Many women seriously underestimate the power of eyebrows. They are the frames of your face and it’s time to stop aimlessly plucking, and start showing them a little respect. Check out these 4 easy steps to creating the perfect eyebrows for your face shape.
4 Easy Steps to Shaping The Perfect Eyebrows For Your Face Shape
Creating the perfect shape can definitely be the most difficult part of your quest for better brows. Should you tweeze, wax or thread? If it’s your first time creating the shape of your dreams, I highly recommend visiting an eyebrow specialist…and no, I’m not talking about the women who also do your nails.
If you decide to go the DIY route, I personally prefer tweezing.
Research
Start noticing which type of brows you like. Looking through magazines and noticing celebrities are excellent ways to find references for your own eyebrows. Check out my list of Best Celebrity Eyebrows here for some great examples of perfect eyebrows.
Comb Your Brows
To start the shaping process you will need a brow comb or spoolie, and a good pair of tweezers. Comb your brows upward in order to lay all the hair in one direction and smooth it out. If you have never shaped your eyebrows before, they might be a little out of control, so this step is important.
Go in With a Gameplan
STARTING POINT
Now, you’ll need to determine where your brows should start, end and where the arch should be. Take a look at the Megan Fox picture above. LINE “a” shows you where your eyebrow should start. Take a pencil and align it straight from the corner of your nose up to your eyebrow. Wherever the pencil hits your brow is an indicator of where you eyebrow should start.
Tip for Wide Set Eyes: You can give the illusion of closer set eyes by allowing your eyebrows to eyebrows start further in.
Tip for Close Set Eyes and Wide Noses: Give yourself the illusion of wider set eyes (and a slimmer nose!) by starting your line at the middle of your nostril, and tweezing further in.
Remember: beauty tips are not set in stone, if you feel that something may not look right on you, alter it to your liking.
ARCH
To determine where your arch should be, take the same pencil and look straight ahead into your mirror. Align the pencil diagonally so that it starts at the corner of your nose, and skims right outside of your iris. See LINE “b” above. This is where your arch should be. When creating your arch, make sure you keep in mind what type of brow you are going for. Creating too much of an extreme arch will make you look constantly mad or surprised.
Tips for Round Faces: If you have a round face, an arched brow looks best. It pulls your face upward giving the illusion of a more oval shape. Longer brows are also flattering on rounded faces.
Tips for Heart-shaped Faces: Heart shaped faces usually look good with almost any type of brow.
Tips for Square Faces: If you have a square face, soften it with more natural brows. High arches or straight brows that can make your angular face look even more square.
ENDING POINT
To determine where your brow should end, take your pencil, start at corner of your nose and place it diagonal, this time skimming the very outside corner of your eye. See LiNE “c.”
Tweeze
Now that you’ve got your dimensions down, it is time to start tweezing! Hold your tweezers at a 45 degree angle and get to work. A good tip is to take a white eyeliner pencil (wet and wild makes a really cheap one, 99 cents), and trace an outline of how you want your brow to look. Then, whatever you do, do not pluck inside the white lines! If you want to forgo the white pencil, start plucking random strays, making your way up to the brow. Go slow, and pull one by one. Make sure to step back several times as you go and look in the mirror from farther away, and at different angles.
DO NOT OVERTWEEZE So many of my clients have horror stories about over tweezing their eyebrows. If you go ape shit, it could take years to grow back! Your eyebrows do not grow as fast as the other hair on your body. Go slow and stop before you think you’re finished.
Some Things to Remember:
- If you have naturally thick, unruly eyebrows, it’s probably best to keep them full. If you make them too thin, you will have a hell of a time keeping up with it.
- If you’re new to tweezing, slanted tip tweezers will probably work best. You have more control and lessen the risk of pinching yourself.
- There is a myth out there that you shouldn’t tweeze above your eyebrow. This is not true. Grooming the above is just as important as below.. only if you need it.
- Make sure you have enough light. Natural is best.
- Do not overpluck!
13 comments
I enjoy this site, it is worth me coming back
Thank you! Please do.
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Lindsey
Thanks so much for this! I know this may be a late comment, but I found this super useful while I plucked mine. Sadly, I plucked it strangely before I took any online advice (don’t know what I was thinking), but this helped a lot after it grew back a little bit. I’m so sad eyebrows grow so slowly, even now mine look un-even and strange!
Glad it could help you out a bit, even if it was a bit late 🙂 I have a post coming up about filling in your brows so stay tuned for that one!
I have a slightly unusual problem. I got into a car wreck when I was younger; and so I have a scar on my left eyebrow where the hair doesn’t grow past the inner corner of my eye (ends just past the little teardrop). I noticed that on the red guidelines that the arrow stops where my brows do-but hers extend past the line closer to her nose. Will my eyebrows look fine if they stop at that red line? (I also have slightly wide-set eyes). I’ve always wondered this. Help!!
Hi Christy,
If your eyebrow begins where the red line on my diagram is, then they are starting in the perfect place!
Women with wider set eyes have the option of extending their brows further past the tear-duct, and it can help to create the illusion of closer set eyes, but it is by no means necessary. It’s a matter of preference for you! If you decide you want to see how it would look if your eyebrows extended past the red line, try using brow powder to fill them in. When filling in over your scar, lay down a bit of eyebrow wax first, and then apply the powder. The wax will help the product stick over the smoothness of your scar.
I hope this was able to answer your question. Let me know if you have any more 🙂
Hey very nice blog!!….I’m an instant fan, I have bookmarked you and I’ll be checking back on a regular….See ya
Hi, i really like your diagram it is very accurate and easy to use.
I actually have a similar problem to lindseys. I have a scar just past the a line going to the left and it is very noticeable. hair will not grow on it, i have hair above and below the scar. How can I hide it so I look like I have fuller brows?
Hi Emilia!
Try using a brow wax over the scar and then fill in your eyebrow like normal. The wax will create a surface that the product can stick to. Many companies sell wax/powder duos (smashbox, anastasia, urban decay, laura mercer). Hope this helps!
Wow some excellent eyebrow shaping tips thanks alot for the info.
would you have any tips when eyebrow shaping a square facial shape? i cant seem to get it right.
Hi Chris, for square faces I’d recommend a brow shape that has a soft, semi-rounded arch. Not too round though! I think Diane Kruger has great eyebrows for someone with a square face shape. Angelina Jolie is another good example.
Hello there! This article couldn’t be written any better!
Looking through this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He constantly kept preaching about this.
I am going to forward this information to him. Fairly certain he
will have a great read. I appreciate you for sharing!
Some fantastic tips here. I think brows have come to the fore of beauty and fashion in recent years and suddenly bold, prominent brows are desirable. The problem is that many of us spent the noughties over plucking and now have sparse brows. Any tips for regrowth?