SECRET KEY Self Brow Tattoo Tint Pack in #04 Ash Brown Review

I'm pleased to announce that I've been selected as a 1st Generation Beautiful Pioneer!

What is a Beautiful Pioneer?

“A Beautiful Pioneer is curious.
A Beautiful Pioneer is thorough.
A Beautiful Pioneer embraces and promotes beauty & individuality.”

I'll be working with Cupidrop to test out the latest K-beauty products and review them with 100% honesty.

Since Cupidrop is based in NYC, shipping is super fast for US residents! The prices are also super affordable as the company started with the simple idea of offering great skincare products at great prices to the US.

For my first product, I received the SECRET KEY Self Brow Tattoo Tint Pack. I chose #04 Ash Brown because its the only shade with grey undertones, which look the most natural on girls with black hair.

The peel-off makeup trend has piqued my interest for some time now so I was super excited to try this out! I always seemed to gravitate to my good old brow pencil but by stepping out of my comfort zone, hopefully I'll discover a new holy grail for my brows!

Price: $6

Size: 8g

Scent: Glue. But that's only because I intentionally took a giant whiff an inch away from the bottle. The scent is undetectable upon opening and application.

Ingredients (rough run through Google Translate...obviously some gibberish in there):

Purified water, ethanol polyvinyl alcohol, dihydroxyacetone, Butylene Glycol, Polysorbate 00. panthenol, aloe vera leaf extract, soybean extract, xanthan gum, camellia seeds, tocopheryl acetate, sodium chloride, hydroxyzine . 1.2-hexan di caprylyl glycol, phenoxyethanol, W quality hexyl glycerin, Red No. 227 methane, pansaek No. 4, Blue No. 1

The brush is fairly thick so that large amounts of product can be applied easily. You're supposed to apply a thick, even layer as opposed to a thin one for optimal pigmentation. On the downside, this makes precise edges difficult to achieve.

Once dry, the tint became a thin, stretchy film. While I did lose around 2 hairs per brow upon removal, it was quick and painless. I found that the tint didn't come off in one piece and had to be rubbed off in small parts because it was clinging onto my hairs. When I applied the tint to my arm for a swatch/longevity test, the dried tint actually came off by itself-- indicating how easy it is to remove on smooth skin.

My initial reaction to the tint was how "sharpie" it looked. There's no possible way to thin the product out near the inner corners of your brows or create a softer outline. I actually tried with my right brow and ended up with patchiness in that area. Keep in mind that your brows will look exactly like how you draw them with the tint except several shades lighter. The edges will be super sharp!

While the majority of my brows were a nice "khaki grey" color, the edges were faintly outlined with some gold color. Honestly speaking, I was a bit horrified with how unnatural things looked immediately after removal. For review's sake, I decided to leave the brows be to see how they faded.

The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised at how natural things were looking! The edges had softened up and were looking very similar to how I normally fill in my brows. The areas with little to no hair (my inner corners) lightened up significantly while the areas dense with hair stayed dark.

My favorite days were 2-3, and I noticed that the darkness was virtually gone by day 5.

For my second test on my brows, I left the tint on for only 30 minutes and the end product was very similar. However, the color was extremely prone to smearing. The product also peeled off easily and pulled off no hairs. Definitely leave your brows alone for 24 hours if choosing to apply for only 30 minutes!

As for the longevity test, I decided to do two patches on my wrist. (Keep in mind that the results on my wrist are much different than the results on my brows because my face is oilier, and more prone to sweat.) The instructions recommend leaving the product on overnight for a more "intense" color so I applied one patch for 2 hours and the other for 8 hrs.

The morning after applying the overnight patch test, I found that the product had peeled off by itself during the night. As a result, I'm not completely sure if I had the product on for 8 hours, but I definitely know that it was longer than 2.

Applying the product for only 2 hours gives a more brown color, while applying overnight gives a darker, grey color. The darkness of both patches was consistent for 5 days until I decided to run water over it (I had avoided running water over it in the shower.)

Once in the shower, the color significantly lightened. The color then continued to fade gracefully when I resumed running water over my wrist in the shower.

On day 11, I cleansed my wrist with a cleansing foam and the color came right off. There is a SLIGHT trace of the product, but for the most part it was gone.

Overall, I would recommend this product to those who want to have brow makeup on while at the pool or water park. The color fades much quicker than expected and stays for 1-2 days if you cleanse per usual.

The peel off trend is fun, I admit, but definitely a gimmick!