Make Eyebrows Perfect with Makeup

Without a groomed and neat eyebrow, your time spent on the rest of your makeup is all for naught. Eyebrows are not hard to make up, when you start with a shaped eyebrow that does not look like a stationary caterpillar stuck to your forehead.

How to Apply Eyebrow Makeup
1. Start with the Right Shape

Have your eyebrows professional groomed, waxed and shaped at least four times a year. Once your eyebrow has been perfected by a professional stylist, all you need to is fill in the blanks.

Continue to maintain the shape and hair length of your eyebrow at home between appointments with at-home waxing, trimming and tweezing. If you have neither the time nor inclination to keep your eyebrows in shape between appointments, make more frequent appointments depending on how quickly your eyebrow hair grows.

Tip: Use tweezers to remove stray hairs outside of the shaped eyebrow, not in the eyebrow itself.

2. Choose Pencil or Powder

Eyebrow pencils tend to be thin pencils in neutral colors, typically shades of black, brown and blonde. Reds, reddish browns and grays are also available. Gray eyebrow pencils may also be blended with brown, for a multi-dimensional and natural look. Eyebrow powder can look more natural than pencil, which can look drawn in, but pencil can be applied more accurately. Both eyebrow pencils and powder are inexpensive enough to allow you to experiment with both.

3. Comb Eyebrows Down

Use a brow comb to brush your eyebrow hairs down. If you do not have one, you could use a clean mascara wand. The next time you finish some mascara with a straight wand, clean and dry the wand and save it to use as an eyebrow comb.

4. Fill Them Out

Use an eyebrow pencil or eyebrow powder to fill in spaces of your eyebrows. For a dramatic effect, use one solid color for your entire eyebrow. For a more natural look, apply a lighter shade of eyebrow color to the inner eyebrows and a darker color at the arch and out toward your hairline. Apply both in the middle, dotting both colors to blend them. Comb the eyebrows back up.

5. Highlight

Apply a highlighter under the outer arch of the brow. Lauren Iavarone, owner of ExpertMakeUpArtistry.com, and a 10-year veteran of the cosmetic industry recommends Soap & Glory Arch de Triumph ($9.99, Target). “This is a two step eyebrow shaping and highlight pencil that gives your brows an instant lift,” Ivarone said.

Use the eyebrow stencils that come with the Soap & Glory Arch de Triumph kit to shape your eyebrows on your own. Apply the highlighter, which is the pinkish white end of the double-edged pencil to the brow bone. Blend in with your fingers. The edges of the highlighter should not be evident, so blend thoroughly.

6. Optional: Brush eyebrow gel onto brows to keep them neat and tidy.

Sources

Lauren Ivarone, www.Expertmakeupartistry.com, via email, 1/27/2010
Personal Experience