The Brow Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re making (And How to Fix Them). From the Woman Who’s Seen it All
Main image – Svitlana
There’s a particular contagious enthusiasm you feel when speaking to someone who truly loves what they do. Kim O’Sullivan, founder of brow brand Browaid, radiates exactly that kind of grounded energy when we meet earlier this autumn. Even over our shared glitchy Zoom connection, her genuine excitement to talk all things brow is unmistakable.
It’s easy to forget then, given the polish of her brand’s recent launch into the UK, that Browaid began long before packaging or product development.
Because before the brand, there was simply the work: sixteen years in the salon, shaping and restoring brows while fielding the same daily questions from clients.
Over that time, Kim quietly became the name in countless address books in Ireland – a go-to for well-known faces like model Vogue Williams and Glamour Ireland editor in chief Samantha Barry. Her reputation there has long been built on word of mouth rather than marketing.
Kim receives a Launch of the Year Awards for Browaid. Image – Kim O’Sullivan
Now, with Browaid’s expansion into the UK, she’ll doubtless soon be on speed dial for the names behind some of England’s best-known eyebrows too.
You’re about to hear her name everywhere then, so it felt the right moment to learn more about the brand – and to ask her where most of us are quietly going wrong with our eyebrows.
Mistake 1: Going too dark, too heavy, too fast
One of the first things Kim tries to get across to her clients is restraint. “Less is more,” she says, and she applies that to both colour and pressure.
In her experience, most people instinctively reach for a shade that is too dark. The second mistake quickly follows: pressing harder, thinking that firmness equals control.
“Using the lightest pressure, whether you’re using a pomade or a pencil or a pen, it’s all about feather fingers,” she explains.
Kim demonstrates Browaid’s shades. Image – Kim O’Sullivan
She also consistently encourages clients to “always go a shade lighter,” because that softness allows the brows to lift and balance the face rather than overpower it.
“If they’re built in correctly, that they’re not too dark or too overpowering, they can actually have such a beautiful lifting effect to the face.”
It’s simple guidance, but it solves the vast majority of heavy-handed brow issues.
Mistake 2: Forgetting that brows have a life cycle
In recent years, brow health has become a central focus in Kim’s work – but for her, it started long before the conversation became popular online.
“Brow health is so important,” she says. “As we get older and we go through menopause, hair loss is inevitable. So by optimising the health of the brow from an early age, it just ensures that we hold on to those brow hairs for as long as possible.”
She is careful not to overpromise when it comes to regrowth though.
“If your brows have been slim or non-existent for many, many years, it’s highly likely that a full brow will not grow back.”
Instead, she emphasises strengthening what’s there: softening coarse texture, fortifying follicles, and preventing long-term thinning.
Her own serum, developed in Korea, was formulated without PGAs (prostaglandins – a common ingredient in lash serums which can cause eye irritation, as well as pigmentation issues and fat loss) – an ingredient she expects will soon become a talking point for its potential side effects.
On timelines, she’s direct: lashes respond within weeks, while brows take longer. Consistency is everything, especially in the first six weeks.
Mistake 3: Using the wrong tool for your brow type
One of the less obvious brow issues comes down to product mismatch.
Kim sees it constantly: someone with sparse brows buying a micro pencil that will run out in weeks, or someone with full brows buying precision tools they don’t need.
“There’s something to suit everybody,” she says, “but every product is not going to suit everybody at the same time.”
Her example is Browaid’s Multi-Stroke Marker. “It creates these hyper-realistic hair strokes in one swipe. But if you’ve got a really full, healthy brow like yours, you don’t need that product.”
Image – Browaid
Likewise, someone with a very skinny brow should avoid ultra-fine tips that wear down too fast.
She tells me that Browaid’s AI shade and product quizzes were built to eliminate confusion, assessing brow thickness, texture, and previous treatments to direct customers to the right product and shade.
Mistake 4: Overlooking the simplest upgrade
For those who want the easiest possible brow routine, Kim has a firm recommendation: tinted brow mascara.
She created Browaid’s The Hero: Tinted Brow Mascara because she wanted a single step that genuinely works for almost everyone.
“It tints, tames and treats,” she says. “It grabs all those fluffy, fine hairs and just instantly fills it out.”
For busy clients- or those who feel intimidated by pencils- it’s the most accessible entry point.
“It’s foolproof. You could use the Hero in a dark room and know that they’re not going to look tragic.”
Image – Browaid
And as someone who’s tried Hero’s close relative, Browtox Lift & Lock, I can confirm it grabs every single hair. Despite a long-standing devotion to Refy’s Brow Sculpt for my very long, wiry brows, Browtox may now be the frontrunner: it fluffs the hairs enough to fill any gaps without additional product, yet still smooths and locks them in place all day.
Mistake 5: Following trends too literally
When asked which brow trend she’d happily retire, Kim doesn’t hesitate. “The really brushed-up brows, that very wet and stuck brow… the gel is nearly too much.”
Her caution isn’t about taste, but about individuality. She adapts shape and styling to the person in her chair, not to what’s trending on social feeds.
And if she could reinforce one timeless rule? “Throw the tweezers away!”
The takeaway
Our meeting reveals a refreshingly open, and contagiously enthusiastic, founder balancing the reality of a growing business with a life full of the ordinary, unglamorous structures that support it – the yearly trade show in New York where she meets manufacturers, the spreadsheets handled by her husband alongside his full-time job, the rhythm of family life with three children moving in and out of the frame.
And all of it makes sense of Browaid’s ethos: a brand built on lived expertise and years of noticing what real people struggle with.
And that is why Kim’s brow advice resonates with me. It comes not from theory, but from repetition – from thousands of clients, thousands of mirrors handed over, thousands of small corrections.
Most brow mistakes are not dramatic. They are habitual, fixable, and very human. And Kim O’Sullivan, with her feather-light touch and decades-long eye, has quietly been helping us correct them for years.
Get Glowing!
