The Mountford Brothers

Black and White vs. Colour

Working with three boys on a farm is a great contrast to working with brides, in white dresses, on their wedding day. With boys, one doesn't have to worry about getting them dirty, tearing their dress, nor worry about laying their train down for each shot. So this photo shoot was a refreshing way to end 2014. This shoot was done on the 29th December, on the Mountford's farm, in the Eastern Cape.

With such beautiful scenery, I opted to stick with a wider lens, in order to incorporate the breath-taking environment. This happens to be the farm that these boys have grown up on, so it was great to document them in their natural environment, as this just aided with making them feel at ease, and mischievous as ever. I myself, actually grew up very near to this farm, and was taught by the mother of these three boys, Hayley, in primary school. For this particular photo shoot, I was inspired to keep subjects centred and to play with symmetry. With the feel of the shoot, and the direction of the light, I got completely carried away with black and white edits, as they just seemed to add such depth and emotion to the selected images. I decided to blog half colour, half black and white, as I feel that they have both earned their place. 

All in all I am thrilled with the end result, especially for the fact that I came very close to breaking my toe a few hours before the start of the photo shoot. Thanks to Alex, Hayley and the boys for being so great to work with. I think we might have to do a updated photo shoot as the boys grow:)

Eyebrow Pencils For Black Hair | Photos & Swatches

Strong, defined, bold brows have been all the craze lately. Comments and hashtags regarding having a strong #browgame have been showering social media platforms left and right.

Being a sparse-eyebrow-hair-gal, I have tried well over 10 different eyebrow products over the past few years. My biggest challenge with finding the right eyebrow product is finding a natural shade to match my black Asian eyebrow hair. The majority of the brow products available on the US market have too much of a warm red undertone to naturally match those with jet black hair.

I plan to make individual in-depth blogpost reviews on each of these eyebrow pencils. In the meantime, here is a quick breakdown of which brow pencil shades work well to match jet black hair.

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Money saving tip: Ebates cashback program is offering 8% cash back for Sephora (cash back rates vary; the most I've seen for Sephora is 10%!). Ebates has soo many online sites they offer cash back for. Definitely look for cashback bonuses before you make any online purchase!
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I WOULD RECOMMEND:

• Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in "granite" 
• great color match but pricey. (see my full review here)
• Forever 21 Retractable Eyebrow Pencil in "grey" 
• great color match & very affordable. (see my full review here)
• Shiseido 'The Makeup' Natural Eyebrow Pencil in "Natural Black GY901" 
• great color match but pricey and runs out very quickly.
• Sephora Retractable Brow Pencil in "06 Soft Charcoal": 
• affordable
• shade is also a bit dark/harsh, so it can be difficult to create a natural brow. 
• I personally use this to fill in and define the tail of my eyebrow.
• NYX Automatic Eyebrow Pencil in "charcoal"
• great color match and very affordable @ $4.99 (see my full review here)
• not very long-lasting

I've also been wanting to try Lioele's Brow Pencil in "gray black", but I've just been trying to use up my current collection of brow products (I have a lot -- eek).


I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND:

• Sephora Retractable Brow Pencil in "05 Neutral Gray Brown": while there is no warm, red undertone, this shade has a weird shiny sheen to it. I'm personally not a fan of the finish.
• Rimmel London Professional Eyebrow Pencil in "004 Black Brown": drugstore and very affordable, but is too warm for black eyebrow hair. I also feel this shade is too dark/harsh even when using a light hand for application.
• Rimmel London Professional Eyebrow Pencil in "002 Hazel": shade is way too warm to match jet black hair.

Photos:

I have also tried brow powder, brow wax, and brow kits -- but I'll save those for a separate post. I truly hope this helps some of my black hair sisters out there!

Leave me a comment and let me know what brow products you love!