What actually works for Benefit Brow Palette: the thing that changes the result is formulation and how it is applied, not price. Finish dates a face faster than shade does. A shade range under 20 tones usually means the ends of the range are an afterthought. Swatch along the jaw, not the back of the hand. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is shade range, finish and how long it wears. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Printfresh's Red Currant - Rich Red Currant Lip Balm - Kalastyle Soap Co. at $12, and EltaMD's We Made Too Many: UV Lip Balm Broad Spectrum SPF 36 at $11. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Swatch along the jaw, not the back of the hand. Finish dates a face faster than shade does. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Blend past the jaw or do not go near it. Pick one feature. Eyes or lip, not both. From the second group, sigmabeauty.com's Fill + Blend Brow Pencil ($12) is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The third group is smaller and deliberately narrower, makeup, for the decisions you make after the main one. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

There are 20 makeup here from 13 brands, $6 to $100, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. elfcosmetics.com's Wow Brow Gel at $6 is the low-risk way in, and Tom Ford Beauty's Architecture Soft Matte Blurring Foundation at $100 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On benefit brow palette specifically: the difference between the top and the bottom of this list is real but smaller than the price gap suggests. Nothing here is included because it is famous, and price is not used as a proxy for quality anywhere on this page. If you take one thing away: if you would not buy it at full price, you do not want it on sale.