Brow Resurrection @ Browhaus Wheelock - Review (Unsponsored!)

So. I'd been wondering about the Brow Resurrection services at Browhaus for awhile so when Arissa (from Monoxious) had a promo on her Instagram last month for 10% off the trial price, I jumped at the opportunity! While I don't have sparse brows, I do feel sometimes that the arch is a tad too sharp and makes me look abit aggressive sometimes even though I'm anything but! Also, they're abit unbalanced ^-^;;

So umm...alot of the Browhaus reviews I found online were sponsored, so I wasn't 100% sure what kind of customer experience I would be in for as I'd popped into Browhaus @ Tampines1 before to ask if there was a walk-in slot available for eyebrow threading and also called to enquire about a slot for Brow Resurrection. There wasn't as Browhaus seems pretty busy all the time so you really need to make appointments in advance e.g 2 to 3 days advance for Brow Resurrection. I was fine with not being able to get a slot since I wasn't in a rush but I didn't get a very welcome vibe from both the lady at the reception and the guy who answered my call so....yeah....=\

Anyway~~~~

I dug around for reviews from customers and found them to be quite mixed with a portion airing their irritation at package hard selling and poor customer service e.g irritation when customer rejects a package. I shopped around some more and decided that the Wheelock branch seemed to be the most 'friendly' so I gave them a call. Happy to say, the lady who answered was polite and friendy, got my appointment down for 2 days later.

Situated on the 3rd floor of Wheelock Place, it's just opposite MTM so you can't miss it.

The ladies were very smiley and I felt quite comfortable as they sat me down and one of them explained to me about the procedure (method + 100% vegetable dye and so on so forth) and the paperwork that I had to sign. After that I was introduced to my brow technician, Ella, who spoke mainly mandarin which is ok since my mandarin is pretty fluent; but occasionally her accent was abit thick and I couldn't understand her (^_^;;)

First she drew the shape of my soon-to-be new brows:

A little surprised as I had thought they would draw my brows in strand by strand so I could see the full effect but she only drew the outline. I was just a little teensy bit insecure as I haven't had full brows since I was 14 so....I just decided to wing it and go ahead.

On went the numbing cream!

Ella left them on for 20 min and brought me some tea and magazines to keep me occupied =) Oh! I was also given a personal pack of earphones in case I wanted to listen to some music from my phone =)

This is my view while I'm waiting and she preps the tools. I took all my photos as if I was just a major camwhore so they wouldn't think I was a secret shopper or something =P

20 min later, Ella returned and wiped off the numbing cream after which we set about choosing the colour of dye I would be using. Considering that my hair was a dark ash brown tone, she chose a dark brown grey shade that would match it exactly. She also showed me the tools used for Brow Resurrection still in their packs to show that they were new and opened them in front of me.

On with the dye!

I actually really like my nose here haha =P ok irrelevent

Mahahahaha I look like Crayon Shin-chan! The Husband was quite amused XP

And then we started! Ella brought me a rolled towel for my neck so it wouldn't get sore, so nice of her! And I'm happy to report that there was NO PAIN at all. All I heard was a scratching sound throughout that didn't bother me much. And throughout the process, Ella was very concerned if I felt any pain so even when I decided to take a deep breath, she stopped and asked if it hurt. She even reapplied some numbing cream halfway through to make sure.

The whole session took 1.5hrs and because I was free to entertain myself with my phone or just grab 40 winks, it wasn't a drag at all.

If you have trouble picturing it, here's an animated clip from Browhaus with a simple explanation about Brow Resurrection~ More related info in the Q&A portion of this post below.



Bam! Here are the before and after shots! Starts from the day of the session (27th Aug), immediately after and so on~ (All photos are without brow makeup)

Before:

After:

Quite impressed cos the 'strands' look so real!

End result: Slightly more defined brows, especially at the head and tail. More balanced and a slightly gentler arch. (^_^)v

I've passed the 2 week mark and back to washing my face normally again, thank god. I've been poking around my brows though and it looks like I've lost quite abit of ink thus the slight gaps but overall still an improvement so I'm not too upset. I do have to fill them in a little though. It's looks like it's mainly my own brow hair now so...I dunno...maybe all that scratching acted as a growth stimulant? =D

I think it turned out decent for about $450 (Brow Resurrection trial plus 1 touchup session). The ladies there explained to me a couple of times that everyone's retention of the ink is different thus the need for touchup sessions. So whilst I lament the couple of gaps that have resurfaced, the overall effect is still satisfactory for the trial price. At this point I'm not entirely sure if I would ever purchase the package at full price though >_< maybe because I didn't have like severe brow issues?

Quick Q&A

Several friends had some questions for me when they knew I'd gone for Brow Resurrection so I'll just repeat them here~

• How is the trial different from the full deal? (Easily the most popular question lol)

Well, the procedure you get is exactly the same. However, you can only buy 1 touchup session (approx S$160) with the trial after which you have to repurchase the full package again if you want to continue. The full package price includes the aftercare kit (retails ard S$160) and 3 touchup sessions. As usual, it's cheaper if you buy the full package at the time of your trial appointment - they offered me S$1,200 at the time of my appointment as opposed to the usual approx S$2,000. The full package should provide a 2 yr supply of good brows.

• Is the aftercare kit (aka camera kit) a must-buy?

No, you can opt not to purchase it. They whined abit but left off when I said I had a hand-me-down from a girlfriend (not true). A girlfriend had mentioned that the 2 pots of the aftercare kit contained a vaseline-like cream and a clear, hyaluronic-acid-like serum so I just went with the vaseline since that's what we use for tattoo aftercare too. I am not sure if this substitution affected the end result though =\ my girlfriend barely touched her aftercare kit and her brows look fine~

• Did it hurt?

Not one bit! But the numbing cream wore off about half an hour after the session and developed a burning sensation that lasted about 4 - 5hrs. Felt quite hot but not really bothered. 

• Was the aftercare troublesome?

At first washing my face around the brows wasn't so bad. But when the itching started after about 3 days I was soooooo urrgghhh about it! A couple of times I forgot and scratched at them for like a millisecond and freaked out lol =P After a week, they began to peel a bit so I had thin inked flakes of skin that looked like mosquito legs dropping on my cheeks. So yeah, you have to work around that. No direct sun exposure, facials, swimming or sauna-type activities for 2 weeks too.

'Mosquito legs' XD

And one of the biggest questions..

• DID THEY BUGGER ME ABOUT THE PACKAGE SIGNING?

Well, they did explain it to me again and again and again....and again. But thankfully they were not forceful and didn't 'meh' me when I politely declined again and again.....and again. The reception's smile got a little bit frozen but remained friendly otherwise. So I reckon the Wheelock branch is pretty safe in that sense ^_^

Will be going back for my touchup in a month or 2 and will update again then! Hope this review has been helpful! Do feel free to ask if there's anything I missed out~ =) On a sidenote, did you notice that my skin looks pretty good in all these photos?? Even in the ones without makeup! I didn't realize it until I did up this post! Guess all that Skin Inc is paying off! =D

*UPDATE: Had to put my touchup on hold due to my pregnancy as the insertion of colour (because I have doubts how natural is the commercial definition of 'natural' these days) may affect the baby... XP Back to using eyebrow liners~~~