Bleached Brows Are Ultra-Viral (and Quite Permanent), But This 2-Second Hack Is Totally Washable

It seems as if every day we tap our phones awake, we are greeted with yet another buzzy, and extremely fleeting, beauty trend. Dirty martini nails! Nina Park lips! The bubble blowout! It’s no secret that the beauty trend cycle is microscopic, but the one facet of our faces that is (only slightly) less susceptible to this ever-changing sequence is our brows.

According to our calculations, eyebrow trends seem to be the least frequent to come and go, though when they do, they make a cultural statement. Think of the thin brows of the ’90s and early 2000s—a style advised against by everyone who irreversibly overplucked in hopes of replicating Kate Moss and Pamela Anderson’s slim arches. Well, it’s slowly making its Saturn return. (Perhaps a direct correlation to the low-rise cuts and gaunt frames that reigned then and now, but that’s a separate conversation.)

More than 20 years later, the COVID-19 shutdown inspired us to embrace bushy, natural brows as the hygiene-powered “clean girl” movement set in. (We all got brow laminations, right?) Now years into a post-pandemic world, experts are watching the style set shake off the minimalist approach to beauty that flourished during quarantine.

“I think we’re seeing a shift in beauty, where we’re getting into more brutalist, unconventional makeup and trends,” celebrity makeup artist Dee Carrion previously told Who What Wear. Case in point? The new-age eyebrow trend that defied subculture odds and turned the It girls into alt girls: bleached brows.

What Are Bleached Brows?

The name leaves nothing to the imagination—bleached brows are, well, the byproduct of bleaching your brows from your natural hue into a white-blonde. If you already have pale brows, you’re halfway there!

Though people have bleaching their brows as an expression of personal style for years, there’s been a noticeable uptick in the popularity of this trend on the red carpet and tastemakers’ Instagrams—putting “messy-girl makeup” firmly on the map. “I think we’re seeing bleached brows move more into the mainstream because they’re such an easy way to add edge and open up more versatility with makeup,” celebrity makeup artist Kasey Spickard tells Who What Wear. “It’s a simple way to switch up your look without doing a ton of heavy lifting.”

From the white-blonde brows that have become Wednesday star Jenna Ortega’s signature to the temporary style Zendaya donned at the 2024 Met Gala, the stars are making a case for the blonde brow. Spickard, who’s faux-bleached both Summer House star Ciara Miller and Bachelorette alum Tayshia Adams’ brows, says this look is for the bold. “It definitely sparked both positive and negative reactions, which is usually how you know a look is doing something interesting,” he explains.

How to Fake Bleached Brows at Home

There are several methods that celebrity makeup artists, TikTok creators, and editors recommend for getting the blanched look at home. Spickard’s starts with good skin prep, which means wiping the brows and skin with a cotton pad soaked in 70% alcohol to remove any natural oils. “That step is key so the product can really adhere and wear properly,” he explains. Then, Spickard coats a disposable spoolie in Danessa Myricks’ Color Fix (shade Nude 3) and brushes it straight onto the brows. “Once it dries down, it’s waterproof, extremely long-wearing, and really gives the effect of a true bleached brow,” he states.

If you don’t have these liquid pigments on hand, content creator and makeup artist Rowi Singh makes a case for concealer brows in a step-by-step video tutorial. Singh dots her brows in a light shade of Tarte’s Shape Tape Concealer before blending the full-coverage formula into her brows with a fluffy brush, then goes back over the hair with a disposable spoolie covered in an even lighter shade of Nars’ Radiant Creamy Concealer to achieve “invisible” brows.

While I’ve gone the concealer route before, I’ve found that my long, bushy brows cling onto the creamy formula too much—forming unsightly clumps that reveal the inky hair underneath. That said, this all changed when I got my hands on the new Urban Decay Tube Job Lash Augmenting Tubing Mascara.

This mascara comes in five shades, including auburn for redheads, taupe for dark blondes, and platinum for blondes—an impressive selection that expands past your regular black and brown hues. But beyond its shade range, the formula itself is a technological feat.

A few swipes of this sumptuous mascara across your lashes (or brows!) offers 24-hour lift, a natural lengthening effect, sweat- and smudge-resistance, and a conditioning elixir of hyaluronic acid, castor oil, and peptides for comfortable wear. Though it’s intended to be used on your lashes, I decided to also test it out on my brows, and boy, did it change the game.

The process is a bit too simple: Brush and shape your brows with a dry, clean eyebrow brush, and then coat them with a few swipes of the new Urban Decay tubing mascara in the shade Platinum. All you need is a layer or two to achieve light brows that effectively cover dark, coarse hairs (speaking from experience here).

The reason this tubing mascara works so much more effectively than concealer is because of its strand-wrapping technology, which encases each strand in a stay-put coating that won’t move with sweat. That said, tubing mascara is famous for being easy to remove with micellar water or face wash, which means that it’ll maintain its look, rain or shine, until you decide to take it off. (It’s super easy to remove—no rubbing or pulling involved.) Though concealer is a great option for short-term results or a quick photo-op, you may not achieve the same longevity without flaking.

Though I prefer this nifty tubing mascara for two-second faux-bleached brows, there are several other products that will help you fake this It-girl trend at home. Below are nine more options that offer this celebrity-loved look sans dye.

Shop More Faux-Bleached Brow Products