As with anything, when you do your brows, you can find what works for you, or doesn't emphasis the negatives.
I loved this quote from Michelle Phan. She is a beautiful young woman with a youtube channel and is coming out with her own line of skin care soon. It's impossible to look bad at her age and with her beauty!
You want your brows to look like sisters, not like twins.
First, here's a great slide show from Oprah, featuring Anastasia Brows. You may have seen her products at Sephora.
Some common mistakes are illustrated: brows too close together; brows too far apart; brows too heavy; brows too thin; brows too long; brows too short; brows too dark for hair color.
My brows are difficult to do and almost require a brow guru to do them properly, but bangs cover a multitude of sins.
What is the general shape for brows?
Here are some tricks of the trade, but you do have some leeway.
Inner corner: Using a pencil, hold the pencil from the outside edge of your nose to the edge of the inner corner of your eye. Anything to the middle should be gone.
If your eyes are wide set, you can get away with more brow in the middle.
If your eyes are close set, you can give the illusion of being less close by taking out a teensy bit more in the middle. Before you tweeze extra, use concealer to cover the hairs you think you would remove. Step back far enough to see only your brows. If they look right, take out the hairs.
Outer corner:
Remember if you are extending your eye, to also extend your brow so it looks right.
Holding the pencil from the outside edge of your nose to the outer corner of your eye (or the extension of your eye if you have extended your eye makeup), everything outside that should be gone.
Arch: Looking straight into the mirror, hold the pencil to the outside of your iris, that should be where the highest part of your arch is.
Right and left under side of brows
Using a pencil across the bottom of your brow, the bottom right and left edges should be level. Clean up any hairs that fall below. And don't draw upward wings.
How to remove excess brow
Take your pick: tweeze, wax, electrolysis
Tweeze
Do not over pluck. Sometimes the hairs do not grow back in right.
Always pluck in the direction the hair grows.
I've heard it said not to pluck from the top side of your brow, but sometimes you have to.
Tweezing may be permanent after a certain amount of time, especially if the little hair follicle comes out with the hair, which it often does, so be careful.
Electrolysis offers a permanent solution, over time
Be sure to go to someone competent.
How can they be tamed?
Trim your brows illustrated in one of the pictures in the slide show
Brush the hairs in the direction in which they grow. Sometimes the middle ones grow straight up, brush those up and make sure they are cut to the height of the rest of the brow.
If your brows are very thick, brush them up, trim them into line, then brush them back.
Use clear brow gel, clear mascara, or a tad of liquid hairspray to hold them in place, after you have applied any brow color.
How much color?
In general, go lighter than or the same color as your brow hairs. It will show up darker anyway. For example, usually don't use a black pencil on dark brown brows unless you are going for a particular look or unless you have dyed your hair black.
Use a light hand, either with brush strokes (powder) or pencil strokes. You can always use more. You want it to look like you, not like it's painted on.
Work from the top or bottom, and sometimes top on one brow, bottom on the other brow to help them match.
What to use to color in your brow? Powder? Pencil? Or?
It's optional whether you use pencil or powder. Both serve different purposes. Sometimes it's easier for me to grab a pencil, but powder works just as well and sometimes better. Sometimes it's good to use both together.
It isn't necessary to buy brow powder. Sometimes you have a perfect eye shadow shade. Just use that!
What about permanent colors?
You can also have permanent color done for your brows. Robyn has a good description at her blog. Funnily enough, there was a permanent makeup artist who came in to one of the salons I used to go to. She did a lot of brows, including one of the stylists, who was freaked out by what it looked like. I guess he didn't know it would soften. He used all kinds of products that day to remove it.
If your brows are too dark or the wrong tone for your hair color
Don't be afraid to bleach or color them. (Also illustrated in the above slide show.)
You might want to see a professional or do the following. Once you have the color you like, you might only have to do it a couple of times a year.
For example, if your brows are dark brown, but you are putting some red into your hair, you can use a bit of the same color to soften your brow hairs. See below:
If you color your own hair, you can use a bit of the same color for the last few minutes of processing on your brows (your hairdresser could too, if they'd be willing to.) If your brows are not light enough or dark enough after you've left it on the last five minutes, do it again the next time you color. If you are doing a two step process, by which you bleach out your hair and add a toner, do not bleach your brows this light. You don't want them invisible or brassy. (Or do more the same day, after you wash your color out of your hair, if you haven't rinsed the color from the applicator.) Use a paper towel to remove any excess from your brows before washing your hair, so you don't get it in your eyes.
If your brows are sprinkled with white
Color them or have them colored.
Or: Revlon makes a brow pencil with a colored gel at one end.
Or use mascara that is the right shade. Apply lightly and it will hold your brows in place too.
Now what?
Experiment with pencil or powder, lighter or darker color. Check out photos in current magazines to see the variety. Try to figure out why it works (or doesn't work) on the model. And remember people see your whole face, not just your brows. They are only a part of the picture.
Karin
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