A £2.50 dupe for Glossier Boy Brow?

Hey! Ever since our first Glossier post, I’ve been trying out lots of their products, and I’m going to attempt to dupe the ones that are my favourites. Although Glossier isn’t the most expensive brand out there, it’s certainly not high street prices.

Today I’m taking on maybe Glossier’s most famous and most hyped item of makeup – Boy Brow.

At £14, Boy Brow is £6 cheaper than Benefit’s Gimme Brow and £9 cheaper than Anastasia’s brow gel. However, it’s a massive £11.50 more expensive than what we’re going to be trying it out against today, Make me Brow by Essence (£2.50).

Essence is kind of a weird brand – I’ve heard so much about it from bloggers and Youtubers in Ireland and Canada, but it’s only recently launched in the UK (okay it’s been a couple of years now) however, the only place to get it is Wilko. Hardly my number 1 destination for makeup shopping, TBH. The best thing about it is that it is seriously seriously cheap, this product is literally TWO POUNDS FIFTY, I doubt you can even get anything from L’Oreal or Rimmel for that much any more. Oh, and it’s cruelty free AND vegan.

[FYI: Glossier Boy Brow is cruelty free but is not vegan as it contains beeswax]

My eyebrows

I’m lucky enough to have eyebrows of my own with no major patchiness issues, they aren’t at Cara Delevigne levels of lustrousness but, whatever. I usually lean more towards more “natural” looking eyebrow makeup, like a little bit of powder or a brow gel rather than using pomade or eyebrow pencils. Just a heads up!

Packaging

Aesthetically, obviously Glossier is a lot cuter – just look at it:

But for all intents and purposes it is exactly the same – a screw top lid with a brush. You do get 0.02g more in the Essence one but I don’t think there’s anything that notable between them, packaging-wise.

Brush

In the picture: the top is Essence, bottom is Glossier.

As you can probably tell the brush on the Glossier brow gel is smaller, and has longer bristles. Also less product is left on the brush when you take it out.

I definitely prefer the Glossier brush to Essence, it’s more precise and the Essence one can leave globs of product in your brows that need to be brushed out. The Essence brush isn’t horrible, they’re still both quite small (I should have put something else in the picture for reference, really!)

Shade choice

Left is Glossier, right is Essence

Both of these are the “blonde” shades, and PERSONALLY I consider Essence to be a better match for me. I always feel as though eyebrow colours meant for blondes always lean too red, and this is definitely the case for Boy Brow. Essence might even be a bit light for me, but I’d rather have something too light than something too warm.

In general, Glossier offer a better shade selection though, with three colours, blonde, brown and black as well as a clear option. Essence only have “blondy brows” and “browny brows”.

Formula

Essence is left, Glossier is right

I don’t know if you can tell, but Boy Brow is a lot more full on than Make me Brow, colour-wise. It definitely darkens and gives good shape to my eyebrows, whereas Essence’s brow gel makes my brow more fluffy and textured. Both options are perfectly acceptable, depending on the look you were going for, but I definitely wouldn’t call them dupes.

It’s personal preference but I’d say that Boy Brow makes me look more done up, and Essence is more natural, similar to what you might achieve with a clear brow gel.

Results

I look sooo cross eyed in this picture, but left is Essence, right is Glossier!

So what do you think, dupe or not? I’d say no – I think if you wanted the Essence eyebrow to look like the Glossier one you’d need a bit of powder to fill in the gaps. HOWEVER, in terms of performance, both held my eyebrows in place all day, and if you were considering the clear Boy Brow, I’d say Make me Brow in blondy brows could be a bargain option for you. The colour really isn’t strong enough to show up all that much.

Do you have any other possible dupes you’d like us to investigate? Drop us a comment!

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