Eyebrows 101

2014/15 has been a big year for eyebrows.

From small and delicate to bold and bushy, no matter what style brow you go for, they have to be maintained! But to be honest, brows have become so big recently that it's hard to know what to do most of the time. It's not helped by the new group of brow fanatics that seemed to have emerged. We all know that girl (or group of girls) that worship brows and judge everyone on the state of their brows.


How many times have you heard:



How could I write about eyebrows without including Cara?!

"Brows are the most important feature of your face"

"Your eyebrows define you"

 

"Well maintained eyebrows improves a face by 100%"

It's a bit overwhelming seeing as most off us barely have enough time to have a big breakfast in the morning, let alone shape, define and fill our eyebrows.

That's where I am going to try and help. By no means am I an expert but I have got fairly naff eyebrows and I manage to basically transform them every morning in about 5 minutes.

For those of you with naturally dark eyebrows, please take a moment to appreciate your life. As for the rest of us (from medium brown to ashy white)... follow me!

So, I have natural dark blonde hair but quite light sparse eyebrows. I don't want you to judge me, but I fill my eyebrows are seriously dark. I often buy the dark brown pencil/ powder. Not everyone likes the super dark look, understandably, so to give you an idea of colours to go for, follow my lil guide...

*this is just my advice, not eyebrow law*

• White: Go for the lighter shades, you can still shape and define them nicely but dark eyebrows may look a slightly odd. Not always though?

• Light blonde: I would go for light brown if I were you. You can always go for your own colour but to have eye brows that don't just blend into your skin colour, 2-3 shades above hair colour is advised.

Dark blonde (mousey): A blonde eyebrow pencil might not be dark enough for you, even if you are a proud blonde. A light brown would look very natural but for a more defined, bold eyebrow, dark brown will still work.

Light brown: Pretty similar to light blonde. But you can get away with darker still (if you really need to fill your eyebrows in.). You are pretty lucky and should go with either your colour or a little darker.



Dark brown: Ugh, no need to rub it in. We're all very jealous. You may not need to fill in your eyebrows, but if you do, go for your colour (but please don't touch black.)

What about shape?!!

 

There are 5 main eyebrows shapes that you could aim to achieve. (see above.) The best thing to do is just to realise what your natural shape is then try to define and enhance it.
 

For example, my eyebrows are very thick on the inside then arc and get slowly thinner. (okay I know my description wasn't great but bare with.) They most closely match the 'soft angled' eyebrow on the chart above.


So instead of trying to reshape mine to fit a different eyebrow shape that might be "popular" and "on trend", I just shape mine how they naturally grow.

Once you've got your shape, its just about keeping an eye out for stray hairs or a forming monobrow.

Personally, I recommend getting your eyebrows waxed/plucked professionally rather than doing it yourself. You can then do some plucking yourself to keep them looking neat until your next shaping.

But how do I actually fill them in!??

Easy. It's actually a lot simpler than you first think. Okay, first buy yourself a cheap eyebrow pencil (I use Rimmel in the shade dark brown-here-) and a singular eye shadow powder. (I use a natural collection duo eye shadow in mocha brown -here-). Get the colour of your choice, try and get the pencil and powder as close as possible but you should be able to blend them.

1. Sharpen your pencil. This is so important and can make such a big difference. Keep your pencil sharp and it keeps the definition of your eyebrows amazing- trust me on this one.

2. Draw a sharp line on the bottom edge of your eyebrow. There shouldn't be any hair under this line, it will outline your eyebrows and make a clear shape.

3. Also use the pencil to outline any shape that you've create on the outer edge. For example, if it gets thinner then create a thinner edge with the pencil. If you're eyebrows are just straight are cross then outline about 3/4 of the way across then get slightly lighter to give a bit of variation.

4. Now fill inside the outline with the powder. Work it in evenly and blend it well with the pencil outline. The powder creates a lot more natural look as opposed to completely filling it in with pencil (which creates a very bold fake look.)

5. Finally, use any kind of tool to blend it all together naturally. What I really recommend is to get yourself one of those plastic mascara applicators that doesn't have any product on it. You can normally find them on makeup counters in department stores like John Lewis or Mac. Use this to brush through your eyebrows so they're all growing in one direction, then use a blending tool.

6* Not everyone does this but you can use an eyebrow setter to keep your eyebrows neat and in place. Lots of brands now sell these but I don't actually use one. Benefit does a good one but its a bit more expensive. Alternatively, buy a cheap clear mascara (lots of lower end brands sell them as well) and use that to set your eyebrows because it works just the same.

And there you have it! Perfect brows so you can tell those eyebrow fanatics where to go...

 

I hope this helped some of you, but please remember that although having nice eyebrows is great, its not everything. Don't stress too much about it, just have fun with it and you'll be fine.

 

Thanks for reading and please share if you think this would be helpful for other people,

Laura Stone x