Benefit WOWed My Brows | My Trip to Benefit's Toronto Boutique

Last week my brows were looking pretty rough.  I'm talking little stray hairs and baby hairs.  Typically I go to get my brows done once a every few months and then in between I clean them up on my own.  I decided to skip my normal place in favour of checking out Toronto's new Benefit Boutique. A chance to get my brows done and write a blog post?  Yes please!

The boutique is about half way between Eglinton and Lawrence on Yonge Street.  For those not familiar with Toronto north of Bloor, it was quite a walk!  In fact, I ended up stopping at a Second Cup on the way from Eglinton Station to grab an Italian Soda (Peach and Cherry is my go-to!).  After a ten minute walk I finally arrived at Benefit's candy pink boutique.  The first thing I noticed was their misspelling of "Colours" in their window ;)

The Benefit Boutique is located at 2614 Yonge Street between Eglinton and Lawrence.  You do not need to book an appointment in advance (I just walked in!) but if you are in a rush or on a schedule their phone number is (416) 440-2769.

The store was small but felt big and open because it wasn't cluttered with products.  I looked around for a few minutes before asking the Benefit lady if they did threading.  She told me they did not (even though it was on the menu?) but that she did plucking with tweezers and waxing.  Normally I shy away from waxing because I find it leaves me with a bunch of tiny white heads 2-3 days after but in the name of blogging I did it for you, so you should thank me and my brows.

She laid out her tools, including mini scissors, tweezers, sticks, a swab, a brush, and a spoolie.  

Another customer walked in the store so she asked if she could help her.  I said to go ahead, and took this pretty photo of a jar filled with beauty stuff.  

When she came back she explained the importance of eye cream and applied some on me.  Then she did a mock up of my brows marking in the arch point and such.  I thought it looked silly but it made sense.  Once she was done with her map she let me take a peek and then stuck a stick in the wax.

The wax had a pleasant smell and a nice pearl quality to it.  It was warm, but not hot, as she applied it according to her map.  After the initial waxing she touched up a few spots, trimmed down my brows, and did other such clean up activities.  

Just as she was finishing my first brow, a gentleman from Starbucks walked in with samples of their limited edition Cotton Candy Frap.  They were pink-- just like the boutique!  I grabbed one to sip on while she prepared to do my second brow.  I found the sample to be yummy, but very sweet.  With the Cotton Candy Frap the sample size is all you need to satisfy any sweet cravings.  I couldn't imagine how much sugar is in a Tall let alone a Venti!

When she finished waxing my brows I asked about getting them tinted.  She told me that usually they do the tinting first but that it was okay and she would do it.  At first she was talking about adding ash to the mix to cool down the shade, but I told her that I prefer my brows to be a bit warmer, so she did a mix of warm brown and auburn.  I don't find ashy brows to be flattering on me-- something about the grey quality just puts me off.

Here I am, waiting for my brows to tint! She assured me that they would not be this dark, but I sort of wouldn't mind that. 

The final product!  She touched them up a bit with a pencil, but I am very happy with the results.  It has been about ten days now and my brows are still pretty tinted, which is great.  A few hairs have grown back, but they were easily taken care of by tweezers.  I like that the shape is still full, but is a bit more flattering.  Of course, when I got home I remembered a voucher I had for a free tint and wax, so I will be back at the end of the summer to use that!  Over all I had a great experience and I would encourage you to go if you have the chance.  The atmosphere was pretty, the service was great, and my brows look great!

While I was there I purchased They're Real Mascara in Blue.  You can read my review here.

Here are a few shots of the store:

Those eyeshadows <3

Brows

Blush!

The bag I left with included chocolate and samples.

A selfie with the statue on the way out!

Over all I had a great experience at Benefit's Boutique in Toronto.  I will be back for my next brow touch up!

Have you had a chance to check out Benefit's new boutique?  What did you think?