look. Little did they know, it was actually brow gel that made my (although naturally thick) quite sparse and light brows look so thick, defined, and #aesthetic.
Seven years later, I still use this brow gel, and I’ve even gifted it to my mother — who’s now made it a staple part of her Christmas list, so every year I replenish her supply like a brow-specific Santa. Since 2012, she’s also managed to go from dark-brown hair to blonde, and the universal shade has worked for either color — because the subtle pigment makes your natural brow color just a shade or two darker, enough to make the hairs pop against some brow powder and look defined, but not enough to actually change the color altogether (basically, you can’t overdo it).
For me, it works best after I’ve filled my eyebrows in with something else to give your eyebrows definition (at the moment I’m using a brow pencil I bought from Miniso last time I was in Asia, but anything works as long as it’s not too dark) and the gel gives the hairs definition and keeps them in place — the result is that your brows look multidimensional rather than drawn on, and completely natural. Unlike other brow gels, the Eyeko one actually has a gel-like quality and some light shimmer in its sheer, universal shade — it’s not a cream or paste like mascara. The shimmer and texture mean brows look glossy, never crunchy.
The packaging is great — the iconic Eyeko silver soft-plastic tube means you can squeeze every last drop of product out, and the tube itself is a generous size; I use it every day but only need to replenish my supply once a year.
My point is — if this gel was good enough to make me briefly Tumblr famous, it may do the same to you on Instagram, or TikTok, or LinkedIn, or whatever other social media platform you set your sights on. At the very least, your brows will look consistently perfect.
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