The Surprising Beauty Product Brooke Shields Relies on for Flawless Eyebrows

You might assume Brooke Shields maintains her trademark bold eyebrows with some fancy, luxurious products. Well, it turns out the actress relies on budget-friendly items that aren’t actually meant for our brows in the first place. 

Shields told InStyle, “I have yet to find a good gel that doesn’t get crunchy. I’ll put my lip gloss or conditioner balms on them. It cleans them up a bit and adds a sheen.” Don’t worry, she isn’t suggesting we slather bright pink or red gloss all over our brows. Instead, using clear lip products can help to moisturize the hairs and skin underneath while keeping them in place.

Most eyebrow gels contain alcohol, which can dry out and cause breakage. “This creates patches in the brow,” beauty expert Azi Sacks explained to InStyle. “It also dries the skin under the hair — this area of skin is vital to the brows fullness. If it’s dry or flakey, new hairs don’t generate and properly come through in hair cycles.”

Sacks backs up Shields’ lip balm trick and frequently recommends using a product like Rosebud Perfume Co. Rosebud Salve (Buy on Amazon, $6.99) to her clients. She told Allure earlier this year, “Unlike brow gel, wax, or brow soap, it’s ultra-moisturizing to the skin under the hair and to the hair itself, and it is thick enough in texture to hold our brow hair in place.”

If you have sensitive skin, it might be better to try a fragrance-free option like Aquaphor Healing Ointment (Buy on Amazon,$9.10) to avoid any irritation. (It’s another celeb-approved favorite!) Whichever product you go with, simply swipe a little across your brows and then brush them into place with a clean brush or spooly. 

You can also add some brow powder to fill in any sparse spots and it should cling well to the balm. Sacks recommends this instead of brow pencils, which can pull at the fine hairs and make the issue worse. Now you can go out into the world with the same brow confidence as Shields!