Of all the questions I get asked, ones about my eyebrows are some of the most frequent. Which always makes me laugh. I didn’t realize they were making such an impression. And so here they are, my brow secrets.
(small disclaimer: all of the following is my personal take on eyebrows, should you happen to disagree, feel free to discard…)
First of all (and to answer one of the faq’s) you should know that I do not have nice brows naturally. In fact they were one of the banes of my existence during my adolescence. Irregularity between the two, poor understanding of the purpose of the eyebrow and some misguided attempts at tweezing left me with nubbins that did nothing more than highlight all the worst parts of my face. (ie. how chubby my cheeks are, lack of a jaw line, etc.) Cue pubescent humiliation.
Starting below the curve has its benefits though. I know, because I’m below the curve naturally on a lot of stuff. I’m short with squatty legs, have a non-chest, big thick frizzy hair, a rounder face, and bad eye brows. Fortunately, dealing with all these things has given me the opportunity to learn how to maximize what I’ve got.
But back to the brows.
I am a huge huge huge believer in eyebrows. If your eyes are the window of your face, then your eyebrows are it’s frame. They should be the most carefully crafted part of your facial routine. Besides this mop also known as my hair, my eyebrows are the thing I spend the most time on everyday. If you don’t have time for anything else in your morning do your brows!
Eyebrows have the ability to accent the best aspects of your face, the key is getting the arch right. But to get the arch right, you’ve got to understand your own face shape. The way you shape your brows should be determined by the shape of your face. Here is an example of the most common face shapes, and their ideal coordinating brow shape.
It’s important to understand that there is no “bad” face shape. (Believe me, I used to think that there was, but it’s not true) If you aren’t sure what your face shape is here’s a handy little chart to help you figure it out below:
My face is somewhere between round and oval. (leaning a little more towards round)
Figuring out your face shape will help you in determining the shape your brows should take.
If you have an oval face: you want a nice soft angled shape on your arch. This will help accentuate the already oval shape of your face. Oval face divas: Amanda Peet, Gwyneth Paltrow.
If you have a round face: you want to create a high arched brow. This helps draw the eye up and down, lengthening your face. Avoid like the plague any rounded brow arches, as these will do nothing more than make your face look like an umpa-lumpa. (trust me on this one, I know from experience). Round face divas: Ginnifer Goodwin, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Mila Kunis.
If you have a long (or oblong) face: you want to go for a flatter brow. This will help to shorten your face a bit. Long face divas: Jessica Alba, Sarah Jessica Parker.
If you have a square face shape: a thicker brow stronger arch and darker color balances out your jaw. Or ff you’d rather soften the lines of your face go with a softer brow arch. Square face divas: Agenlina Jolie, Sandra Bullock.
If you have a diamond face shape: a curved arch is ideal for a diamond shape face. It makes the widest portion of the face appear less wide. Diamond face divas: Christina Ricci.
If you have a heart shaped face: you want a soft rounded arch. It will soften the angles of your face and top off the “heart.” Heart face divas: Jeniffer Aniston, Reece Witherspoon.
Once you figure out the arch you want, it’s time to shape your brows. There’s a handy little formula for figuring out how to shape your brows. You can check out the little diagram below.
a. The inside of your brows should line up with the outside of the nostril on that side.
b. the highest point of your arch should hit on the outer edge of the iris.
c. find the angle from the edge of your nose. to the tip of your eye, the brow should taper off where that angle intersects with the end of your brow.
Confused?
Hopefully not.
As you tweeze, keep a few things in mind.
1. Do not be afraid to thin parts that need it, but don’t over pluck!!! Tweeze one hair at a time. Then take a step back, assess, and then tweeze some more.
2. Nobody has perfectly symmetrical eyebrows. They don’t have to be twins, but they should at least be sisters.
3. If you have unruly eyebrows, don’t be afraid to trim the hair. Do this before you tweeze!!!
4. It is perfectly acceptable to fill in sparse areas. (This is my saving grace in the brow area)
And last but not least, the tools.
There are lots of tools you can use to shape your brows, heck, they even have eyebrow stencils you can order if you really need some extra help getting your shape just right. Here are my favorites:
1. Tweezers. I have used scissor style tweezers forever and I will never use anything else. They give you so much more control, they are easier to use and better if you (like me) don’t have a steady hand.
