How can you shape your eyebrows?

Ok ladies, let’s talk about brows: bushy, thin, barely there, and everything in between. This might take a bit long so grab a seat, buckle up, its gonna be a bumby ride! Your eyebrows frame your face and believe it or not can help improve the appearance of your skin AND it makes you appear much more younger. Plus, what’s a fabulous eye look without equally fabulous brows? (hint: the answer is nothing).

But what’s the downside to not having beautiful brows…let me first warn you that if you have little children in the room right now to put them to bed and brace yourself as you continue reading. (we dont want them shaving there eyebrows off) yeah, it’s that scary.

The downsides of not having beautiful brows are:

*looking much older than you actually are
*facial features could appear much larger or much smaller than they actually are
*complexion can appear to have lost some of its brilliance

Or look like this

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)

OK,I was being overdramatic, but I’m sure I made my point: your brows are everything.

Brow shapes have evolved over time and with changes in fashion. There was a time when thin was in when it came to eyebrows, but nowadays a thicker brow is the bizznizz.

The ideal shape of your brow depends on your face shape.


As well as spacing between your eyes:
Close-set eyes: make sure your brows aren’t too short—you definitely want your tail as it helps make the eyes appear more evenly spaced.
Wide-set eyes: leave more hair in the inner parts of your brow to visually “close up” some of the space in between your eyes



There are several methods in which to achieve your ideal brow shape…

Tweezing: can take out one to a few hairs out at a time, is relatively inexpensive and quick, but can be painful and often leads to over-tweezing. Great for quick clean-ups.

Waxing: warm wax is placed on the brow area using strips of cloth to remove several hairs at a time. Best performed at a salon or with a trained eye and hand. Not ideal for those with sensitive skin or those using dermatologist prescribed skin care treatments like Retin-A. My friend used to get her brows waxed about five years ago, and she had several bad experiences: skin getting ripped off with the wax, breakouts and misshaped brows.

Razor: a tool that looks somewhat like a shaving razor is used to remove stray hairs and sculpt your brows. The razor can be super sharp so be sure you’re very comfortable with this method first.

Threading: a method which has origins in India and other areas of Asia. Actual thread is used to remove entire rows of hair from the brow area. It’s more precise and not as painful as waxing (although the first few times can be ouchie).



I always recommend getting your brows professionally groomed at least once a month. And if you can’t get back to the salon, keep them up with careful tweezing in between appointments.
Since I’m still technically challenged, here’s a quick video from Seventeen magazine on how to shape your brows if you want to do your brow grooming at home:



What if you weren’t blessed with thick eyebrows? Or even little to no brows at all?

You can fake it by filling in the sparse hairs with:

Brow mascara/gel: comes in variety of colors to closely match your hair color and is in mascara form. Use this to both tint and keep brows in place. Take the wand and carefully use it to comb through your brows. Use a disposable mascara wand to remove any excess. Clear brow mascara works wonders on keeping unruly brow hairs in place. Try MAC Brow Set.

Brow pencil: you can fill in the sparse areas with this. The idea is not to simply draw on brows but to imitate closely the way brow hairs look. To blend the pencil in with your natural brows, use a clean, disposable mascara wand to “comb” through the pencil. Try MAC Eye Brow Pencil.

Brow powder: can be as simple as a matte eyeshadow close to your hair color applied with an angled brush





To add some drama to your brows, sculpt them with your preferred brow makeup item and add a highlight on the brow bone (Look at: pictures above). A highlight shade can be a sheer shimmery gold or silver color or a matte eyeshadow 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone. The idea is to create a contrast between the two areas.

Use a cream concealer 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone (try MAC Studio Finish SPF 35 Concealer) on your brow bone and brow set about 1 shade lighter than your hair color on your brows. Fill in additional sparse areas with brow pencil as well as define the area where the brow hair meets the brow bone.


MAC Studio Finish SPF 35 Concealer and Shisheido corrector pencil

Good luck!