Benefit Brow Bar at Ulta

Off day? Post-​holiday food coma? Skipped morning coffee?
I’m honestly trying to figure out why my experience at this Brow Bar was so starkly different from the other reviewer, but I’ll take what ever she’s having.
I was in need of a good brow shaping and didn’t feel like spending an arm and a leg. I’ve visited countless other Brow Bars in California and the Midwest and have had awesome experiences. Granted, they always fill my brows in way too intensely for 10am (as beautiful as they are, «Instagram brows» don’t always work for my 9 – 5), but it’s nothing some makeup remover can’t fix. I wish I could say the same for my brows this time around.
Making an appointment was simple enough – you can’t make an appointment for their Brow Bar online, so you either need to call or drop by and see if there is a spot available. I was able to secure an appointment for the following day at the time I needed, which was a plus. I arrived and was promptly seated, and the technician went right to work.
Everything looked fine enough when I looked into the mirror after she was through, but reality sunk in once I removed the layers of brown powder and concealer at home. My brows are horribly uneven. I know brows should be sisters not twins, but they look like fifth cousins twice removed as far as I’m concerned. I had thicker brows when I sat in the chair, and now one of my brows is arched and painfully thin while the other is rounded. I luckily have enough makeup skills to be able to pencil them back into looking related again, but it’s frustrating to say the least.
I’ve come to expect consistent service from Benefit Brow Bars, but I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere next time.

It was time. My left eyebrow and right eyebrow were about to end their long distance relationship and reconnect. I needed to put a stop to it.
So while browsing in Ulta before dinner I noticed this brow bar, and the client having her brows done had one eyebrow that was untouched and the other that was being worked on had a gorgeous arch and fullness. That one eyebrow was intimidating.
So I was curious about what this Benefit Brow bar was all about. Do I make an appointment? How much does it cost? so I start circling the store in a discrete manner very much like how a shark does circles around their prey revisiting the brow bar on each lap and watching the progression of the client’s eyebrow, checking out prices, and inspecting products.
Well finally the customer walked away with the fiercest looking brows ever, so I approached the Benefit Brow lady and asked «hey can you fix these brows that look like two interconnected horizontal commas on my face?» And then she got to work.
First of all here is what I learned. I originally asked for a wax ($ 21), but then she asked if I used any retinols on my face. I have a lifetime supply of Retin-​A at home so of course I do. Then she said we would have to hand tweeze ($ 24), because Retin-​A tends to thin out your skin and make it prone to tearing skin off while waxing. Good to know and glad she asked.
Then she went all Edward Tweezerhands on my brows, shaping, double checking, shaping again.
The best part was that she then added concealer to mask the redness and applied brow gel and added fullness.
This is when the mysteries of womenkind came known to me, I have seen women with a strong brow game and always wondered how they did it. The brow lady (Kiesse) taught me how to use the gel to fill in the eyebrows and showed me how to push those little hairs a la Donald Trump combover style to make them fuller. Basically, I am not washing my face ever again, or sweating. I now have intimidating arched full brows. Brows that send a stronger message than my resting b$&(y face. To add, when you are finished up, they give you a slip to pay at the register (you can also add a tip).
While tweezing or even waxing my brows here is nearly double what I pay for threading, given the use of products, I highly recommend this spot if you want to get your brows done up for a night or if you are new to the ways of the brow shaping world and need a tutorial.