Temporary eyebrow tattoos weren’t a new concept when Jason Berndt started My Two Brows in 2021. But a brand built around them—especially one with 275 variants across five styles, five sizes, and 11 colors, backed by a founder who wears the product himself—didn’t exist. Jason, a former fighter pilot in the Canadian Armed Forces, lost his eyebrows to alopecia during military training. After cycling through pencils, powders, and unhelpful dermatologist visits, he identified two distinct failures in the market and built a company to fix both. He’s since shipped more than a million brow sets, spent north of $50,000 on free samples before turning a profit, and still routes every customer phone call to his personal cell. Here, Jason breaks down how he built a defensible niche brand by going an inch wide and a mile deep.
On losing his eyebrows and what it did to his sense of identity:
It’s one of those things that’s hard to put your finger on, but if you’re talking to somebody and you don’t have brows, it’s almost like you can feel them looking at your face. Even if they don’t quite know what’s off—some people do have light-colored eyebrows, so maybe they don’t notice—something feels wrong.
I used to find it harder to even look people in the eye just by the fact that I didn’t have eyebrows. You can’t really express yourself as well either. Right now, when I’m talking, my eyebrows go up and down and show expression. When you don’t have that, you can feel it, and I think the people you’re talking to can feel it as well.
That’s why this company was created. We have a trademark: “Take back your identity.” This product isn’t meant for somebody who wants to thicken their brows to go out on a Friday night. It’s meant to help you restore that feeling of identity that so many people feel like they lose from alopecia or chemotherapy or trichotillomania, even burn victims.
On why he put his face on the brand despite most customers being women:
I didn’t see any company that really offered a branded solution. In the hair-loss space, there can be a lot of false information—people saying things work that don’t—a lot of disappointment. So having a developed brand, particularly with my face on it and me saying, “I wear these myself and they work,” definitely added to the trust.
Most of my customers are actually women, and I do find it sometimes ironic that the main model for this brand is me. But people resonated with it very quickly. That was probably one of the strongest things early on. I think to some degree, if it’s working on a man’s face, people figure it’ll probably work on theirs too.
On the product gap no one was bothering to fill:
It was clear to me that there were two problems with existing temporary eyebrow tattoo options: a product issue and a branding issue. The product issue was that they weren’t being sold in multiple size, style, and color options. Imagine selling shoes and only offering size seven. What about everybody who has a bigger or smaller foot? It’s the same thing for eyebrows.
So I built five styles, 11 colors, and five sizes—275 different variants. With minimum order quantities on these types of prints, that leads to a large inventory that can be difficult to manage. I think that’s why a lot of people haven’t done it. But I took advantage of that because it’s a barrier to entry that people didn’t want to overcome.
On iterating the free sample pack three times before getting it right:
For the first couple of years, I offered free sample packs with free shipping. That’s nuts. Probably over $50,000 just sending these things across North America. It was a huge loss leader, but I was relying on people coming back and being happy with the product, and it worked well for word of mouth.
But to scale the brand, I needed to do it profitably once the word was out. So I tried attaching the sample pack to a subscription, but then the next shipment would send another sample pack, and people would forget to choose their brows. That was a big friction point. Then I tried “default brows,” where if they didn’t choose, we’d send the Everyday Brow in medium, medium brown. That worked for a while, but I still didn’t think it was the best customer experience to get something you didn’t necessarily ask for.
So now it’s a free sample pack on your first paid order. You pick your brows, you get the sample pack alongside them, and you can try every size and style I carry in the six bestselling colors. People very often switch what they initially ordered after trying the sample pack. That happens all the time.
On why he reviews almost every customer service email:
Customer service has to be a very delicate thing with a business like this. It’s not a faceless brand. These people are like my friends. The brand is positioned as people coming to me for help and having conversations, and that’s become a very important part. I don’t think people want to show up to this company and be talking with an AI chat.
I still review almost every single email that comes through, and the way people are responding on my behalf. If I ever see anything off, I’m very particular about it. What I tell my team is: Treat these people like a friend. You want to help them as a friend. Don’t just try to close a support ticket. I know some people consider customer service a low-value activity, but I’m quite hands-on with it because it’s so central to the branding.
On deep customer appreciation and loyalty:
When people call My Two Brows, it goes to my cellphone. Not many people expect that. And it’s doable even at our scale because not many people really use the phone. So if they want to call, I answer.
Gitano—this guy sticks out in my mind. He called me a few months ago and was telling me some pretty deep stuff about his life and how he didn’t have eyebrows for decades. It was really difficult for him. He was so over the moon when he found this product. He still calls me maybe once every month or two just to chat. His energy is so positive. He told me he tried the eyebrows on, showed his wife and their friends, and they couldn’t believe they weren’t real. His quote was, “You really changed my life, man. You don’t know how much you changed my life, but I really want you to know how much you did.” That was awesome. And it’s awesome that he keeps calling. It’s like a friendship based on the product.
On resisting the temptation to serve the broader cosmetics market:
I heard a quote once: “If you try to sell to everybody, you’ll sell to no one.” I’ve considered expanding to the broader cosmetic brow market, and I have expanded the products I sell, but only within the niche. There’s a segment of people who have very thin brows—people going through chemotherapy—and I’d be remiss not to serve them. So I’ve added stick-on stencils and stamps for people who still have some brow but need to fill it in.
But I’m very clear with my customers: The temporary eyebrow tattoo only works for people who have no brows whatsoever. If somebody has thin brows, you can’t stick a temporary tattoo over top of those. I want to make sure people are actually getting the right product. It’s good to serve a niche that’s an inch wide and a mile deep. That’s the extent I’ve expanded—deeper into the same audience, not wider into a different one.
Hear more from Jason on Shopify Masters, including how he built passive income from Airbnbs before launching the business and why he hasn’t taken a single dollar in salary from the company.
