Kathie Lee’s question: I’ve been using Maybelline clear mascara to add shape and definition to my brows but my friend tells me I should be using a brow gel. Is there was any difference between clear mascara that’s specifically designated for your lashes and clear eye brow gel?

The Right Brain responds:

Clear mascara is different than regular mascara because it’s not wax based. Maybelline Clear Lash, for example, consists of base of water and alcohol, thickened with a chemical called Carbomer, and a film forming agent called PVA (Polyvinyl alcohol) that gives your lashes some stiffness.

Now consider an eye brow gel like Paula Dorf Perfect Eyes Brow Gel or EyeBrowz. We’ll use the EyeBrowz Gel as an example because it doesn’t have a silly name like “Dorf.” The Eyebrowz formula is also water based and is thickened with Carbomer. But it doesn’t contain alcohol and it uses PVP as a film former instead of PVA. (That’s not a big difference.)

These formulas use pretty much the same ingredients so they should have a similar feel. (Without testing we can’t tell if one formula uses a higher level of the film formers so we can’t say for sure.) There’s no technical reason why you couldn’t use clear mascara on your eyebrows, but it really comes down to your personal taste. Why don’t you test it for yourself: use one product on one eye and the other product on the other. Write back and let The Beauty Brains know how the experiment works out!

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