ALL ABOUT BROWS Series: REVIEW on Browhaus Lucky Chinatown

I can't remember when I first started to mess around with my brows. Maybe it was in my Senior Prom, because when I was a Junior my Dad was inside the salon when I was being made up, and he stopped the beautician from shaving my brows at that time. (Way to go, Pops. Hahaha.)

Even after that, I didn't get to care about how they looked or how they were shaped. I didn't even give a hoot if my brows looked like that of a caveman, like this:

Sometime in 2012, when I was growing my brow after
neighborhood beautician shaved it waaaaay too thin. :/

 But in the recent years, the more that I learn about make up, the more that I got conscious with my brows. But then I just I wanted them to be neat, so off I went to neighborhood brow salons and soon I sported brows that were dangerously thin, or too arched, or not pantay (symmetrical) and I never knew the difference. Hahaha.

My (recent) brow history. The best looking of the bunch, (Mar 2014 photo)
was all thanks to Benefit Brow Bar. After that I tried Cara Delevingne's caterpillar brows. :))

Then one fine August day, I noticed that something that was terribly wrong with my brows - one was arched way up high, while the other lay flat. I don't know when it started to happen, but the last time I had my brows threaded was at Bench Fix before my classes started last July.

Right brow was flatter and fatter compared to my left brow,
which had a really defined arch. Also, my left brow is shorter than the right. Got too tweezer-happy, I guess.

At first I didn't mind it because on most days I wear my hair down and so my flat right brow would be mostly out of sight. So I gave my brows time to grow and hopefully find one salon that can fix this anomaly.


Now enter Browhaus. I did my research on them last March, but I chose Benefit over Browhaus because Trinoma was nearer. By this time, I knew that the choice for my next brow shaping session would boil down to these two, but the final nudge was from my blogger idol Liz of Project Vanity. I asked her where she had her brows done and when she said Browhaus, I knew I had to go there. And then I found out that they have opened up a branch in Lucky Chinatown. Hooray!

My sis accompanied me there and visited around 7 PM as a walk-in visitor. I didn't get to take pictures of the place because I was so beside myself at that time (I had a quiz filled week and yesterday I had 2 of them), but the salon is quite hard to locate especially if you are not familiar with the mall, like me.

I availed their Classic Threading Service and paid 598 bucks for it. Quite steep a price for a service that could make you cry, but if they can do something about my brow anomaly, I'd be happy to pay for it.

I was brought to a cubicle (that looks like a tent) and then Miss Grace, my brow architect, took a look at my brows. She then handed me a mirror and then went on to explain the current state of my brows, and she confirmed what I have observed all month long. I asked her if she can make my brows look symmetrical again, and she said she would have to see after a month, because at this time she could not tell if the asymmetry is due to overthreading or if that's just how my brows are. She added that not all brows are really symmetrical. Well, I don't know if she's telling the truth or if she's just trying to make me come back next month.

Then she told me that she's going to shape a soft arch for my brow. I really liked that she somehow knew what I wanted without having to tell her myself. She then proceeded with the threading process. I closed my eyes as I await my brows' fate.

There was a certain pain during the ordeal, but it's really tolerable. I had this traumatic threading session at Lay Bare 2 years ago and God, I was crying the whole time and it wasn't even my first threading session! But at Browhaus, my eyes just watered but I wasn't really crying. After threading, she tweezed a few stray strands and trimmed my brows with brow scissors (or at least that's how it felt and sound - my eyes were still closed at that time). And then she let me open my eyes and handed me the mirror.

So, was it worth the P598?

Before

After
(Taken the morning after the session, filled in with Nyx Brow Gel in Brunette.
Didn't alter its shape whatsoever)

WOW. That was all I could say when I saw my brows. She then explained that she tried to make the arch even by making the arch of the (then) flat brow a bit higher. She then proceeded to applying some soothing cream on the surrounding skin and told me not to wet the area for the next 5 hours. I asked her how long would the redness on my skin would last. She told me it will be gone in 30 minutes. Yay.

What I liked:

• I really appreciated how the brow architect (that's how Browhaus calls them) described the current state of my brows, pointing out the differences between the left and the right, which areas are sparse, etc. I haven't heard anyone say such assessment to my brows before any threading/waxing session and I learned through that. (Well, one neighborhood gay beautician once told me that my brows looked like Gretchen Barreto's, if you call that an assessment.)
• The procedure was done in a very professional and efficient manner. It was obvious that Ms. Grace knew what I want with my brows and how she would go to achieve it.
• My brows was not perfectly symmetrical as I would like, but it was really evened out compared to the last time.

What I didn't like:

• The price. For brow maintenance, paying roughly 600 bucks, especially for a student's budget just won't cut it. I was only willing to splurge this time because I really wanted to even out the shape of brows, and I know it'll be hard to find a cheaper alternative who could do just that.
• The mirror. As I had to carry it while as the brow assessment went on, it was quite heavy, especially when you have to hold it at an arm's length in a supine position. Or maybe it's just the lazy old me. Haha.

Will I come back?

• Yes! I plan to come back next month because I think at the next sesh they can even out my brows some more. Hihihi.

All in all, it was a nice experience. I recommend this to those who are having their brows shaped for the first time, or for the first time in a very very long while, because Browhaus can really shape it right. :)

Any more brow salons/brow experts you can recommend? Do share! :)