Your brows frame your face – that’s why they’re so dang important! You can look sad because your eyes droop all the time because your brows aren’t shaped right, or you can look surprised or angry all the time because your arch is too high. We’re going to go over all that today and then hopefully you can determine if your brows are wow…or ow.
The cornerstone of brow shaping is to keep in mind whatever you get rid of will be highlighted. Symmetry is your #1 focus here!
1. Shaping:
If it’s your first time attempting a brow shape or you’ve had to grow them out after a bad experience, you’ll need to determine if you want to wax or tweeze or use one of the other avenues to shape your brows. Some ladies do more than one, others do one or the other exclusively. You can get them waxed, tweezed, threaded, or use an at home hair removal cream. I recommend letting a professional shape the first time; at least you’ll have something to go off of that way.
If you decide to tweeze, it’s important you know there are different kinds of tweezers out there for different hair types. Go to www.tweezerman.com and you can see all the styles. For shaping, grab a pencil and you want to follow the diagram below:
Basically what this shows is that you start with the pencil on the side of your nose & pointed straight up. Your brows should start there. Keep the pencil at the base of your nose and move it to cross over your iris – that’s where’d your arch goes. Finally lean the pencil over to the edge of your eye and that’s where your brows should end. (One trick for those who have a wide nose: follow inner corner of your eye instead). The forth line shows your brows thickness should start and end at the same point. Your goal is not to cut them off too short and that they not be too thin at the ends, since those are the most common mistakes. Many experts say your brows should be 1/4″-1/2″ thick at their thickest. As far as hair above the brow go, you should only get rid of sparse hairs above the brow bone. You want to tweeze under the brow bone, not above. Nothing looks funnier than brows that don’t sit on the brow bone!
2. Tweezing properly:
If it’s your 1st time or you’re new at tweezing, take Advil and/or ice the area before you pluck. Only grab 1 hair at a time! 2+ will hurt and make you cry – trust me, I know! GENTLY pull from the base but don’t pinch yourself (This is why you need to practice!). You know you’ve pulled directly from the base when hair comes out & you see a little clear ball on the end…that’s the hair follicle. You may want to use a magnified mirror the first few times. The blessing of a magnifying mirror is that it can be a big help in seeing alllll your hairs, but the curse is because you’re so close to your skin, it’s easy to over-tweeze. Brows are such a delicate procedure – one hair gone and it can completely reshape them. So practice practice practice! Regrow and have a pro do it when needed.
My suggestion: Mary Kay Soothing Eye Gel is wonderful in helping with the pains of practicing.
3. Maintenance:
Hair removal only needs to take place about once every 3 weeks. Even if you tweeze, going to get them waxed to remove the blonde hairs once every few months is a good idea. Your makeup will look better that way. Just be sure to get someone you trust to do it! One downside to wax is the possibility of getting burned. Ouch!! Keep in mind your stray hairs may grow like a weed but are easy to fix, and some people have long eyebrow hairs, so they need to be trimmed with nose/ear hair scissors (Youtube has tutorials). As always, if you’re maintaining and mess them up – go see a pro!
4. Filling them in/makeup helps:
Everyone should fill their brows in – abundance of hair or not. You’d be amazed how the brows really do define your face. My personal opinion is that I would not recommend tattooing your brows on… The reason is because our skin and face shape change slightly over the years, and that slight change could be detrimental to your brow shape if they’re tattooed on. But that’s just my thought 🙂 One big question I always get is “Should I use a pencil or eyeshadow to fill in the brows?” The easiest answer is that a pencil defines, but eyeshadow is softer (always use a matte color). Either way, you’ll need a pencil or shadow 1-2x lighter than your hair for it to still look natural. And of course, brow gel for the coarse or wild brows will set it in place.
My suggestion: Mary Kay brow gel!
Mess up your brow? Unsure how to shape? When in doubt, go see a pro 🙂
I hope this helps you get the best brows your face has ever seen! Feel free and let me know if I can help in any way.
Kendyl Heins
Mary Kay Beauty Consultant
918-639-3230
www.marykay.com/kendylheins
