Do not be alarmed, dear readers. This is my right eye just after I visited the Shavata Brow Studio at The Urban Retreat in Harrods.
I have the pain threshold of a toddler, and am utterly incapable of tweezing my own eyebrows. I don’t much like anyone else doing it either. When I lived in London I occasionally engaged in eyebrow threading which, whilst hardly painless, does at least mean a quantity of hair is removed with each tug so pain is minimised. It also leaves a lovely clean line.
But the last year of my life has not been notable for its emphasis on grooming, so it must be over twelve months since I got anyone to shape my brows. Which is rather stupid of me given that I keep having my photograph taken for various media, and because a well-groomed brow really does shape the face.
Okay. So I’ve read that line above countless times in magazines and, whilst we all know that Liz Hurley was transformed from English diamond in rough to international beauty by a judicious brow tweeze, she was a brunette with a hint of a monobrow and I am a pallid blonde with wispy brows. (I’m leaving aside the beauty part.) I just didn’t get how an eyebrow shape would be able to make any more difference to those wispy brows than my everyday threading experience.
But, in the spirit of beauty journalism, & courtesy of their PR, I trotted off to the Shavata Brow Studio at The Urban Retreat in Harrods. Shavata herself was away, but being quite sure that all her employees would be as good as the maven herself, I booked myself in with the charming Baljit Kaur Hunjan for a session of torture shaping.
When asked what I wanted, I gave myself over into her hands completely: trust the experts is always my mantra. She’s incredibly calm & kind, and put up with my stagey flinching as she rapidly trimmed, threaded, dyed, tweezed & shaped my eyebrows into something quite, quite extraordinary in under 20 minutes:
On the left is my right eye without benefit of makeup (bar a tiny sweep of essential Dr Hauschka liquid eyeliner) or, most importantly, any eyebrow grooming WHATSOEVER. On the right is me after. *
There’s an arch for chrissakes. I have NEVER ever had an arch in my eyebrows. Never. Truly she performed eyebrow MAGIC. And, a week later, people are still commenting that I look great, but that they can’t quite put their finger on why. Which is absolutely the best possible response for any kind of beauty treatment.
I was also amazed by the cost. Used to American grooming prices — the big New York & LA eyebrow gurus charge a LOT — I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the eyebrow tint was £17, & the eyebrow shape £24 (£17 at Shavata Lash Lounges). When you consider you reap the benefits every day, that looks like a bargain to me.
There’s a whole line of Shavata brow grooming products which I haven’t tried myself, but which Baljit used to great effect on me, including a genius arch enhancing pencil. Available here
There are Shavata Brow Studios in Manchester, Belfast, Leeds, Edinburgh, Harrods & House of Fraser in London EC4.
*The left hand pic was shot in the very bright light Shavata need to see the brow clearly. The after was shot in reception in a more flattering light after the nice lady from Laura Mercier got her hands on my ruddy complexion — but not my brows which are exactly as Baljit left them. More on this later!
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Wow… they look stunning. I want an arch now! I tweeze my own brows but it’s always a bit of a hack job. The arch makes a difference and I think I should start enhancing them at least with some form of brow make up.
Did they tell you how long an eyebrow tint would last? Love the results! x
Right I shall be booking myself in for this next week, when I dash up to London for cut and colour — any idea how long the overall effect lasts — threading is about 4ish weeks??
It’s done I’m booked for next week — hooray..
Thanks for sharing they look wonderful, as someone who gets their eyebrows neatly threaded but has never had a defined arch I am intrigued. I live in Glasgow (its fab we have a cos now thanks for twittering that or it could have been weeks until I noticed!) I will have to book the next time I am in London or Edinburgh as this is what I have been trying to acheive and getting nowhere.
Wow, what a huge difference! I’m definitely making a booking!
That’s a fantastic transformation. It looks like an utterly different eye. I try and have mine waxed about every three months but even thats not enough. I also have a gap in one of the eyebrows from a childhood accident. Would they be able to do anything for that do you think? It can be quite noticeable after a wax.
thank you for this! i lived in the middle east for two years and had this done frequently…have been trying to find a good place here in the uk but no luck. you haven’t found any good sugar places, have you? i’m too scared (smart?) to try it myself.
They do look great but sadly I don’t like threading. It is such a weird feeling, I prefer to have them waxed, although would be prepared to give it another try if I find myself in Harrods.
That’s freakin’ amazing! I’m jealous since I’m with you on the eyebrow front. If — with your network — you can find something like this in DC for me, I’d pay twice that amount to get your eyebrows.
It’s quite scary, but the before looks a LOT like me. I really should go. I would like to say that ‘I just had a baby’, but baby will turn one in about three weeks, and my excuse is getting rather lame.
They look amazing! I’m going to Harvey Nicks for that tomorrow, hope mine look half as good as yours! My eyebrows need some tlc.
iliketweet.blogspot
x
that is SERIOUSLY good. I’m very, very impressed. Well done, you.
I need to grow some proper eyebrows in order to get them done, now..
Ooooh, i have to try now. Thank you for the tip!
Oooh, beautiful! Very generous of you to share this transformation, too.
Wow, what beautiful brows! I’m a complete wimp as well. There used to be a lovely lady opposite Zara at The Watford Harlequin Centre who did threading,mind you I found it really, really painful (and annoying that you then had to go shopping with a bright red face) but last time I went she’d disappeared. This time I had them waxed and found the result much nicer (and the experience less painful).
Amazing! They are perfect and the price is unbelievable. Now that I can no longer justify paying $120 + $30 tip to Eliza Petrescu and fear that I might end up with the dreaded sperm brows if I go anywhere else I’ve the brows of a Yeti. I think I need to schedule an additional London trip when we’re in the UK!
hey — love your brow tips! have you found someone good here in Manhattan?
Thanks!
@cecekuan
wowww!! that’s amazing.thank you for that. Do you think is good to go with Shavata or Baljit?
thanks x
Oh my goodness — just saw your ridiculously well-groomed brow on another post and had to click. The before picture is my eyebrows! Hideous straggly pale things that they are. I’ve just booked up an appointment for a reshape and a tint. Slightly terrifying as have never dyed my eyebrows any colour, but will take along your photograph for guidance. I hope Namisha’s good. Thank you LLG!
Hello! I’m about to visit new york and was wondering if you had anywhere to recommend to do my brows there?