Eyebrows can make or break a look. Just look at last summer, when Rihanna debuted nineties-thin brows on the cover of British Vogue and everybody panicked, myself included. I’ve spent all this time growing out my brows to be their natural, full, gorgeous selves—and now thin is in? Thankfully, that trend didn’t really take off, and Brooke Shields–inspired eyebrows have stuck around.

For the most part, I leave my brows alone. I’ll run a tinted gel through them and brush the hairs into place but generally don’t touch pigmented products like waxes, pencils, or powders. (I’m terrified of looking like I Sharpied my brows on.) That said, when our beauty director brought me the Laneige Eyebrow Cushion from a recent trip to Korea, I was intrigued. K-beauty is so advanced that even brow products come in packaging and formats I’ve never tried before. The Laneige Eyebrow Cushion, for example, houses the brow product in a cushion sponge inside the compact—just like you’d see in a cushion foundation. It also comes with a double-sided applicator that includes an angled brush on one end and a tiny spoolie on the other.

Still, I was worried my brows would look painted on—until I tried it. The end result was full and defined. The cushion keeps you from using too much product, resulting in a very natural finish; it also allows for the formula to be watery and lightweight, like watercolors, so it’s impossible for the tint to get too clumpy or crunchy.

It’s fairly intuitive to use, even for someone like me, who usually just swipes on Glossier’s Boy Brow and goes. I started by brushing my brows into shape with the spoolie side of the brush, then dipped the angled brush into the lighter side of the compact (the darker side doesn’t match my hair). Instead of drawing on my whole brows, I made small strokes, as if I were painting, to fill in any sparse patches. I also used the brush to define the tails and make them a little sharper, but left the arch and shape alone. Finally, with the spoolie, I fluffed up the hair a little bit and blended the color out.

As a result, my brows looked more defined, but not in an obvious way. It just gave a little more structure to my face and shifted focus to my eyes. I topped the cushion off with a little clear gel to keep the actual hairs in place, and my brows looked flawless all day. While the pigment is a great product, in my eyes the real hero of the compact is the included spoolie. It’s short but very dense, so it easily fluffs up hairs while brushing them into place, making the perfect fuzzy yet defined brow.

Maybe one day thin brows will be back—but until then, I’ll be reaching for this cushion.

Laneige Eyebrow Cushion-cara, $19.50, amazon.com

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–This $10 Pen Makes It Look Like You Microbladed Your Brows

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