Everyone on social media is celebrating the lightening of lock-down restrictions by getting ready to face the world again. That means whipping those eyebrows into shape! You might have been able to relax your makeup game while people only saw you over a grainy screen on Zoom, but going out again means you need to be on point.
Luckily, TatBrow is here to lay out the simple, straightforward steps to achieving perfect eyebrow definition. Whether you’re dealing with curly, stubborn, or sparse brows that are too light for most people to see, we’ve got the right steps for you to quickly incorporate into your morning beauty routine to bring your best brow game.
Step 1: Begin with a Clean Slate
Other than some concealer or base for your face, your eyebrows should be one of the first things you do for your beauty routine in the morning. Eyebrow hairs are extremely fine and a little bristly, so it is much easier to work with them when they don’t have some extra eyeshadow or other makeup already on them.
For some people, simply defining the brows is enough, and they aren’t planning to add more makeup afterward. In that case, gently cleanse your face before starting to work from a clean palette.
Step 2: Follow Your Nose
If you like to keep your brows in perfect working order, you probably spend a minute or two monitoring your face for errant hairs and gently plucking them out. However, to avoid that sparse, overplucked look, you must know exactly where your eyebrows should start and stop.
Once you have the starting line established, simply tweeze out the few hairs outside of the lines and get back to giving your brows that full and luscious look. To find where your brows should start, use the outer edge of your nostril as a guideline. Take a pencil or your finger and trace directly upward from the edge of the nostril to your hairline.
This will give you an approximate inner edge for your eyebrow.
Step 3: Head to the Finish Line
Finding where your eyebrows should end can be a little bit tricky, even for experienced brow maintainers. By taking your finger and drawing a line going up 45 degrees, you’ll see a rough estimate of where the brow should stop. It’s also best to use the edge of your nostril as a guideline by moving up and out towards your ear.
The main idea is to avoid drawing out a tail that goes on for way longer than a brow naturally would. Most people want fuller brows that still look like they could have been grown naturally, and having a drawn-out tail can make the whole brow look, well, drawn on.
Try a Stencil
If you aren’t an eyebrow guru, or you have been taking a brow break during the pandemic (don’t worry, almost everyone has!), you might want to use an eyebrow stencil when you’re getting into the swing of things. Stencils are often cheap and work by gently sticking to the skin around the eyebrow and show you where to apply color or pluck to maintain whatever shape you choose.
Try to look for a stencil that comes close to matching your eyebrows in their natural state because that shape is likely the best one for your facial structure. After all, Mother Nature usually knows best!
Step 4: Brush Up on Brow Knowledge
Using an eyebrow brush is key to tame unruly brows and determine where the hair could use a little strength. Brushing the hairs up might make them look a little weird for the moment, but it’ll show you any sparse areas, so you know where to fill in the brows with powder or pencil.
Don’t panic if your hairs stay sticking up or keep looking strange. The subsequent steps will help them lay down properly and look amazing. Maybe skip those in-between pics of performing your beauty routine when it comes to this step, or your followers might be a little shocked.
Step 5: Pencil It In
This is the main event! Using your pencil or pen, add some thin lines going in the same direction as the hairs in the spots you revealed in the previous step. You want to have a steady hand and brush up and out with precise strokes. Remember, adding more is always easy, but it’s hard to take away from your masterpiece, so if you’re torn between the amount you need, keep it simple and light.
Simply return to this step if you decide later that your brows could use a little bit more thickness in certain areas. Just make sure not to overdo it.
Micro Precision Pen
If you want a professional look without the time and expense of heading out to a makeup artist, it’s possible to achieve the same look in your home with the Micro Precision Pen. The feathered, precise tip makes it easy for you to add in some color with light strokes.
Step 6: Go Over Your Work
After using a pencil or pen to add some fine lines, we recommend lightly dusting your brows with a shaded powder to help the makeup set. If you’re working with a pen, simply let the ink set for a few minutes before applying anything else, but with a pencil, just dive right in with the powder.
Try using roughly the same shade as your pencil or pen for consistency, but use a very light hand. After all, you don’t want that powder to fly everywhere on your cheeks, especially if you’re planning to add other makeup to your overall look. The goal is to create thicker, fuller, but natural-looking eyebrows.
Step 7: Back to the Brushes
After applying ink, pencil, or powder, many people like to use their brush to go over the eyebrow once more gently. Instead of brushing the hairs directly up to the hairline, like in Step 4, brush them diagonally outwards towards a point above your ears. That’s the natural growth pattern of your eyebrow hairs, so the second brushing will help the hairs lie down again.
You want fuller eyebrows, but no one wants to walk around looking like Albert Einstein!
Plus, gently brushing through the brows will also smudge your pencil, pen, and powder, helping everything to blend and look much more natural. Just don’t press too hard, or you might end up smearing the color outside of your eyebrow shape. If that happens, simply grab a Q-tip with some Vaseline and carefully wipe away the excess until your brows look exactly how you want.
Step 8: The Sticking Point
As soon as your brows are the right color and everything has been nicely blended together, we recommend using some gel to hold everything together. Be wary of extremely sticky gels that might leave you feeling crusty or squish everything in an uncomfortable way. You don’t want the gel to leave a weird residue that other people can see, right?
With gel, you generally have two options. Eyebrow gel that simply holds the hairs in place and gel that is tinted. A tinted gel is great for people who realize that they can’t add enough color with their pencil or pen without it looking unnatural or who accidentally smudged away too much of their lines with the second round of brushing.
Step 9: Add Some Highlights
Once you’ve finished shaping and coloring your brows, continue on with this optional step to really highlight your awesome work. Some people like to use a highlighting pencil or powder to dust around the entire outline of your brows. Depending on the look you’re going for, you might prefer to only highlight underneath the brow to accentuate the arch.
However, other people would rather use concealer about one shade lighter than your natural skin tone. This concealer still draws focus to your brows but doesn’t bring quite as much contrast around them. This method works best if you’re not planning to use concealer on the other parts of your face nearby, or it might look a little strange to have different colors of base.
To Sum It All Up
With these nine easy steps, you’ll be well on your way to achieving the brows you have been dreaming about. The best part is that none of them take more than a minute or two either! Once you get into the swing of things, your morning routine will be a breeze. With or without makeup, your brows will shape and accentuate your face, so all eyes will definitely be on you!
SOURCES:
How to Fill in Eyebrows - 8 Easy Steps to Thick Eyebrows Using Makeup | Elle
15 Easy Tricks to Getting Your Best Brows Ever | Cosmopolitan
How to Do Your Eyebrows - 7 Steps to Define, Shape and Fill In Eyebrows | Seventeen