How To Remove Eyebrow Tint Or Lighten It If It's Too Dark

So you wanted a new look, decided to tint your eyebrows, and came back from the salon with a way darker shade than you anticipated. Now, you look a little angry — and maybe you actually are.

Perhaps you were inspired by the latest brow trends but your DIY job looks nothing like your inspo pic (whoopsies), and you need a quick fix. Don't worry: Here's how to remove eyebrow tint easily and painlessly.

Step one? Try not to worry too much. If your new eyebrow tint is too dark, the first thing you’ll be happy to know is that your body's natural oils and your normal showering routine will likely fade the dye pretty quickly within the first week.

Next, you can try to remove the excess dye from your hairs with an oil or silicone-basedmakeup remover and a facial pad. This will help get some of the eyebrow tint off, reducing the pigment by at least one shade.

If these things alone don’t leave you feeling relieved, below are more of the quickest and safest ways to remove a bad brow job, with advice from Mikelle Brown, lead esthetician and lash expert at Face Foundrié, and Maria Licari, expert makeup artist and founder of Style Box Beauty. So breathe, relax, and read on.

1. Use A Physical Exfoliant

Brown says that you can remove tint by gently exfoliating the skin with a physical exfoliant. “Cleansers typically do not fully remove the color as they do not have strong enough ingredients to break down the dye,” she says. If you find yourself wanting to lighten your eyebrow tint, one to three scrubs with a gentle exfoliant will help soften the color. Just be careful not to over-exfoliate, as you could potentially wreak havoc on your brows’ hair follicles.

2. Wash Your Brows With A Clarifying Shampoo

"I would say to first cleanse with clarifying shampoo," Licari suggests. "You should then follow up with a dab of peroxide soaked in a cotton ball and gently swab it over the tinted areas. Repeat over the course of a few days until color seems to have stripped." Clarifying shampoo strips your hair of built-up residue from products, natural oils, and dyes. Apply a little to your eyebrows (don't get it in your eyes!) and brush through with an old toothbrush. Leave in for a minute before rinsing.

3. Opt for Silicone-Based Makeup Remover

Continue using a silicone-based makeup remover or toner and a cotton pad to dilute the color on your brows and (if applicable) skin. You can also wash your brows with a washcloth and yourusual shampoo to remove henna dye, one of the most common dyes used in brow tints. Licari does warn, however, that it's not an instant fix. "It can help but may take a little while longer to see results," she says.

4. Apply Facial Hair Bleach (Extremely Carefully)

Bleaching your eyebrows is a last resort, and honestly best left to a professional. But if you're too mortified by your purple eyebrows to face a job interview tomorrow, then proceed cautiously. Facial bleaches often contain first-aid strength hydrogen peroxide, which is safe but you need to be careful not to get it too close to your eyes. Carefully brush this into your brows and follow the directions to a T.

5. Turn To The Professionals

Brown says you can totally go back to see the specialist who tinted your brows and ask if they have a dye-specific remover to take the color away.

If you don’t want to go back to the place that did you dirty, try a hair salon next time. Hairstylists have a greater understanding of shades and dyes, not to mention your stylist already has an intimate knowledge of your natural hair texture, type, and color.

"There are a variety of brow gels that can be used to help mask the unwanted color," Licari says. So if you wanted some dirty blonde brows but they came out platinum, you can compensate with some high-quality brow products like pomades, pencils, or tinted gels. This option from Anastasia Beverly Hills will color correct and keep the hairs in place. She’s also a fan of Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow, while Brown recommends something like Face Foundrie’s Brow Tint With Fibers.

7. Get Bangs

Kidding — but not really. While bangs aren’t a hair commitment to take lightly, one of the perks is that certain types cover the brows when cut a certain way. If you’ve been leaning towards a major hair change anyway, take a cue from celebs like Selena Gomez and Ciara and look to blunt or fringe bangs to camouflage those arches while the tint fades away. Until then, rock your bold brows à la Cara Delevingne. It's a new look, it's just hair, and dramatic brows are so in right now.

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