Discovering the best shape for your eyebrows without sacrificing a natural appearance is what you want to accomplish. The eye is framed by the arch, length, and thickness of the eyebrow. Just as the shape of a mustache can change the appearance of a man’s face, the shape of the eyebrows can affect the appearance of the eyes. For example, if you tweeze too much off the front part of the eyebrows (near the nose), the eyes will appear smaller. If you tweeze too much from under the eyebrows, increasing the distance between the eye and the eyebrow, you can look permanently surprised.
Which hairs you leave and which ones you remove makes all the difference between attractively shaped brows and misshapen ones. And go slowly—because for some reason, over time, eyebrow hair does not always grow back after it is tweezed (there is no known physiological reason for this, but that is what many women experience). You can use an eyebrow pencil and a diagram to help you line up the following parameters for shaping your eyebrow.
The beginning of the brow should align with the center of the nostril, the arch should fall at the back third of the eye, and, although the eyebrow should be as long as possible, it still shouldn’t extend into the temple area. The basic rule is that the front part of the brow should never drop below the back part of the brow. Allowing this to happen, either with the way you tweeze your eyebrows or the way you draw them on, makes you look like you’re frowning and overemphasizes the downward movement of the back part of the eye.
What are the best tools? The best tweezers are the ones from Revlon or Tweezerman with tips that are slightly rounded to a soft point. Tweezers that are too pointy can stab the skin; if they’re too flat across the top they can grab skin along with the hair. There are lots of other tweezers around in all kinds of shapes or with handles that snap together, but these all pose problems when it comes to reliability and ease of use.
steps to shaping a perfect brow
1. Before you start tweezing, use a lip or brow pencil to heavily draw on the shape you want; you can adjust it as you decide on the look you want.
2. Once the shape is drawn on, tweeze any hairs that fall outside the line of the brow.
3. Next, brush the brows straight up with an old toothbrush. Any hairs that are too long and floppy should be trimmed with small scissors. Tweezing long brow hairs rather than trimming them can result in gaps in the eyebrow or a patchy look.
Types of eyebrow products and application
Powder eyebrow colors or eyeshadows used to fill in the brow should be applied using a soft-textured powder (either an eyeshadow or a powder designed for the brow; both work great) that matches the brow color exactly, and a soft wedge brush or a tiny eyeliner brush (I prefer the control of a small eyeliner brush). Follow the basic shape of the brow, using the same guidelines as for tweezing. Fill in only at the front or underneath the brow, or through the brow itself. Avoid drawing on color above the brow. For a softer look, brush through the eyebrows using a clean, old toothbrush.
Eyebrow pencils: These are a perennial option but be careful when deciding which one to use. Eyebrow pencils can produce a greasy, hard look and mat the eyebrow hair, and too often you end up looking like you live in another decade. If you are presently penciling your eyebrows, seriously consider changing to powder. If penciling doesn’t look absolutely natural, don’t do it. Better to go without any eyebrow makeup at all than to be adorned with a line of pencil above your eye.
Many makeup artists use both pencil and powder to create natural-looking brows for women with little or no eyebrow hair, and this can be a great alternative. This way you can get the control and delineation of a pencil, and then soften and shade the effect with a powder. If you decide to try this, look for brow pencils that have a firm but smooth texture and a slightly powdery finish. Avoid using any brow pencil that is painful or that applies color too dramatically or thickly.
Application: To apply the powdered brow color or brow pencil, brush the brow up with an old toothbrush and then apply the color with an angled wedge brush, filling in the shape of the brow between the hairs where needed. If your eyebrows are set high, away from the eye area, and you want to reshape them, place the color directly under the eyebrow. The closer the brow is to the eye area (meaning the height from the brow to the lid or eyelashes is small), the more you should fill in the color in the existing brow itself rather than shading just below the brow. As much as possible, work only with the hair that is there. The idea is to shade rather than draw on eyebrows. Do not place your brow color, whether it is pencil or powder, more than one-quarter inch away from where the natural hair growth stops. It simply looks fake and accentuates the fact that there is no brow there in the first place! What you want is the suggestion, the shadow of a brow—not a line and not an obvious application of color.
Colored eyebrow gels: These are a good option for making the most of sparse, light- colored eyebrows or for giving a thicker look to most other eyebrows. These products look like mascara but they have a much lighter consistency. Examples are Paula’s Choice Brow/ Hair Tint and Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper.
Application: Brush the wand through your brows, being careful not to get the product on the forehead or other areas of the skin and not to leave the brows standing straight up. It will probably take you a few times to get the hang of it. You also might have trouble at first controlling the amount of gel from the tube to the brow. But if you want your brows to look fuller, give this one a try—it really works. The products mentioned above have dual-bristled brushes, which can be used for a soft, full look or for more definition. Be wary of brow gels and tints with single – or small-bristled brushes because these can make application trickier (they often produce a lined or spotted effect).