Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait, 1940. See discussion of her works below. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]We've all done it before. Our over-tweezed eyebrows uttering their tiny screams of pain, we took a pencil to them in hopes of easing their sorrow. Walking out of the house, however, we heard whispers and outright comments about our brows being in terrible shape. If your brows have refused to ever grow again (or never even blossomed in the first place), read on to see some mistakes we commonly make with shaping our brows.
1. High and tight: the Chola brows
You know those gifs making fun of girls with drawn on eyebrows in the shade "black Sharpie"? That's the look. Regardless of what color you used to fill in your brows in the morning, the waxy pencil and harsh lines combination was probably a bad move. With a crazy arch, you are in effect aging your look without even slapping on crows feet and laugh lines. If you weren't blessed with a thick bush (get your mind out of the gutter, I meant bushy eyebrows), you may be tempted to just fill in what you have and add an arch to it. Please don't. Natural brows generally start out more sparse at the front and taper to a darker shade at the tail and have some volume to them.
2. A single block of color: Two Caterpillar Twins
The girl sporting this look refused to adhere to the rule "short and light strokes" and opted to not even lift her pencil up when drawing them on. I think she took the word "draw" too seriously in the phrase" drawing on my eyebrows". Take the extra three seconds to lightly fill in your brows with very short and light handed strokes, holding the pencil or brush at the end to decrease the pressure and intensity of the color. Try not to trace the outline of your eyebrows. And please, no other females say her eyebrows are "on point".
3. Korean popstar washout: the straight brows gone bad
I know the straight brow trend is very big right now in Asian countries, but it can be very easy to mess this one up. Like any other brow look, start filling in only at the bottom of your arch with a light hand and do not trace or outline anything else. The point is to lower your arch, not draw in another row of false hairs to the point where you look like your old physics teacher in his 80s.
4. Red: Not even close to your natural color
It's very obvious when your brow pencil has a red tint, and it lurks underneath your real brow hairs when you draw it on. Try to look for an eyebrow shader that has ash tones, regardless of color. Also, if your hair is dyed an unnatural color, don't dye your eyebrows to match. We all know your blue hair is fake and that's the appeal. No need to match your eyebrows to it. Try to find a shade only a few (read: two or three) shades lighter if your hair is very dark and one shade darker if your hair is blonde. In your search, avoid red tones like the plague. It will never look natural, even if you're a natural redhead.
5. Overextended: "Yes, I'm trying to change my face shape."
You know the pencil trick experts say to follow when shaping the end points and arches of your brows? You should probably follow them to an extent. Of course, I am guilty of extending the tail of my eyebrows so that they fit better within my moonface. But only a little bit, and the pencil angle still holds. I never fill in the middle of my brows in hopes of "making my nose look smaller" simply because no matter how light your hand is, it looks dreadfully drawn on. If you really have the unfortunate case of missing hairs in the middle, use a very very light powder and fill it in with upward motions only to match the inner corner of your eyes. Keep it uninspired by Frida Kahlo.
Eyebrows frame your face, and if you need to shape them and fill them in with powder, no one is judging. The most important thing is to never over-pluck in the first place and keep things within reasonable natural shape and color. If you are not trying for a natural look, perhaps look to Sharpie markers to save some time.
Here are some product suggestions for better brow shaping:
1. Makeup Forever Aqua Brow - waterproof, lasts forever, great color selection, and a lot of product to last you a lifetime
2. Lancome's Le Crayon Poudre- powder in a pencil form, never waxy, includes a spoolie (the only downside is having to invest in Lancome's special pencil sharpener, as normal ones will take away half of your pencil in one shaving)
3. MAC eyeshadow in Espresso- beautiful long lasting powder with little to no red tones, perfect for dark brown or black eyeshadows that need reshaping
That's all for today! Leave a comment with how often you pluck your eyebrows below!
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Related articles
- Filling in Eyebrows (dailyglow.com)
- Eyebrow Tweezing 101 (dailyglow.com)
- Keys to Filling in Narrow Eyebrows Naturally (beauty.answers.com)
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