L'Oréal's £14 tint transforms gappy, thin brows in minutes

A womans hand with dark nails holding a tube of L'Oreal Brow Artist Brow Color and a spoolie, next to an image of beauty editor Fiona McKim with tinted eyebrows — (Image credit: Future / Fiona McKim)

Becoming a parent rarely makes anyone's work life less complicated - but you definitely pick up insights that can make you better at what you do.

I was lucky enough to take a year of maternity leave, and boy, did I learn some home truths. Because it's easy to say that X is the best mascara or you simply must get your eyebrows shaped at luxury salon Y when it's all free, unlimited, and testing is your full-time job.

Then, the tap was turned off for 12 months, and I quickly learned which beauty products were actually worth the cash, time and energy when all three were finite resources. Same goes for treatments - having the time for those is assuredly not a perk of keeping a tiny human alive, but Amazon Prime-ing things to your house during 4 am feeds is. That's how L'Oreal's brilliant Brow Color dropped onto my doormat and into my life.

L'Oreal Paris

Brow Colour Semi-Permanent Eyebrow Tint

L'Oreal's tint works on the same principle as professional eyebrow tinting, but you're in the driver's seat. Mix the colour and developer (I use an empty bottle cap or little plastic bowl, whatever's hanging around) Brush the mixture through clean brows with the little bristled spoolie, clean up the edges with the angled shaping tool and a cotton bud if needed.

After five or ten minutes, swipe it off with a damp cotton round and behold! Full-looking, defined brows that, to use the old cliché, really do 'frame' the face, especially when you haven't got it in you to apply any makeup. Of the five shades, I mostly use 6.0 light brunette but dabble with 3.0 dark brunette when I want a more striking effect.

an image of beauty editor fiona mckim with blonde hair and sparse, light brown eyebrows, next to an image of the same person but with darker, full looking and defined eyebrows — My sparse untinted eyebrows before (L) and (R) after using L'Oreal Brow Color tint

an image of a spoolie head from loreal brow color tint, necxt to the bottle of colour developer and dye

Like many regretful Millennials, I spent my teen years aspiring to Geri Halliwell-inspired pin-thin eyebrows, and my sparse arches never recovered. They've also thinned out with age, making me look inexplicably tired and surprised all at once, but this brow tint is transformative.

If you've never tried home eyebrow tinting before, let me say it is one of the few - maybe the only - DIY beauty services where I see no difference, results-wise, from paying full whack at a salon. It looks as good, lasts as long, maybe three weeks for me, and is, obviously, very cheap and convenient. I still book pro eyebrow threading though, because that truly is an art form.

Finally, may I ask, nay, implore you to do the patch test? I know it's boring, and you've probably tried dyes before with no ill effects. But these allergies can come on fast and are no joke. I'm coming over all maternal here, but I'd really hate for you to hurt yourself.

As woman&home's Beauty Channel Editor, Fiona Mckim loves to share her 15+ years of industry intel on womanandhome.com and Instagram (@fionamckim if you like hair experiments and cute shih-tzus). After interning at ELLE, Fiona joined woman&home as Assistant Beauty Editor in 2013 under industry legend Jo GB, who taught her to understand ingredients and take a cynical approach to marketing claims. She has since covered every corner of the industry, interviewing dermatologists and celebrities from Davina McCall to Dame Joan Collins, reporting backstage at London Fashion Week and judging the w&h Beauty Awards.