2. Dual brow brush: I use a generic brand, but I love the “mascara end” brush way way better than the traditional brow brush. If you have unruly eyebrows like me this is the brush for you. It really preps your eyebrows for penciling them later. The other end is your angled brush for applying your brow powder.
3. Eyebrow Pencil: I swear by Maybelline’s Define-a-Brow pencil. It’s inexpensive and works wonders. It has a very fine tip which gives you a lot of control, and makes it easier to not “overdraw” your brows on. I use medium brown, you always want to go a little ashier on your brow color than your hair, and don’t go too dark, or you’ll look like Burt (you know from Sesame Street?)
4. Brow powder: This is the key to avoiding that “I just drew my eyebrows on” look. Brow powder finishes it all off, makes your brows look more natural and sets them into place. Just like the pencil go with a slightly ashier color, and don’t go too dark.
And there you have it.
Come back for part 2 next week, and watch me “put my brows on.”
ummm….this is amazing! Thanks!
Wow! Thanks so much for the tips! I have never quite understood this before ;).
I have to say, the diagram of the long face has horrendous eyebrows! Flat eyebrows do nobody any favours.
Ug, agreed. They are terrible aren’t they? I was picturing more of a less steep arch in my head, not just blah flat ones… Like SJP.
Ps. I didn’t draw the diagram I found it somewhere ages ago. If you know of a better one for the long face send me a link so I can get a better one up. Thanks!
great tips
Thanks for this!
I’m obsessed with brows too! Enjoyed the post.
This is great! If you’re looking for a cheap brow stencil kit, you can get one at eyeslipsface.com for $1, and they also have great brow kits for filling in the brow that come with a gel and a powder. They are like $3, I think, but they are so amazing. I will seriously never use anything else!
And I have to say that I agree with Anonymous up there about the flat eyebrows, but everything else is awesome advice, especially that thing about figuring out your face shape! What a lifesaver.
Thanks so much for this post.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this. I’ve always admired your eyebrows and didn’t know that you put so much effort in. You are inspiring me to work on mine.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!
literally, i’m pretty much writing notes (aka writing almost everything you just said in this post.) i’ve never been one to understand brows and mine, quite frankly, don’t do much. they’re just kinda there, ya know? they don’t grow in real heavy, so i hardly do any tweezing, but they don’t have much shape either. i will be picking up that eyebrow pencil this weekend and attempting to fill in my brows for the first time EVER. hopefully i don’t suck.
I absolutely just bookmarked this! The thing with my eyebrows are the hairs are long!! Really long. so it makes trying to thin them out a nightmare!
cool thanks
My sister made commentary over new years on how crazy and beasty my eyebrows were getting. Thanks, sis. I used to go to the salon every 2 weeks to get them waxed, but right now I’m way too cheap. I guess I should start pluckin’ away :)
great post, thanks for sharing!
http://www.modernsuburbanites.blogspot.com
I like that brow liner also! My eyebrows are so unruly I have to use a toothbrush (not the same one on my teeth of course). I didn’t discover the world of brow maintenance until my twenties…oh poor highschool me.
Great tips! I’ve had some terrible experiences with my brows too…Can’t wait to see you in action. :)
I just about applauded when I saw the title of this post. Your eyebrows should be insured they’re so fabulous. Thanks for the tips!
Oh my goodness. That is a lot of info. I just pay my waxer $12 every 6 months to keep me from looking like Bert…or is it Ernie? Who has the unibrow?
WEEKS! Good grief, NOT months.
Thanks for being my short, no-chest, chubby-faced, squat-legged role model. We need role models, too.
I’m not really sure what to do with the part between the arch and my nose…I can’t wait to see the tutorial, though.
Also, I keep looking for a YouTube video on how to make cool waves in my hair like you have in the picture, but I can’t find one. I assume you do that with a straightener, but nobody I’ve seen does it anywhere near that good. I have no clue as it is…
Cori, your brow tips are great! I am an Esthetician and a lot of info you shared is taught in practical lab during school. Your best advice was to not over tweeze, very important ladies!
What brand powder and tweezers do you use? Thanks!